Murder in a Small Town – Season 1 Episode 7 Recap & Review

Family Concerns

Episode 7 of Murder in a Small Town begins with a murder…in a small town. Yep, I went there, sorry guys. The crux of the issue stems from a blonde woman, who tries to get away from her killer, but it’s no good. He drags her corpse through the woods and dumps her by the river.

This is obviously not going to do the townsfolk any favours, and especially Cass given her prior traumatic experiences. For now, we begin with Edwina bummed over the gym potentially closing down soon. She speaks to her friend about it before heading off to work. 

On the way, Edwina finds a man rattled on the streets en-route. His dog has found a body in the woods, and he’ll only talk to Karl about this.

This comes right in the middle of Holly feeding back the details about Cass to her dad, who she bumped into briefly at the café. It’s clear that there’s still tensions here and the pair haven’t been able to connect.

Edwina brings Karl out to the woods not long after, showing him the body. The deceased is unidentified (at the moment) and she’s left sprawled out on her back. Karl has an unnerving sense that he’s seen this before.

The witness doesn’t seem to know anything, and he’s more torn up about his dog than anything else. But naturally, this news spreads like wildfire around the town. Even worse, while doing the reports on the first body, a second is found in the woods. This woman is Janice Doncaster, and she died via a depressed bone fracture at the back of her neck. Karl reiterates that as the cause of deaths are different for these two women, he wants them looked at as two separate incidents rather than one.

Naturally, the gang begin by looking around town and for the connections to Janice around town. Her husband is the first port of call, and he’s shocked over this news. It turns out Janice and her husband have been having affairs, with one person in particular piquing Karl’s interest from this testimony. Gus Cooper. He wasn’t having an affair with Janice (as far as we know) and he’s the owner of the gym we saw at the start of the episode. Furthermore, he’s also the man that Janice’s husband is evicting.

Karl heads off to see Gus, who claims he’s not good with details and laughs off that he only saw Janice a few weeks back. He’s not particularly helpful, and his story doesn’t hold weight given Janice’s phone has his number listed as speaking recently.

At the station, Karl interviews Gus, whose alibi seems to check out. However, Gus confesses to the murders and Sid is all over this, believing it would solve a big problem if they incriminate him. However, Karl and Edwina are not so sure. The case of the Jane Doe is a big one and Karl heads off to see Cass next, needing the name of a good sketcher to fill in for the role of sketching the deceased.

Cass reveals Tommy Cummins, the high school teacher that teaches Holly. He has an exhibition that night so he should be a good one to use for a composite sketch. Unfortunately, Cummins is dangerously close to getting involved with Holly’s friend, and we see them flirting throughout the episode. Yuck.

After finding out about the angle and blow to Janice, Karl brings this news to Gus. It was angled upward, and with the other hand that Gus uses. Karl heads into the gym and speaks to Kat, Gus’ daughter. It becomes clear that Gus has been covering for her, after an argument broke out between her and Janice.

Kat turns herself in, while Cummins does the composite sketch of the deceased. Curiously, he doesn’t seem too phased by it. As for Edwina, she realizes that she’s seen a murder like this before as well, and it appear they’re after a serial killer.

The Episode Review

It’s taken us pretty much all season but finally we get a murder mystery that’s actually, y’know, a mystery. We have multiple potential suspects, along with an unknown motive and plenty to whet the appetite.

Personally, I think the killer is the art teacher. The body is positioned to look like some type of art, Cummins is barely rattled when he shows up to sketch the body, while his motive and way of picking out victims would work with seducing students and then killing them. I could be wrong of course, but this seems to fit.

However, there could be more potential suspects coming into the foreground during the finale though so we’ll have to wait and see on that front.

There’s still drama between Cass and Karl though, who are barely talking to one another, while the situation involving Edwina’s past is definitely going to become more important and crucial in the final episode. For now, Murder in a Small Town comes to a compelling close, leaving the door open for next week’s finale.