Before his phenomenal Slow Horses/Jackson Lamb spy thriller series, Mick Herron wrote four mysteries/thrillers of a decidedly different nature. They starred Zoë Boehm, a smart, shit-kicking female private eye who becomes ensnarled in oblique thriller dramas featuring a bevy of ultra nasty villains. Now Down Cemetery Road, the first, arrives as a six-episode delight built upon the trusty Herron plot engine and two superlative performances by Emma Thompson (her Zoë is a pleasure to sink into in every scene) and Ruth Wilson (as a hapless married woman thrust into a quest to save a missing girl). When a suburban home explodes and the girl vanishes from hospital, terrible events click into place in the name of national security, and the dangerous pursuits of the two heroes accelerate to climax together. Perhaps this is not quite the sublime pleasure of Slow Horses, but Down Cemetery Road is a breath of fresh air, a quirky but ultra tense thriller ride.
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