The portrait of a local Aspen Tallow figure, Jonathan Lawrie, housed in the local museum, has been slashed, and Barnaby and Troy come to the site to investigate. A restorer has been called in, a somewhat unstable woman still grieving for the death of her husband. She reports some strange ghostly doings at the museum.
There are two other murders, and one interesting clue: a package of mackerel found in the cemetery.
Barnaby and Troy aren't alone in their investigation, however. Cully's boyfriend, who has just been hired as an detective sergeant in a TV show, shadows Troy to learn the ropes. As Troy puts it, "He's making more money playing me than I make."Though he isn't welcome, it turns out he's actually quite smart and observant.
Despite the humor in this particular episode, there was too much going on, and if you didn't concentrate every second, you lost the thread of the interwoven plots -- in fact, I couldn't remember the motive for one of the incidents and had to rewind.
I think in this case, three bodies was perhaps one too many, and one subplot could perhaps have been omitted.