Trama

Midsomer Worthy's beloved local pub figures in a case involving unrequited love, secret business deals, and passionate affairs.

DCI Tom Barnaby and DS Dan Scott investigate the shotgun murder of Jamie Cruikshank, a barman at the Maid in Splendour, a pub in the village of Midsomer Worthy. The pub is now owned by Stephen Bannerman, a much disliked local property developer who has his own plans for the pub. Bannerman's father Michael, the original owner, didn't agree with his son's plans to turn the pub into a high end restaurant nor of his affair with Bella Monday, the daughter of his lifelong friend Audrey. When Stephen is subsequently killed, also by shotgun, Barnaby begins to wonder if Cruikshank's murder may have resulted from a case of mistaken identity.—garykmcd

One night Jamie Cruickshank, the popular barman in Midsomer Worthy's village pub The Maid in Splendour, the work/ meeting place of many locals, is fatally shot outside an abandoned cottage in the woods. The new manager Stephen Bannerman took over from his popular father Michael who has cardiac problems,but is thoroughly disliked by many and plans in secret to sell the Maid to outsider property developers, who will turn it into a fancy restaurant. Stephen also has an adulterous affair with Bella Monday, the daughter of his lifelong friend Audrey, and is gun-murdered himself. Barnaby and Scott have to find out whether Jamie was the intended target.—KGF Vissers

Jamie Cruickshank, a bartender at the Maid in Splendour public house, is keen on Bella Monday, a barmaid, and follows her to a tumbledown old cottage in the woods, only to be blasted with a twelve-bore shotgun. Then the pub landlord's son, Stephen Bannerman, is also killed in the same way. Barnaby finds there was ill-feeling between locals and newcomers to the village and also between the landlord and his aggressive son, who was in the process of taking over the business.—Anonymous