Grace, ITV, review: John Simm’s supernatural-loving investigator takes aim at society’s fascination with genuine crime.

Dead scarab beetles are undoubtedly showy as serial killer calling cards go – and in ITV’s Grace, it was just this flair for theatricality that got the better of the bad guy. The Brighton-set drama is based on Peter James’ bestselling Roy Grace novels, and John Simm has returned as Grace, an empathetic investigator with a penchant for consulting mediums, following last year’s standalone episode.

Grace was on thin ice in this new episode, entitled “Looking Good Dead,” and his first argument that two murders were linked fell on deaf ears. Grace was still traumatised by his own wife’s disappearance and in the bad books after his supernatural leanings jeopardised a case.

One was a trainee solicitor found dismembered on the South Downs, while the other appeared to be a case of chemsex disaster. Our officers investigated CCTV, phone records, and tropical insect growers after each was discovered with those telltale beetles.

If that wasn’t bad enough, it found out that each murder had been live-streamed to paying clients, which a frantic local businessman became entangled in after discovering a suspicious memory stick on his commute.

The numerous threads were a little frantic at first, but as the story progressed, the intensity increased, culminating in a final race against time that provided plenty of nail-biting.

The killers were eventually revealed to be ex-military goons preying on public bloodlust, which Grace attributed to the true crime trend becoming out of hand. ITV will be hoping that fans don’t take his warnings about our serial killer consumption too seriously as there are three more Grace episodes to come.