Kenneth Branagh returns to his remarkable Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated role as the soul-searching Swedish cop created by bestselling novelist Henning Mankell in Wallander II, three gripping new Kurt Wallander cases based on the books that launched the Nordic thriller craze.

In Faceless Killers (October 3), The Man Who Smiled (October 10) and The Fifth Woman (October 17), the down-at-the-heels sleuth is nearing the end of his emotional rope — at odds with his daughter, his father, his gyrating blood sugar and coming to terms with having killed a man. It's almost more than a self-doubting crime solver can stomach.

Branagh is joined by David Warner as the elder Wallander, Tom Hiddleston (Return to Cranford) as Wallander's fellow cop Magnus, Jeany Spark (Tess of the d'Urbervilles) as Wallander's long-suffering daughter Linda and guest star Rupert Graves (The Forsyte Saga).