The Crow Girl review: A poignant whodunit that brings a Scandi chill to the West Country

On By Littum

Guns N’ Roses and Nordic noir are not generally mentioned in the same breath, but they are two of the more exciting ingredients that have gone into the new Paramount+ thriller The crow girl. The series takes place in Bristol, but it is based on a bestseller by Håkan Axlander Sundqvist and Jerker Eriksson about a serial killer in Stockholm. The book is a cult hit and its fans include none other than GNR rock god and little top hat advocate Slash, who contributes to the small screen soundtrack.

Don’t be afraid. This gripping tale of gruesome murders, a pedophile ring and the exploitation of asylum seekers doesn’t start with the riffs of “Paradise City”. Instead, it imports a satisfying Scandi chill to the West as it juggles a heady story of sexual abuse with a sparkling performance by Eve Myles as a sardonic copper investigating the seemingly ritualized deaths of a series of young men.

The killer exhibits a Hannibal Lecter-like attention to detail. By the end of the first of six episodes, two bodies have already turned up around Bristol. Both are older teenage boys, naked, their bodies filled with lidocaine, an anesthetic that numbs the senses but leaves you fully conscious. The sight of their unclothed remains dumped in the cold gray light is naturally disturbing. It’s also a pointed twist on the crime fiction trope of dead young women strung up in preparation for ceremonial sacrifices.

Enter brainy DCI Jeanette Kilburn (Myles), who must balance a difficult criminal investigation, a commanding officer (Victoria Hamilton) who can’t stand her, and an exasperated husband brooding over his failed career as an artist (Raphael Sowole) .

Here, The crow girl runs up against the cliché of the tough policewoman with a disastrous private life. That it never goes completely over the edge is largely thanks to Myle’s quirky energy. She portrays DCI Kilburn as a real person with real problems, rather than a stereotypical copper who can’t keep it together.

Corvid's Curiosity: Eve Myles and Dougray Scott as crime-solving partners in 'The Crow Girl'
Corvid’s Curiosity: Eve Myles and Dougray Scott as crime-solving partners in ‘The Crow Girl’ (Paramount Plus/The Crow Girl)

Her crime-solving partner is played by Dougray Scott, who has come a long way since sparring with Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible 2. Once touted as a potential Hollywood hunk, Scott is happy to be overshadowed by the charismatic Myles – although his character, DI Lou Stanley, is gradually revealed to be more than just a hard-bitten sidekick. There’s also a steely turn by Katherine Kelly as Dr. Sophia Craven, a psychotherapist called in to evaluate a pedophile (Trevor White) who may have a connection to the murders.

The crow girl has many of the advantages of standard police procedure. The banter between Kilburn and Stanley, for example, could come straight from a replay of Silent Witness. At the same time, a seam of eeriness runs through the series. It is hauntingly embodied by the Danish actress Clara Rugaard (last seen in Black mirror‘s underrated “Mazey Day” episode – aka the one about the movie star’s werewolf). She is Victoria, a former patient of Craven’s who has taken it upon herself to care for an abused teenager (Chloé Sweetlove) – and who seems to be the only one who knows how the many plot threads connect.

Slash does not make a cameo – not even in the musical sense. While the story bubbles and simmers, his trademark hair-metal fretwork is conspicuously absent. Instead, the soundtrack is understated and creepy—the perfect accompaniment to a thriller that’s lit by the reliably likable Myles, but unafraid to get much darker than the average streaming whodunit.

‘The Crow Girl’ is on Paramount+ from today