Very well written & Suspenseful ! You will interested in the story & Ending!

While watching Place of Execution (2009), I kept thinking that the best mysteries/psychological thrillers/police procedurals I've read or watched adapted to the screen, are British. Starting with Sir Conan Doyle and Dame Agatha Christi, the tradition of excellent mystery writers continued, just to name a few, with Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Ruth Rendell, Peter Robinson, and the new name for me, Val McDermid. I did not have pleasure of reading any novel by McDermid before watching the 150 minutes PBS production of her novel Place of Execution but I believe, the film is a success. The story that takes place in the past, 1963 and present, never loosens its grip. In the center of the film and the novel, there is a story of the disappearance of 13 years old girl named Alison Carter who one day left her house in the English village of Scarsdale to walk her dog in the nearby moors and never was seen again. It happened in November of 1963. In the present days, a documentary film maker, Catherine Heathcote (Juliet Stevenson) is finishing up the film about the case that shook the nation and the man who was in the center of investigation, highly respected and decorated Police Inspector, George Bennett. It was the very first case for young Bennett and the more he learned about the circumstances of the case, the more he got obsessed with the desire to find what happened to Alice and to bring her murderer to justice. Bennett with the help of a local policeman DS Tommy Clough, was able to find a suspect and to gather the evidence that had led to trial and death sentence. In the beginning, Bennett supported the production of Catherine's film but just as the film was about to be aired, something happened that made Bennett call Catherine and inform her that he wanted to withdrew because the film would make more harm than good and that "mistakes were made". Catherine drives to Scarsdale accompanied by her teenage 13 years old daughter Sasha to try to find out what happened and why George changed his mind so suddenly. While in Scarsdale, she tries to make the locals talk to her and to find out what secrets have been hidden behind the wall of silence. I was riveted to the screen all the time. I was impressed by acting, the pace of film, the dark atmosphere of the horrific sordid secrets from the past that still cast the shadows on small seemingly peaceful village, by the flashbacks and by the authentic details of the time long passed. I can't talk much about the plot without giving away the obvious similarity with one of the most famous novel written by the Queen of Mystery, Agatha Christie. Like many viewers, I figured out the guilty party very soon and it was obvious that he was guilty of the terrible crimes but was he guilty of Alison's death? If yes, why was not her body ever found? You will have to stay with this wonderful film to the end to find out along with Catherine Heathcote the truly shocking revelations. The only problem I have with the adaptation, the film shifted the focus from the original story of the Allison' disappearance investigation and the controversy of George Bennet's obsession with the case to Catherine's own problems and demons of her past. As much as I admire Juliet Stevenson's performance and her acting talent, I believe the film should have stayed faithful to the excellent book which I read after watching the film.

At the beginning of the first episode, the mother of the missing girl says her last words to her were; "Hi mum, bye mum". This use of American slang is quite a recent affectation and would have been unthinkable in early-sixties England and certainly in rural areas anyway. I know this because I grew up there at that very time. However, this is all-in- all a very gripping and absorbing thriller, as long as you can overlook some of the stock elements and red herrings that make it resemble the formula style of "Inspector Morse" episodes. The main drawback for some may be the fact that the chilling twist at the end may be looked on as somewhat implausible. Good performances though by a twin bank of actors playing the main protagonists both then and now as the action shifts back and forth from the original investigation to the making of a current documentary.

What a pity that Robert Hanks' callow review of the first episode is the only external assessment of this gripping thriller. I must confess, though, that when I saw it on TV I couldn't follow it - the simultaneous plots in past and present puzzled me, or perhaps I was 'as tired as a newt'! Anyway,I was sufficiently intrigued to get the DVD,and I'm so glad I did. Juliet Stevenson, too often under cast these days, is at her brilliant best as the dedicated TV reporter, 'crap mother' Catherine Heathcote, investigating the disappearance of 13-year old Alison Carter some 50 years ago. Elizabeth Day is so good as her troubled, overlooked daughter Saha, while Liz Moscrop as Catherine's novelist mother shows how Catherine was comparably overlooked. Catherine befriends George Bennett (the great Philip Jackson), whose eager beaver younger self is played by Lee Ingleby; Tom Maudsley and Dave Hill are both Fine as his loyal if sceptical sergeant. Then there's Greg Wise,supremely arrogant as the man you'd love to hate - but is he a murderer? There are astonishing twists at the end, yet they all make sense: wow!