HOLLYWOOD—I’m a lover of a great mystery and the new FOX series “Gracepoint” has the makings of mystery to keep audiences hooked.  For starters, the opening of the series is quite dark. Danny (Nikolas Filipovic), a youngster in the suburban town of Gracepoint, stands at the edge of a cliff by the beach. It appears Danny is ready to take his life, but all is not as it seems. An important plot point, is that scene where blood is seen dripping from Danny’s fingers.

As day breaks, the Solano family is busy getting ready for the day. Beth (Virginia Kull) and her husband, Mark (Michael Pena) are unaware that their son is not in his bed. His routine of taking off early without speaking to his parents is no surprise. Mark heads off to work, but Beth does realize that Danny forgot to take his lunch. Her intuition may be right, but she doesn’t act on it right away.

Mark seems to know everyone in town. He mingles with Detective Ellie Miller (Anna Gunn), news reporter Owen Burke (Kevin Zegers) whose aunt is Ellie. It’s a small town to say the least because it’s apparent everyone knows each other, and very rarely do bad things happen here.  Ellie is happy to be back from vacation as she eagerly awaits the promotion she has been dying for, but soon learns she has been passed on by another candidate. This does not make Ellie happy, especially when she comes face-to-face with her new partner/boss Detective Emmett Carver (David Tennant). Carver is a no nonsense type of guy, who plays by the books.

When Carver is called to the scene of a body on a beach his worse fears come to light. Ellie stumbles onto the scene in horror realizing it’s the body of her son’s best friend.  When Beth realizes her son didn’t show for practice she goes into panic mode, and a traffic jam on a busy rode only heightens her worst fears as she rushes to discover what happened. She is faced with every parent’s worst nightmare, a body. It was an emotionally punishing moment for the audience to witness in my opinion.

CSI techs noted that Danny’s death was not a suicide, he was murdered and someone attempted to stage the scene to make it appear that way. This immediately causes Carver and Miller to suspect everyone as being a guilty party including the family. When the news is revealed to Beth, Mark,  and their daughter, Carver is observant to everyone’s reaction. Mark seems to be the most composed of the bunch, which sent a red flag in my opinion, but when he breaks down at the hospital after viewing his son’s body it’s apparent no father would do that to their own flesh and blood right?

Carver later examined Danny’s room for evidence, as he and Ellie began to interview suspects, including a red herring in Tom Miller, Ellie’s son and Danny’s best friend. He seemed composed for a youngster, but it was what he did after being questioned that forces the audience to speculate what he’s hiding. He deleted a bunch of texts/phone calls he received from Danny, as well as information from his computer. I never suspected Chloe (Madalyn Horcher), Danny’s sister to be a possible suspect in the murder, but her boyfriend, Dean (Kendrick Sampson) looked a bit uncomfortable as he watched his girlfriend pay tribute to her brother. What could he be hiding?

The news that the media had obtained information about Danny’s death, unleashed a fury from Carver that Ellie and the rest of the police department didn’t see coming. Everyone suspected Ellie spilled the beans to her nephew about the case, but all is not as it appears because it was Renee Clemons, a reporter with the San Francisco Globe, who is eager to get the scoop on something big. It became apparent that Ellie is emotionally connected to the case as Beth begged her to catch the person responsible for Danny’s murder.

The series created and written by Chris Chibnail does a stellar job at pointing fingers at the obvious targets, but allowing every single person in town to be a possible culprit in Danny’s murder. There is notable acting from an all-star cast that includes Pena, Tennant, Gunn, Nick Nolte, Jacki Weaver and many more. The big question that will remain on the audiences’ mind as this mystery unfolds is not who killed Danny, but why they killed Danny? Just what did this youngster know or see that would force someone to take his life?

With only one episode in, “Gracepoint” has definitely established its rooster of characters and suspects. As more information is divulged to the audience we will begin to get the opportunity to connect the dots. The mystery is unfolding and this series is sure to be a hit with audiences. “Gracepoint” airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on FOX.