When wealthy landowner Gregory Lancaster’s body goes missing on the night of his death, a sinister web of secrets and lies is exposed in the village of Little Malton. DCI Barnaby, DS Nelson and new Forensic Pathologist Kam Karimore are drawn into a macabre world of body-snatching as they seek to identify the villain.
Following DS Jones’s promotion to Detective Inspector, Barnaby is joined by DS Charlie Nelson who has moved to Midsomer from London. The villagers of Midsomer Mallow are trying to awaken the ghost of little Rosie, the Blacksmith’s daughter and following a murder during the Manor House’s Fright Night, Nelson is thrown in at the deep end. Will Barnaby and Nelson unravel the mysteries that lie behind the ghost stories or will the eccentricities of the villagers hinder their investigation?
The unveiling of a newly-discovered novel by deceased Midsomer crime-writer George Summersbee at the Luxton Deeping Crime Festival is jeopardised when the manuscript is stolen and a woman is fatally electrocuted by a booby-trapped roulette wheel. Can new dad Barnaby untangle a web of jealousy and obsession to find the killer?