In the tranquil village of Midsomer Worthy, the local writers' circle is eagerly anticipating a visit from a best-selling novelist, but the aspiring authors are about to witness a sequence of gruesome events far stranger than any fiction.
The peace of idyllic Badger's Drift is shattered by an inexplicable murder. It falls to DCI Barnaby and Sergeant Troy to hunt down the killer. Their investigation uncovers a web of sinister events, some long buried in the past.
When Julian Shepherd is found drowned, it seems as though he committed suicide due to all his money being tied up in Charles Edmonton's latest invention. When another man dies after poaching peregrine eggs from Charles's wife, Barnaby suspects foul play.
Barnaby investigates a death which looks like suicide. The dead man was a troubled and depressed gambler on a losing streak, but Barnaby's nose tells him to look for a murderer and then recognises someone from his past, in the shape of Dr Jane Moore.
Barnaby and Troy have to solve a double murder when a feisty former socialite and a Casanova are found bludgeoned to death. However, the motives for the murders seem disparate, and there are several people who are suspected of involvement.
In the sleepy village of Martyr Warren, two opposing groups of travellers have set up home. DCI Barnaby and DS Troy are called in to investigate when the local magistrate, principal adversary of the new arrivals in the village, is found shot dead at his home.
Mysterious events and the discovery of his relative's body lead the residents of Aspern Tallow to believe that Jonathan Lowrie's ghost is at large in their community. DCI Barnaby and DS Troy attempt to determine whether these strange occurrences are supernatural or if there is a more rational explanation.
Pastry chef Chrissie Larkton's mill has been in her family for centuries. She restored it and turned it into a thriving online business, but the popularity has overshadowed Lower Blissingham, and many of the villagers are not happy about it.
Gated estate Challis Court is a tight-knit community for retired police officers, but when a new arrival is found dead, the other residents regard the murder as an affront. Barnaby realizes that the killer is likely an ex-police officer.
When a survivalist is found murdered in his bombproof shelter, Barnaby unravels a dark conspiracy to reveal how far people will go to escape the end of the world.
Barnaby begins to question the guilt of a Midsomer Malham woman who is on trial for the murder of her best friend. The evidence is stacked against her, but she doesn't appear deluded or obsessed with the dead woman's husband as the prosecution claim. With the help of a frail pensioner - the key witness, can Barnaby and Jones discover what really happened on the night of the murder?
A battle of the sexes which has raged in Broughton since the First World War comes to a head when ageing feminist Mildred Danvers is found dead after returning to her childhood home. As Barnaby investigates, the misogynist vicar Rev Gantis is shot through the head during a humiliating donkey race at the village fair. Is the killer on the side of the men or women - or do tragedies in Broughton's past hold the answer?
When council clerk Martin Barrett is shot dead, Barnaby and Jones discover that he was an expert blackmailer. They investigate which of his victims hated him enough to kill him, and the trail leads to Fennacombe Bay. Why are Richard and Maggie Florian spending so much time at sea, and could police committee chairman Sir John Waverley have a scandalous past? With the help of Barnaby, they intend to find out.
The death of wealthy aristocrat Sir Freddy Butler brings Barnaby and Jones to the privileged surroundings of Haddington Hall. It looks like Freddy suffered a heart attack, but when his will disappears and his lawyer is killed in an arson attack, the detectives close in on Freddy's family. What are they hiding, and where are the mysterious Haddington diamonds?
Midsomer Barton is celebrating Oak Apple Week when a mother is found drowned. It looks like suicide, and that she was driven to it by grief over her dead daughter. Barnaby investigates and is shaken by two villagers who look like murder victims from his past. Then another body is discovered and it appears that the festivities have stirred up a cocktail of adultery, contempt, unrequited love and revenge in the village.
With the help of Acting DC Ben Jones, Barnaby investigates the garrotting of a husband and wife outside a deserted cottage near Midsomer Newton. Despite a reputation for being haunted, Winyard is a magnet for villagers, developers and conservationists. Barnaby and Jones must separate truth from rumour in order the reveal the cottage's secrets - and catch the killer.
DCI Barnaby uncovers an elite Mafia-like sect called the Pudding Club at private boys' school Devington College while investigating a murder, and must get to the bottom of the mystery before another victim turns up dead.
DCI Barnaby investigates the murders of bell ringers from the village church who are being mysteriously murdered one by one. Barnaby and Troy find that they must solve a riddle from the past before the killer strikes again.
When the body of arrogant local beauty Melissa Townsend is discovered by the pool at her manor house, DCI Barnaby uncovers a seedy world of adultery and deceit within the affluent rural community.
DI Tom Barnaby realises that there is more to a case than first appears when the father of a young poacher, jailed for killing a tramp, is himself brutally murdered.