The Brokenwood Mysteries

When the body of a local farmer is fished out of the river, Shepherd wonders if it was suicide, accidental death, or something more sinister. The man was a well-known drunk with a reputation for violence, and many in town might have a motive to do him harm. However, the inspector starts to believe the answer to the case may lie in an unsolved 10-year-old murder.

The morning after choosing the winner of the annual Brokenwood wine show, a guest judge is found dead in one of the loser’s vats of fermenting Pinot noir. The vintner in question is more concerned with another “crime”—the tampering with her wine before the show. Shepherd and Sims suspect the same criminal was responsible for both offenses.

Four of the five committee members of Brokenwood Golf Club start on their regular morning round—only to find the horribly disfigured body of the fifth, in a bunker near the first green. Suspicion falls on the so-called Clubhouse Bandit, who has been stealing trophies from the club and is dating the dead woman’s daughter. The detectives discover that the deceased inspired loyalty and loathing in equal measure.

During a hunting trip, three friends set off in pursuit of a kill, but one of them ends up with a bullet in the head. Who fired the fatal shot? Or was there a fourth shooter? Although Shepherd and Sims find out the deceased’s fiancée had been having a fling with his best man, one of her older relationships may hold the key to the killing.

When DC Breen and his rugby team show up for practice, they are shocked to see their coach dead, stripped and tied to a goalpost. Shepherd and Sims try to find out who would want to do that to a beloved pillar of the community. When a second body is found, the detectives believe the deaths are related. Could a serial killer be on the loose?

Jared lands the title role in the Brokenwood Theatre Society’s production of Hamlet, but a young cast member, Ben Faulkner, falls dead at the end of a performance. At first the detectives think Ben died of natural causes, until Shepherd smells a lethal poison on the body. Then he and Sims dig deeper into the lives of the eccentric cast and crew.