User Reviews

Lesley Vickerage gets a lot of screen time as Helen in If Wishes Were Horses. It's also Lesley's final outing as Helen (who is pregnant), with Catherine Russell taking over the role of Helen in seasons 5 and 6 (Helen didn't appear in any episodes in season 4). Helen even accompanies Lynley to question a suspect in the murder of Dermot Finnegan. Incidentally Emma Fielding played Helen in the pilot. So three people have played Helen in the run of Inspector Lynley.

The murder victim in this episode is Finnegan, a forensic psychologist who gets blown as he starts his car. Given his testimony put away many people behind bars, this could be a revenge killing on a massive scale.

Tragically Helen loses the baby when someone fires an air pellet into her car while she was driving on a lonely road. Lynley is shocked to learn that over a decade ago Helen wrote a fan letter to Finengan. Anyway, Lynley is furious when Havers questions his judgment to get involved in investigating the assailant.

Jemma "Judge John Deed" Redgrave appears as Finnegan's widow, and Barbara "A Very Peculiar Practice" Flynn appears as Finnegan's first wife who put up with Finnegan's adulterous ways over the years. Also this episode featured Australian born actress Penny Downie as Dr. Tessa Jellicoe, who has a villainous streak big tie.

The ending is a cliffhanger, with one of the lead characters being shot.

This starts with a Mr Finnegan dying and his history comes out that he is a womanizer that cheats on every woman he is married to and has affairs. He also has pictures of woman and letters and comments regarding them.

Barbara Havers, Lynleys assistant finds Lynley's wife Helen's picture among the pictures and notes kept by Mr Finnegan. Haver's holds back on this info because Helen was in a bad car accident and Helen never told her husband Tom that she knew Mr Finnegan.

The woman he marries are usually beaten up and left with black eyes etc. What is really stupid about this story is the woman all love him, even the women he beats up. Maybe it is because he is rich.

Lynley's wife Helen is pregnant and is now a police pro-filer. She goes on cases with her husband even when he does not want her. Her body looks like she is about 5 months pregnant. Havers feels Lynley cannot make good judgement investigating this case because he now is aware that his wife might have had the car accident because she knew or had a relationship with the dead man and someone is out to kill her.

Later we find out Mr Finnegan had many enemies men and women and some of the people end up being stalked. He has a former wife that comes to his house and torments his current widow.

I did not like a part about a lesbian relationship mentioned. So in the end the cause is different then what we expect of the outcome of murders and ex-wives inheriting a lot of money, doctors and more.

This isn't a bad mystery, though it's pretty clear halfway through who the killer is. The problem is the thick slathering of melodrama which detracts from the mystery and repels the viewer. The relationship between Linley and his wife Helen doesn't work, they have little chemistry together and after Helen is attacked and loses her baby Linley loses his objectivity and becomes an abusive S.O.B. toward Havers, his partner. In the mystery, or the procedural, the detective may have emotional problems, drink too much or get irritable, but he isn't supposed to become unhinged. He or she is supposed to remain rational and objective to piece together the clues. Linley's irrationality turns the viewer against him. He's no longer likable. At the end of this episode Havers is shot. We don't know whether she's alive or dead and the viewer is expected to wait until the next season to find out. This is a crude cliffhanger and unfair to the audience. Havers does survive and there is another season, of course, they couldn't do without Havers. She's the only sane character and the better detective. Also, she's far more likable than the haughty and irascible Linley.