Causton is buzzing at the opening of a new brewery on the site of a famously cursed Abbey. But excitement turns to fear when a man is found boiled to death in one of the vats. DCI Barnaby and DS Winter are puzzled; could this really be about beer?

School principal Mahesh Sidana, avid butterfly collector and founder of an elitist top-IQ society, is the first victim of a series of weird murders with an MO evoking the fate of caught insects. While Barnaby's Danish colleague-friend, detective Birgitte Poulsen, goes undercover in the IQ club, an interest of hers since her father's death, Barnaby and Jamie Winter follow other leads, such as Mahesh's widow's romantic interests, and other intrigues behind both hobbies. The IQ club president, suspiciously uncooperative, is abusive to his assistant, unsympathetic to the candidature of ambition-frustrated Carlton Scott's son Leo, and may be the recipient of ill-gotten gains. Written by KGF Vissers

Carver Valley's comic festival is in full swing when the village is shocked by the murder of a former supermodel. With a scathing comic shaming several villagers as the only lead, Barnaby and Winter are left trying to separate fact from fiction.

Businessman Mark Adler is found dead in a cryotherapy facility associated with his formerly ailing rugby team, the Causton Lions, coached by Bill Viner, a former player his age, whose career was wrecked by a knee injury. Barnaby and Winter look into club rivalry, notably problematic star player Danny Wickham, and Belinda Braun and her grandson Dominic, who works as innovative festive pastry chef in the former family bakery now owned by Mark's widow Samantha. Written by KGF Vissers