Within minutes of this episode opening tempers flare at a garden party being held by a local developer; plenty of villagers don't think his modern house should have been built and certainly don't think he should be allowed to build further houses and business premises in the village. That night as one of the women who objected to him sneaks onto his property she is murdered by being stabbed repeatedly with a broken bottle, violent even for Midsomer! It soon becomes clear that many people there have their secrets and motives; the developer's house had been vandalised by the victim, the architect is blackmailing the builder and the builder is sleeping with a member of the planning committee for a start and there is also a former member of the special forces who is standing against the developer in a local election. This being Midsomer there isn't just one death and the second and third are even more grisly than the first. While waiting for the killer to be unmasked we have blackmail, burglary, betrayal, and more than one sexual indiscretion exposed, all of which muddies the waters as to who the killer will be.
This episode got off to a good start wasting no time in setting up and antagonistic situation, killing off one of the antagonists and setting up a variety of suspects and motivations. As usual the acting was good from both the regular cast and guest stars. The murders were suitably gruesome without being too shocking to watch, in fact the second wasn't too surprising; once we'd seen the malfunctioning door it was just a question of who and when it would kill somebody. If you are a fan of the series I'm sure you'll enjoy this episode and even if you haven't seen the series before this story is easy to follow.
This episode got off to a good start wasting no time in setting up and antagonistic situation, killing off one of the antagonists and setting up a variety of suspects and motivations. As usual the acting was good from both the regular cast and guest stars. The murders were suitably gruesome without being too shocking to watch, in fact the second wasn't too surprising; once we'd seen the malfunctioning door it was just a question of who and when it would kill somebody. If you are a fan of the series I'm sure you'll enjoy this episode and even if you haven't seen the series before this story is easy to follow.