Detective K: Secret of Virtuous Widow 2011

In 1782, 16 years after Nam Sung-jin ascended to the throne as King Jeongjo, a wave of murders unsettles Joseon. King Jeongjo believes the killings may be part of a conspiracy by government officials to mask tributary payments, and he entrusts Detective K, Kim Myung-min, with a secret charge to uncover the truth behind the killings.

When Detective K visits the cell of the jailed city governor, he finds the governor has just been murdered. He produces the murder weapon: a long metal needle jammed into the back of the governor’s head, and a clue appears—remnants of the Wolfsbane flower discovered near the needle. But as Detective K stands with the weapon in hand, prison guards burst in, misreading the scene and arrest him for the governor’s death.

Now imprisoned, Detective K awakens to find dog fancier Seo-pil, Oh Dal-su, standing over him and offering a path to escape. Seo-pil helps him break out of confinement, and the pair set out on a new assignment. Because of this incident, King Jeongjo demotes Detective K and reassigns him to Jeokseong, a move framed as a mission to investigate a woman who allegedly killed herself after her husband’s death. In truth, the appointment is a ruse designed to land Detective K in Jeokseong—the very region where Wolfsbane blooms.

As they probe Jeokseong, Detective K and Seo-pil cross paths with Lady Han Gaek-joo, Han Ji-min, a sharp commission agent who wields influence over vast groups of merchants. The investigators grow convinced that Han Gaek-joo and the head of the Noron party, Minister Im Lee Jae-yong, may be siphoning taxes to grease political wheels. Meanwhile, Detective K also pursues the suicide case from the other angle, gradually discovering that the two investigations are linked.