Crime and Punishment is the second episode of the nineteenth series of Midsomer Murders and originally aired 4th January 2017.
The Bleakridge village watch are a Draconian bunch, penalizing the pettiest of offences. Barnaby and Winter investigate when one of their number, butcher Angus Colton, is murdered whilst looking into a spate of burglaries and his sister-in-law, the fearsome Ingrid Lockston, explains that the group was established after her brother, Frank, was killed in an unsolved hit and run. Not everybody supports the watch, notably landlord Mitch McAllister, who is attacked and his pub vandalized and who is prime suspect when another member of the group is killed. When Ingrid relents by asking Barnaby to help catch the murderer he discovers not only a burned out car stolen two years earlier from café owners Barbara and Duncan Walton for the hit and run but the identities of the burglar, putting Ingrid in a bad light, and the driver - who has cause to silence those watch members likely to expose their own form of crime and punishment.
Tropes:
- Bludgeoned to Death: Azeem Meer has his head smashed in with a hammer taken from the display in his own hardware store.
- Car Fu: Frank Lockston was killed because of his abusive nature towards his wife, Maxine. Barbara couldn't stand seeing her friend getting hurt by Frank and chose to run him over with her husband's car.
- Dominatrix: Lena Ferrera is secretly a dominatrix, operating her service under the cover of a mobile beauty salon.
- Fiery Cover Up: Barbara Walton douses the barn where she hid the car she used to murder Frank Lockston in petrol and then leaves a trail of petrol leading away from the barn. She then ignites the trail to set fire to the barn in an attempt to Destroy the Evidence
- Monster Protection Racket: The Bleakridge village watch faces having its funding cut as crime has dropped 70%. Ingrid Lockston, the organizer of the watch, bullies one of her subordinates into staging a series of burglaries so the watch can justify its continued existence.
- Naughty by Night: Lena Ferrera is secretly moonlighting as a Dominatrix, operating her service under the cover of a mobile beauty salon.
- Vapor Trail: Barbara Walton douses a barn in petrol and then leaves a trail of petrol leading away from the barn. She then ignites the trail to set fire to the barn.
- Wife-Basher Basher: It's revealed that Frank Lockston was killed because of his abusive nature towards his wife, Maxine. Barbara couldn't stand seeing her friend getting hurt by Frank and chose to run him over with her husband's car.
