Amazon.com

British mystery fans will find a wry sense of humor combined with a good old-fashioned bloodbath in Death's Shadow. Badger's Drift is in many ways a typical small village: charming scenery, closely intertwined lives, and--whoops!--a headless corpse. Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby is soon on the scene, teasing apart the intricate network of village relationships and grudges with an increasing sense of urgency as new corpses begin piling up at a gratifying rate. The mystery is a fun one, offsetting the gore with a light touch and a knowing wink that this is all in good fun. Barnaby, ably played by John Nettles, makes an excellent detective hero--firm in his resolve, a little too passionately dedicated to his job, and smart enough to crack the case without being so fast as to interfere with the body count. This witty, well-acted production is everything you could ask for in a mystery. --Ali Davis ... Read more

Amazon.com

Mystery author Caroline Graham is at it again with a new and tangled installment in the Midsomer Murders series. Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby (the gently irascible John Nettles) and the trusty sergeant Troy (ably played, as always, by Daniel Casey) are trying to keep the peace between the locals at Martyr Warren and the two clans of Travelers who have decided to settle in for a bit. Things, of course, turn deadly, with murder, theft, and spouse-swapping all on the menu. Graham's welcome undercurrent of humor runs through the carnage, this time in the form of Barnaby's frustratingly strict new diet. As always in this fine series, the performances are first-rate, the puzzle is an engaging one, and village life is depicted with all the affection and gentle teasing it deserves. Well worth watching. --Ali Davis ... Read more

Amazon.com

Strangler's Wood is a gruesomely enjoyable entry in the darkly witty Midsomer Murders series. Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby is on the case again, this time in pursuit of a serial murderer who has apparently resurfaced after nearly a decade of quiet. The story is a thoroughly absorbing one, full of nasty crawling secrets that come out when Barnaby begins poking below the village's surface, and the solution is genuinely satisfying. As in other programs in the series, Strangler's Wood also pays realistic attention to the way Barnaby's job affects his home life, making his tenacity at pursuing a case exasperating without getting melodramatic. Fans of Daniel Casey's Sergeant Troy will be pleased to see him prominently featured in the episode as well. This is a terrific, stand-alone chapter in an excellent series. Watch it. --Ali Davis ... Read more

Amazon.com

Fans of Caroline Graham's young-but-game Sergeant Troy are in for a double treat with this entry in the Midsomer Murders series. At the behest of Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby's actress-daughter Cully, the two policemen spend this episode trailed by a Troy Doppelganger researching a part. And we're not even to the mystery yet, which is a surprisingly and enjoyably old-fashioned one: A ho-hum case of vandalism in a local museum leads to rumors of a haunting and a very real murder. Beyond the Grave has a much less weighty feel than some of the other episodes in this series, but there is much to recommend it, including the exasperated but loyal relationship between Troy and Barnaby and a deft performance by Prunella Scales as a village psychic. --Ali Davis ... Read more