Arne Dahl: Totenmesse

This second episode of the new series of "Arne Dahl" was more convincing than the lacklustre opener, I found. Kerstin coincidentally finds herself on the scene of a violent bank robbery by two Russian heavies but it turns out there's a third man upstairs with his own agenda, apparently looking for a long-hidden item again coincidentally stashed away in an adjoining wall to the bank at the time it was built next to, of all things, a pre-Reunification secret office of the East German republic.

The writing and direction this time, I felt, more skilfully interwove the detective work with the personal lives of the individual members of the team, particularly Kerstin, Paul, Chavez and Lilli. New girl Ida is still to find romance within the team, but there were hints that she might pick up Paul on the rebound from Kerstin or even get it together with her gentle giant minder Gunnar. Tall, bookish Anders, as before, stays somewhat aloof from the ABBA-type intrigue amongst the rest of them - it must be a a Swedish thing, I guess.

The plot was suitably opaque with characters mysteriously appearing and disappearing on the scene with the body count mounting up steadily before the not wholly satisfactory, because of the murky involvement of a CIA operative, conclusion is reached.

I'm still getting used to Chavez Mk II, Kerstin as the new if hardly dynamic team leader and new girl Ida who here continues her habit of putting herself in harm's way when the guns are firing. The ecological master-plan everyone was chasing had the distinct whiff of "McGoffin" about it but seemed a bit far-fetched as the main plot device.

All in all, this episode flowed better than the first of the series and for me, put the series back on track. I doubt it will reach the quality of its earlier run but this was definitely a step in the right direction.