This series about the cases of a real Homicide cop is compulsive viewing for those who wish to see a real life Columbo in action. Joe Kenda worked for the Colorado Springs PD, and in his career, he solved nearly four hundred murders, making him a Supercop. One other cop who was a brilliant investigator and solved around two hundred cases, was the late Lou Smit, the man who demolished the case against the Ramseys, over the murder of their daughter, Jonbenet. Kenda explains how he approaches each case. Every little detail or possible scenario is carefully scrutinised, until it can be eliminated. As is the case in many Police Departments in the United States, Kenda did not have a big squad to investigate everything, so it came down to putting in a lot of graft and time.
It is good to see a cop who would not be obviously taken in by a tape, or dismiss the possibility of one cops` prime suspect being responsible for other sadistic crimes, or chew out a cop who comes up with a suspect that is totally against the flow. And that suspect turns out to be the killer. Kenda does not have tunnel vision, a fault with cops, especially in Britain. Unfortunately, highly successful cops have a nasty habit of falling foul of their own forces, witness the downfall of Ray Mallon, Bob Booth & Tony Lundy. There are many great investigators both here and in the US, but many have to fight against the internal forces that bog down homicide detection.
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