Lazybones (2004)

The hook is sordid enough: Convicted London rapists are receiving teasingly seductive letters in jail, only to be lured after their release into most unpleasant deaths. The rough-hewn hero, Detective Inspector Tom Thorne, copes with a case rife with dead ends by hitting the pub and grooving to Johnny Cash -- that is, until all his CDs are nicked from his flat. All the characters in Billingham's third cop thriller are remarkably human, and the plot's methodical pacing keeps the truly grim tone from overwhelming it. The only complaint may be that ''Lazybones'' seems too British: politely bleak, trimly violent, and never so unexpected that you can't construe the twist long before it comes.