ITV has set the standard for Agatha Christie adaptations with their Poirot and Marple series, whose leads have become the blueprint for her famous detectives. Though those two central characters make up the majority of her oeuvre, many of her devious and varying plots can still be used for the screen. With their limited series Towards Zero, the BBC has taken a darker approach to tackle the more standalone novels. Christie wrote a book nearly every year of her professional life, so there's plenty of material to choose from, and for producer-writer Rachel Bennette, the 1944 novel Towards Zero was the perfect foundation.

The show follows Neville Strange (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), a celebrity tennis player going through an incredibly public divorce from Audrey (Ella Lily Hyland), with his mistress Kay (Mimi Keene) just waiting to step into her shoes. As the paparazzi and public go wild for the drama, the new couple decide to holiday at Gull's Point, the aristocratic home of Neville's aunt (Anjelica Huston). Neville, in a progressive move nobody can comprehend, invites his ex-wife to join on this honeymoon.

It's a classic whodunnit set-up: a judgemental matriarch watching over a tense dinner table, complete with a ward who can't stand her (Anjana Vasan), a judge (Clarke Peters), and an unwelcome nephew (Jack Farthing), who invites himself in hope of familial redemption. This version is even darker than its source text, with the coastal setting harking back to BBC One's successful take on And Then There Were None (2015). While in the novel some of the characters are seemingly beyond reproach, loyal and friendly, here trust is fast eroding, and everyone is introduced with an unsavory past or seething resentment.

A fascinating addition is Inspector Leach, played by Matthew Rhys, carrying on his brooding melancholy and alcoholism from the prematurely cancelled Perry Mason. The casting helps move the energy of the show away from its quaint British period origins to that of a more American-style hardboiled noir. While Rhys' book counterpart Inspector Battle is a stalwart, steadfast fellow, it is fascinating to see the detective here treading water, making the reassuring foundation of the novel's plot precarious and intriguing. Likewise, a goody-two-shoes schoolgirl from the book, coerced into a confession, is re-written into a thief (Grace Doherty), making her role in the storytelling even more dangerous and fascinating.

Diehard fans may find the changes egregious, and something about the attractive and unfaithful couples makes this feel a tad Love Island meets Downton Abbey. Another pitfall of playing with the genre is that the nitty-gritty of the clues does shift the pacing throughout episode two, but an incredible denouement makes some of its slower build-ups worthwhile. Though the risks don't always pay off, playing with these variables brings out more suspense, and demands more from the actors. While Oliver Jackson-Cohen is by now familiar with menacing roles (one almost wonders what Mike Flanagan's take on a Christie would be), the three core actresses are given a chance to explore their darker side, especially Anjana Vasan, best known for her mousy and awkward starring role in We Are Lady Parts.

The costuming by designer Charlotte Mitchell really shines when it comes to Keene and Hyland, with red lipstick and lace hats accentuating their death glares, the glamour dusting off any dowdy associations with Christie's Marple. Anjelica Huston's character is bed-bound, but her presence looms over the show, a dark shadow of rigid and restrictive social norms, and of inherited grudges to be uncovered.

With a tennis-themed opening credit that is reminiscent of Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train (1951), the back-and-forth between these characters makes it anybody's game – sorry, murder. The less you know going into this loving and unfaithful adaptation of Towards Zero, the better, because any of these curious characters could be a victim or killer, and it's immensely fun trying to figure out both sides over the three episodes.

Towards Zero is airing on Sunday nights on BBC One at 9pm, all episodes are available to stream on BBC iPlayer now.