D.S Jack Townsend

The thrills being with THE DEAD OF NIGHT, as DS Townsend arrives in Buckinghamshire after relocating from Merseyside with his family. Thrust into the Thames Valley Police's Specialist Crime Unit, he finds himself investigating the murder of a young woman. But when a second body is found, Townsend and the SCU realise they are hunting a serial killer.

After three years undercover in some of the most dangerous gangs in the UK, DS Jack Townsend, along with his wife and young daughter, relocate to a pleasant village in Buckinghamshire. A promise of a fresh start, a chance to reconnect, and the opportunity to join the Thames Valley Police's Specialist Crimes Unit (SCU). Headed up by DI Isabella King, the SCU is handed its first case when the body of a woman is found in the woods of Wycombe Rye, the victim of a brutal stabbing.

Some things are best left unsaid... Five months after the horrors that had terrified Buckinghamshire, DS Jack Townsend and the Specialist Crimes Unit are assigned the case of a man found dead of a suspected overdose. But when it is soon revealed that something more sinister is at play, Townsend and the SCU have to act fast.

A beloved doctor and loving family man is abducted, taken out to a remote farm in Buckinghamshire and then executed. DS Jack Townsend and the rest of the Specialist Crimes Unit are assigned the case. But it is only the beginning. A video surfaces within hours, where a masked man dubbed 'The Executioner', promises to release the footage of the murder for the world to see.