"All the cases are based on true ones," says author Maureen Jennings, who reads all scripts and makes suggestions. "A murder case in those days was really sensational – it sold a lot of newspapers. / Set in Victorian Toronto, Detective William Murdoch struggles to solves murders using rudimentary forensic techniques. / This series is based on the novels by author Maureen Jennings , who says, "The thing is, Murdoch is considered slightly crazy by the establishment. He's a forensics expert when the field was only beginning to be developed. / He uses the new discovery of fingerprints. In other ways he's stymied – at the time there was no blood-typing. He had a microscope but not a modern type. He was literally feeling his way, developing his own methods for catching criminals." / See also the previous series of .