Borgen, a new thriller from the makers of The Killing, centres on a trailblazing female politician. Move over, Sarah Lund, says Gerard Gilbert

Move over, Sarah Lund, says Gerard Gilbert

The French detectives who gave us CSI

Another routine investigation

When young television producer, Fliss Benson, is suddenly put in charge of a ground-breaking documentary about miscarriages of justice involving a string of cot deaths, alarm bells ring.

One of the Banks you can rely on

Justified, featuring a gun-toting cowboy cop with killer charm, is the latest critically acclaimed hit to arrive here from America. Macho, no-nonsense heroes are all the rage this season, says Sarah Hughes

Books have shaped my life in more ways that I can explain. There are some key milestones that will always stand proud of the rest: the moment, reading a Chalet School book, when I understood that being a writer was a proper job; falling in love with crime fiction when I read my first Miss Marple at the age of eight or nine; the perennial joy of Treasure Island, with its perfect blend of character, plot, setting and good writing, not to mention the ending that leaves space for the reader's imagination; and plunging headlong into another way of looking at the world thanks to Kate Millett's Sexual Politics. But if I had to point to one book that had irrevocably changed my future, I would have to settle on Sara Paretsky's Indemnity Only.

A chaotic clash of art-house sensibilities and cop movie clichés

While 'The Wire' has caused anger in Baltimore, 'CSI Miami' celebrates its host city, even if it is mostly shot in California. Sophie Morris flies in

They're still in good nick

G F Newman's Law and Order shocked the nation when it was shown on television 31 years ago. Its first airing since will still pack a punch, says Gerard Gilbert

Decades after Lieutenant Columbo made a career out of reading between the lines, two new crime series – The Mentalist and Lie To Me – turn experts in the dark art of deception into crime-busting heroes. Sarah Hughes investigates the plots...

Everyone agrees that The Wire is a great classic; it has been called the best series ever made by television, anywhere. It looks to me very much like a work of the highest literary art. As British viewers watch it heading into the later stretches of its fifth and last series, it maintains the power and range that have left everyone who has ever seen it struggling for superlatives. But – let's admit it – you haven't seen it; it's quite likely you haven't even heard of it. The first episode of this last series, broadcast on the FX cable channel, gathered only 38,000 viewers. It's a complete scandal.