Midwinter Murders

Plot Synopsis

The county of Midsomer is in uproar. Every vicar in the Midsomer Diocese has told the school kids at the carol services that Father Christmas doesn't exist - simultaneously. From Gandle-by-the-Hill to Little Bingley, the crying of children goes on for three days.

The press are down at Midsomer Palace demanding the Bishop of Midsomer issues an edict contradicting his ministers, and stating categorically that Santa is alive and well. While the bishop is explaining that in Santa's case it is not so much either/or as both/and, news breaks from Twing. Father Christmas has been found dead in his grotto. Stabbed through the heart..... with a crozier.

How will Inspector Barnaby untangle this mystery? Is it the children who followed Santa on his way to work, shouting "you fat b*****" whom he threatened they would receive no presents? Is it the strange New Age group who are in the fields abiding, and are convinced Santa has stolen the festival from them?  Is it the lusty Xandra, who's feeling left out because she's the only  pub landlady who hasn't had a secret affair with a local landover? Or is it, in fact, the bishop - taking the heresy of his underlings to their logical conclusion?

Either way, nobody's going to be looking up to the skies in Midsomer, this Midwinter.