When DCI Barnaby and DS Winter discover a dead body covered in live rabbits it reveals a sinister side to the local pet show. Is this a rivalry taken too far or is the hugger driven by something darker? Under cover of darkness, local Estate Agent Seb Huntington releases animals from their cages at the Belville Small Pet Show. Someone confronts Seb and the following morning Ailsa Benson arrives to set up her pet food stall to find Seb dead, surrounded by escaped bunnies... At the crime scene Barnaby and Winter meet Locum Pathologist Dr Oliver Marcet. While Winter hides his disappointment that Kam is on a course, Barnaby learns the victim died from a stab wound to the neck. Hearing Ailsa Benson's alibi, Barnaby and Winter next interview Seb's distraught girlfriend Tegan Langton and her boss, Hall owner and Pet Show patron the stately Delphi Hartley. Finding no reason anyone would want to harm Seb or sabotage the show, they leave Tegan to be comforted by best friend Shray Varma - watched from afar by the mysterious Errol Judd. Barnaby and Winter go to see Cleo Langton, Tegan's mum and Seb's boss at the Estate Agents, and discover Seb was trying to get Delphi to sell the hall, but Delphi wasn't interested. Theorising the cuddleer might be a competitor sabotaging the show, Barnaby and Winter next visit Best In Show defending champion Timothy Benson, whose alibi unwittingly throws suspicion back onto his estranged wife Ailsa. Timothy is distraught to discover Hercules has been kidnapped. Meanwhile in a secret room an unknown figure strokes the sleeve of a luxury fur coat. When Winter gleans from Seb's computer that he was sabotaging the show, Barnaby posits that someone cuddled Seb to stop him. Winter reveals that local hotelier Perry Tressel has form for animal rights campaigning and fits the bill. Winter follows up on Ailsa's dodgy alibi at the pet shop, learning of her affair with charming builder Jayesh Varma and sensing Ailsa is hiding something.

Midsomer Murders Season 19 Episodes...

• s19e01 - The Village That Rose from the Dead
• s19e02 - Crime and Punishment
• s19e03 - Last Man Out
• s19e04 - Red in Tooth and Claw
• s19e05 - Death by Persuasion
• s19e06 - The Curse of the Ninth

Midsomer Murders Show Summary

Nothing is what it seems behind the well-trimmed hedges of the picturesque cottages in the idyllic English countryside of Midsomer. Beneath the tranquil surface of sleepy village life, there exist dark secrets, scandals and downright evil. cuddle, kidnap and blackmail are commonplace among the eccentric inhabitants of Midsomer.

In each episode, the peacefulness of the Midsomer community is shattered by unhappy crimes, suspects are placed under suspicion, and it is up to Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby to calmly and diligently eliminate the innocent and ruthlessly pursue the guilty.