The Black Book is the second episode of the twelfth series of Midsomer Murders and originally aired on 26th March 2009.
Felicity Law auctions a painting by eighteenth-century Midsomer artist Henry Hogson for £400,000, giving most of the money to Matilda Simms, who runs a therapeutic art school, inherited from her father. Felicity is murdered, as is a young thief who had stolen another Hogson, causing Matilda to confess that both paintings were forged by her father. A greedy gallery owner tries to blackmail the killer and is himself slain. All three victims were, variously and dangerously, in possession of the forger's notes, kept in The Black Book.
Tropes:
- Anachronistic Clue: An art forger who adds The Beatles to his supposedly historical paintings.
- Fictional Painting: The episode features an entire catalog of paintings by the fictional 18th-century artist Henry Hogson. The sale of a previously unknown painting by Hogson sends Barnaby into an investigation of murders as well as art forgery.
- Greed: Patricia's motive for the murders is that removing forgeries increases her Hogson collection's worth.
- Shout-Out: To the famous album cover of The Beatles' Abbey Road. One forged landscape painting includes four men in the distance who on close inspection are clearly John, Paul, George, and Ringo.
