Plot

While in a self-imposed exile in the Yukon as a prospector at the end of the Gold Rush, Murdoch prospects for gold as in his absence Crabtree works on a Toronto homicide.

Season five of Murdoch Mysteries opens in unfamiliar territory, as Detective William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) leaves Toronto to try his luck while the Klondike Gold Rush in the Yukon winds down. Suspended for interfering in an investigation, on the run for surreptitiously freeing a murderer to make amends, and nursing a broken heart after Dr. Ogden's marriage to another man, he tries to escape his past, and his passion for detective work. Back in the city, newly promoted Chief Constable Giles (Nigel Bennett) makes it clear to Inspector Thomas Brackenreid (Thomas Craig), that he'll be keeping a very close eye on police matters. Meanwhile, Murdoch's beloved former associate, Dr. Julia Ogden (Hélène Joy), is now working alongside Acting Detective George Crabtree (Jonny Harris) and Dr. Emily Grace (Georgina Reilly), a feisty young protégé. In the remote north, Murdoch is pleased to discover that his fledgling prospecting career may garner great success, a small comfort after Julia's marriage to another man. But as he tries to rebuild his life, he finds himself drawn into the case of Mrs. Elizabeth Bryant (Jill Halfpenny), an innkeeper charged with murder. The plot thickens when writer Jack London (Aaron Ashmore) lends his insights, and Murdoch soon realizes that while he had hoped to leave his shattered heart and tattered career back in Toronto, his days as a detective are not behind him.—Shaftesbury

Murdoch is on a leave of absence and is working as a prospector in the Yukon. The gold rush is long over but he manages to eke out a living panning for gold. When he returns to the nearby town he learns that the hotel owner, Mrs. Bryant, has been charged with murder. It seems she was found standing over the body with the murder weapon in his her hands. Murdoch knows the woman and finds it all hard to believe and so soon starts an investigation. The murder is far more complex than anyone had imagined. Back in Toronto, Acting Detective George Crabtree has his own murder to solve. Working with Dr. Ogden and her protégée Dr. Emily Grace, he is quickly on the path to solving the crime.—garykmcd

In the wake of his personal and professional problems, Detective William Murdoch leaves Toronto for the Klondike Gold Rush in the Yukon, intent on a life beyond policing. There he meets writer Jack London and stumbles upon a murder investigation, soon realizing that his days as a detective are not behind him.—Shaftesbury

Suspended for interfering in an investigation, on the run for surreptitiously freeing a murderer to make amends, and nursing a broken heart after Dr. Ogden's marriage to another man, Murdoch has left Toronto and its police, where newly promoted Chief Constable Giles wants his scalps and Brackenreid's, for the Yukon. While relatively successful in pursuit of metallic fortune in the Klondike Gold Rush, he is drawn into a another investigation there, as his hotel owner, Elizabeth Bryant, swears her innocence in the single Mountie's jail, when charged with murdering an innkeeper, found standing over the body with the murder weapon in his her hands. Fellow gentleman prospector and future author Jack London helps him work out the victim's links and true killers' plot to set up Bryant for their profits. Meanwhile Crabtree is acting detective, and struggles with being lazy Higgins's operational superior. Realizing his days as a detective are not yet behind him, William returns, to Thomas's horror.—KGF Vissers