Waking the Dead

Carl Mackenzie, a man jailed for a high-street shooting spree, has always maintained his innocence. Now his sister is fighting for an appeal, based on the shoddy investigation that fed the prosecution’s original case. But for DCI Boyd, reopening the case means reopening a personal wound.

The case against Carl Mackenzie unravels further when the team discover a potential link between the massacre from the multistory car park in the UK and a massacre at a mine on an island off the coast of Africa. Mel, meanwhile, is suspicious of DCI Boyd’s reluctance to dig deeper, and his unquestioning acceptance of the only eyewitness statement.

Boyd and Silver find themselves involved in a cold case when Frankie gives evidence at the appeal for convicted killer Mark Lovell. Eleven years ago, Mark was jailed for the murder of his adopted father, Thomas Lovell. Neither the family’s fishing boat nor Mark’s mother, sister or niece have been seen since his father’s death. Boyd believes the only way to find the true identity of the killer is to discover what happened to the rest of the family, but when he goes to question Mark he finds a very different man to the one who went to prison, and is forced to confront his own prejudices.

Following the murder of Mark Lovell's cousin, the team establish that Mark has a watertight alibi. The search for the real murderer narrows down to the remaining family members. The discovery of drug-running deals and witness protection muddies the waters of the investigation.

The team is faced with a highly disturbing case of murder and child abuse in a children’s home. When Dr Laurie Poole barges into Boyd’s office, she claims to have new information which will shed light on the abuse and disappearance of two boys. Boyd reluctantly takes on the investigation and soon realizes that there is a lot more to it than first meets the eye.

The team are racing against the clock as they try to establish the identity of the care-home pedophilic murderer. Meanwhile, he is being hunted down by two of his victims: Tanner, the dead boy’s twin brother, and another former resident who was abused. The team need to reach the pedophile first, to prevent another death.

Mel’s celebrations at being promoted to sergeant are cut short when a mummified body is discovered in a garbage bin. As the team begins to dissect the remains, an anonymous call leads them to a house in Notting Hill which featured in Gerry Raistrick’s controversial Sixties film about gang warfare – which may not have been so fictional after all.

The gangster responsible for the bodies behind the walls in the Notting Hill house is still active today and the unearthing of past events provokes more murders and an international turf war. When Gerry Raistrick is murdered, the team realize that Frannie Henning, daughter of one of the original victims, knew more about the murders than she had admitted.