NEW YORK (CNS) — Parsimonious with the clues it gradually shares, "The Sister," screenwriter Neil Cross' adaptation of his novel "Burial," certainly keeps viewers guessing.

Directed by Niall MacCormick, all four one-hour episodes of the intriguing British production — which first aired on the UK's ITV as "Because the Night" — are currently streaming on Hulu.

Part psychological thriller, part murder mystery, the program also comes flavored with a dash of the occult. The story centers on the disappearance of a young woman named Elise Fox (Simone Ashley) who was last seen in public at a New Year's Eve party in 2009.

The only two people who seem to know what happened to Elise make up an unlikely pair. Nathan Redman (Russell Tovey) is an apparently ordinary bloke living an outwardly orderly life while glowering, unkempt paranormal researcher Bob Morrow (Bertie Carvel) calls to mind the figure of Fagin in Dickens' "Oliver Twist."

Nathan and Bob, however, are not this drama's oddest pair since, as early scenes reveal, Nathan is married to Elise's sister, Holly (Amrita Acharia). Nathan's motives in wooing Holly are kept as opaque the precise fate that befell her sibling.

We see Elise very much alive in Nathan and Bob's company and we see the latter two, a short time later, carrying her body. But what, exactly, transpired between these events?

Flash forward to the present and clean-cut Nathan's illusion that his messy secret is safely under wraps is shattered one rainy night when Bob pays him an unexpected and unwelcome visit.

He's there to announce that construction has begun on a new housing development that will occupy the land where the duo buried Elise. They will have to retrieve her corpse before those working on the project discover it.

As flashbacks fill the audience in on various details without answering basic questions, a patina of the supernatural is added to the proceedings. Bob gives Nathan a CD that, behind a lot of white noise, seems to contain Elise's voice speaking from beyond the grave.

Based on the two installments reviewed, "The Sister," which is rated TV-MA — mature audiences only — is largely free of violence. As will already be apparent, however, the plot involves themes inappropriate for kids. The dialogue, moreover, is marked by some profane and vulgar language while the last night of Elise's life finds her, Bob and Nathan nonchalantly using cocaine.

Those who enjoy puzzling over "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma," to use Winston Churchill's famous phrase, will find "The Sister" very much to their taste. Powered by the dynamic tension between Tovey's repressed Nathan and Carvel's menacing Bob — whose voice, at times becomes darkly mesmerizing — the show never fails to command attention.