Book of the Dead

The author of a book that set off a nationwide treasure hunt is found dead, and the hunt for his killer starts with the people who were following his trail. The seekers are dedicated to the point of obsession, and there are a lot of them. Every one of them can explain the book, and that is precisely what makes them hard to interview. Their numbers thin the pool of suspects only slightly, because half the county seems to have a theory about where the treasure is buried. For the seekers, the author was the closest thing to a celebrity, a man who had set them all a puzzle worth solving.

Barnaby and Winter follow the coded clues the author left behind, moving through a group of enthusiasts who knew the work intimately. The killer is hiding in plain sight among the seekers, and the case turns on who understood the book well enough to turn it against its author. Barnaby's interviews with the seekers run like a quiz night where everyone knows the answers except the person asking. In Midsomer terms, the most dangerous weapon in the room is knowledge itself, and every member of the hunt is carrying it.

Caroline Graham and Jeff Povey wrote it, Gill Wilkinson directed. Neil Dudgeon and Nick Hendrix are Barnaby and Winter, with Fiona Dolman's Sarah Barnaby and Annette Badland's Fleur Perkins. Jon Culshaw plays Bertram Jewell, Oliver Dimsdale is the Rev Sebastian Butts, Mina Andala is Ava Butts, Selina Cadell is Venetia Butts, Shaun Dooley is Eli Trask and Sally Lindsay is Danica Trask.

And the premise is a gift for a show that likes a closed community. A nationwide treasure hunt gives you suspects with a shared obsession and a ready-made reason to have been near the victim. The episode went out on 30 December 2025, one night before New Year's Eve, which feels right for a mystery about people who would rather follow a dead man's clues than face the year ahead.