DCI Barnaby and DS Winter uncover multiple motives when the winner of a fought-after music award is found strangled with a violin string moments before a performance, including rivalry over the prize, disagreements about the music festival business, and a missing Stradivarius violin.

When a young girl slips away from a Jane Austen weekend dressed in period attire, and is found stabbed in the woods, apparently with a Goose feather quill, DCI Barnaby and DS Winter need to look back in time to find the killer.

When DCI Barnaby and DS Winter discover a dead body covered in live rabbits it reveals a sinister side to the annual summer pet show at Bellville Hall. Is this a rivalry taken too far or is the killer driven by something darker?

Tensions run high in Lower Pampling as a new type of cricket threatens a century of tradition. When a star cricketer dies during a tournament, DCI Barnaby and DS Winter's investigation draws them into a dangerous game with a surprise visitor from Barnaby's past.

The Bleakridge Watch patrols the streets of their remote village, exposing anyone who steps outside the law. When one of their members dies, DCI Barnaby and DS Winter uncover just how far some people will go for power.

The village of Little Auburn has stood abandoned since World War Two but plans are afoot to restore it to its former glory. However, the grand reopening takes a grisly turn when a man is murdered. DCI Barnaby and his new partner, DS Jamie Winter, are soon on the case, and must unravel a web of lies connecting past and present to bring the killer to justice.