Harlan Coben stories sure get around. This time, it's a Polish-made production, although it could just as easily have been set in America or Britain as so many have in the past.
That said, over eight episodes, here you get another tightly plotted, character-heavy series. The story goes through many convolutions not to say convulsions, as Mr Coben performs his usual trick of spinning many plates at once, allowing the assembled crockery to fall one piece at a time before there's just one remaining suspended in the air for the final reveal.
Also as usual, past events cast a long shadow over the present as we see a young Polish wife and mother's happy world turned upside down when her husband is passed an old photo, which upsets him causing him to promptly disappear without trace. Said photo is a snapshot of a mixed-sex rock band taken ten years ago just before a fire takes place at the concert venue, killing a young female band member. The father of the young woman who died is a recently retired prosecutor with whom the abandoned wife somewhat reluctantly joins forces to not only try to track down her missing husband but also learn the real explanation as to why the fire started and who was responsible for it. Part of this is wrapped up in the disputed authorship of the later hit song which gives the series its title.
All four surviving people in the old picture will see their lives affected dramatically as the past comes back to haunt them in different ways. If only the young wife could regain her own memory of that night as she was there too but in the trauma of surviving the blaze, undiscovered for days before being rescued, she's blocked it out of her memory, but you can bet she'll gradually regain it as events move quickly. All the while the body count starts to mount so much so that even the police in pursuit finally get a wriggle on with their investigation.
Even if some of the connections between the myriad characters on show seem at best tenuous and at worst absolutely fantastical, it's worth hanging on until the end when you can sit back, rest your mind and try retrospectively to join the dots. Good luck with that!
I thought the direction was superior for this type of production with a number of scenes imaginatively and dramatically rendered and would also commend the quality of the acting too, especially the actress taking the lead role who has a very expressive face.
Perhaps unnecessarily violent at times, this was definitely one of the better Coben adaptations I've seen. I'm just as sure that it won't be long before another mini-series inspired by one of his works pops up on the schedules again. Perhaps the biggest mystery then is how he is so prolific at knocking out such deviously crafted mysteries time after time.
