The Magician's Nephew

Always a wonderful series, but am I the only one freaking out when that guy flips through the ancient book without wearing gloves?!

Rubbish to all the bad reviewers. Some suspension of belief is required when viewing most tv shows.

A group of Satanists practice the dark arts in the wood. For a small town, there seem to be a lot of them at the site. Anyway, one day a woman is killed when she is in one of those iron maidens. The spikes, however, aren't what killed her; she is rather the victim of frog poison (you know those colorful little blow dart guys from South and Central America. As it turns out there are numerous charlatans around who have their own agendas. There is one young woman who fancies herself a witch, feeling that somewhere there is a secret book that will grant power to anyone who finds it. Or it could kill them. Unfortunately, death comes to some, but it's not a curse. It's something much more humdrum than that. Barnaby and Jones intervene. They get some honest answers from some people who have had enough mumbo-jumbo. Others aren't quite so forthcoming. It's a passable episode but never seems to get to the point.

Maybe the most frustrating aspect of this series is the constant parade of despicable characters who are never dealt with. This episode and the one previous are cases in point. It's similar to Brokenwood Mysteries. But in that series unsavoury characters abound episode and are primarily local townspeople.

I understand the desire to offer alternative suspects in the guise of abhorrent behaviour but the repeated trope of sneering at police and refusing to cooperate is tiresome. Just once could we not have these clowns thrown in a cell for withholding evidence. Here, Isolde is grating at least..but not properly handled.

The title is from the film LA Confidental.

"Midsomer Murders: The Magician's Nephew" is from season 11 (2008) and has lots going for it: a magic show for children, a Halloween party for which Barnaby needs a costume, children named, of all things, Tristan and Isolde, an antique book, a fragile mother, a secret group, and incest. Add a couple of murders, and you've got yourself a nifty mystery.

A older woman named Jean Wildacre is killed on stage during a magic show as she works as a magician's assistant. She's been killed, it's learned, with a rare poison from a frog. Wildacre was a member of an occult group led by Ernest Balliol, who spends a lot of time fighting with an ex-group member, Aloysius Wilmington. Both men want an antique book that is somewhere in Aloysius' vast library. Balliol's children are Tristan and Isolde, and his first wife, Rosemary, drifts in and out of reality. Isolde is desperate to find the book, believing that in it is some sort of incantation or something that will help heal her mother.

There are two more deaths, one of which is from the poison. It takes Barnaby a while to figure out what the connection is among the victims.

Very good, with enough happening to keep one's interest, and good performances all around. For some reason, I've always liked it when Barnaby's home life is part of the story.

Someone here said the motives for the murders weren't clear, but I felt they were. However, these stories are never simple, and if you blink, you'll miss something.

Recommended, as is the whole series.