Trama

Badger's Drift plays host to the Midsomer Rock Festival - with murderous consequences.

Barnaby is delighted to tell his family and Jones about the impending reunion of blues rock band Hired Gun at the annual Midsomer Rocks festival while assigned to supervise police security for artists, roadies and music fans descend on neighboring fields. He isn't amused daughter Cully dates band manager Simon Dixon, given the drugs context, and tells Jones his mentor, now retired D.I. Owen Jenkins, saw his career broken 30 years ago as the media blamed his failure to find the band's still missing member Ginger Foxton. The band stays at the mansion, with butler James Hobson, gardener Desmond Harcourt and secretary-housekeeper, his wife Finola, owned by a foundation in tontine but inhabited by Gary Cooper, who still fails to look a proper gentleman. Hired Gun's lush vocalist Mimi Clifton is electrocuted on stage whilst holding on to her microphone stand, that had an added mystery wire, but Gary was scheduled to use it that time. Barnaby and Jones guess rightly other band members could be targets. Bass player Jack 'Axeman' McKinley barely survives the bomb in his motorbike, Gary reports threats including animal corpses and suggests member Ginger Foxton, presumed dead in a drunk car crash, may be alive and vindictive. The drummer drowns in the car he slept in to avoid his wife arriving drunk with Jack. The detectives also find various infidelity and intrigues involving real estate and medical conditions, such as Jack's simpleton daughter and semi-catatonic ex.—KGF Vissers

When old rockers Hired Gun reform to play a gig at the Midsomer Rocks Festival, paranoid lead singer Gary Cooper is convinced someone is trying to warn them off. First rock diva Mimi Clifton is electrocuted on stage, then drummer Nicky Harding is found dead in the swimming pool. Barnaby has to face the possibility that one of his rock 'n' roll heroes is a murderer.—Anonymous

DCI Barnaby revels in the atmosphere of a major rock concert being held in Badgers Drift that features Hired Gun, an influential rock group from his youth and his personal favorite. Barnaby is soon on the job when the group's lead singer, Mimi Clifton, is electrocuted on stage during their opening number. It is quickly apparent that the equipment was tampered with and they are dealing with a case of murder. Gary Cooper, the group's nominal leader, believes the attempt was directed at him as he has been harassed and threatened for some time. He thinks his nemesis is former band member Ginger Foxton who disappeared 30 years ago, a case the then Det. Sgt. Barnaby and his DI Owen Jenkins, had worked on. When an attempt is made on a second member of the group and then a third, successfully this time, Barnaby thinks Cooper might be right. Revenge is at the center of it all, but not for the reasons that seem apparent.—garykmcd