Against the backdrop of Italy’s political upheaval, Fascism and chaos spanning the tumultuous ten-year period between 1938 and 1948, Detective De Luca does the one thing he knows best: be a cop.

Benjamin Lebel is a luminary in his field: an internationally renowned wine expert who publishes a keenly-awaited yearly guide and a part-time sleuth whose intuition and nose are stimulated by puzzling murders. Set in the loveliest wine-growing regions in France, Blood of the Vine is a series of full-bodied, yet light thrillers adapted from the crime collection published by Fayard.

Murder, Venice, relationships… it's a delicious concoction in the hands of crime novelist Donna Leon. Venice provides the backdrop for the lush film versions of the bestselling novels, which feature singular Commissario Guido Brunetti, canal boat rides instead of car chases, fine cuisine and crime investigations in one of Europe's most beautiful locations. Uwe Kockisch stars as Brunetti, a police inspector with a keen mind, razor-sharp wit, and a touch of melancholy.

Sporting his pipe that seems a nod to Sherlock Holmes, the pragmatic, reserved and refined Maigret investigates murders in his singular unhurried manner and inevitably discovers the truth. To crack his cases he peels back the veneer of seemingly idyllic villages and neighborhoods, exposing the criminals who lurk in all levels of society. Against a backdrop of 1950s Paris and the surrounding French countryside, these original feature-length films pay homage to one of the most brilliant detective minds of the twentieth century.

A passion for the job makes Franco Soneri Ferrara’s best investigator but also its most difficult. He’s brusque and inscrutable, but he and his team manage to discover what others would like to keep hidden: addictions, pedophilia, secret loves, and even injustices left over from World War II. All three seasons now available on DVD.

Private investigator, ladies’ man, hard-drinking pub regular: Jussi Vares is a hero whose laid-back nonchalance belies a rock-hard determination to solve the case. Created by bestselling Finnish crime author Reijo Maki, Vares radiates all the vulnerability and loneliness of a man who may not have found his place in life, but can pretty much do without it.

He’s got no style, he’s got no flash and he’s squarely in middle age. But Swedish detective Martin Beck is good at one thing: methodically catching criminals so that they can be put away… for a long time.

Exiled from the Naples police department for being a whistleblower, Chief Inspector Mario Nardone finds himself transferred to postwar Milan, which is fast becoming the breeding ground for a new criminal scene.