Plot

A series of murders in Midsomer St Claire seem to be inspired by macabre images on a medieval fresco recently discovered in the church crypt.

Nancy Dewar's hooded corpse is found in a river, having left her alcoholic husband Michael to live with art historian Philip Hamilton. Her death resembles that of a woman in a fresco Hamilton is restoring at a local church. Michael names shopkeeper Ewan Evans as his alibi and whilst Ewan is perturbed that his art student son Noah has a book depicting medieval tortures, the reverend Martha Hillcott hopes to sell a cottage on church land belonging to previous vicar, the ailing Arthur Gould and his daughter Ava, to raise money to save the frescoes from rising river water. On the night she died, Nancy, as one of the church council, was about to sell her vote to Martha to support the sale of the cottage. But then two more murders occur, both styled after pictures in the frescoes. As the river bursts its banks and villagers take refuge in the church, Barnaby works out that the killings were not based in religion but perpetrated to keep hidden a shameful secret, a case less of Let Us Pray than Let Us Prey.—don @ minifie-1

In Midsomer St. Claire DI John Barnaby and DS Charlie Nelson investigate the death of 28 year-old Nancy Dewar who is found in the water by river officers Ava Gould and Zach Lime. Her face had been covered with a burlap hood and Dr. Wilding finds that although she drowned, there is also evidence of blunt force trauma on the back of her head. She had recently separated from her husband Michael Dewar and had moved in with artist Philip Hamilton who is repairing a medieval fresco discovered by Rev. Martha Hillcott and handyman Frank Dewar in the basement of the local church. The fresco itself depicts a hooded woman, much like Nancy's. Two further murders suggest someone is imitating the death scenes in the fresco. The decision to sell a cottage owned by the church - and occupied by the now retired Rev. Arthur Gould, the church's longtime pastor - has also created ill-feeling in the community. Learning a long hidden secret however is the key to solving the crimes.—garykmcd