The Devil's Work is the first episode of the twenty-fourth series of Midsomer Murders and first aired December 4, 2023.
The demise of the Shirewell patriarch sparks a vicious inheritance dispute when the eldest son, Lucian, announces plans to break up an estate that's been in his family for centuries.
Tropes:
- The Baby Trap: Jordana Linsbury fakes a positive pregnancy test in an attempt to trick Francis Shirewell into marrying her. This being Midsomer, it ends very badly for her.
- Dead Animal Warning: *Someone comes by the yurt. Jordana gets up and opens the door but doesn’t see anyone. Then there is a knock on the door. Jordana looks outside and sees a wrapped package on the ground. It is a dead raven.
- Deadly Gas: Jordana Linsbury is murdered when the killer runs a hose from the exhaust vent of the kiln to the yurt where she is sleeping: filling the tent with lethal levels of carbon monoxide and hydrogen fluoride.
- Death by Looking Up: After being poisoned by the Deadly Gas, Jordana Linsbury staggers out of her her yurt and claws the guy wires supporting a large totem pole; ending up pulling the pole down on top of herself.
- Even the Dog Is Ashamed: At the end of the episode, Barnaby makes a dad joke so awful that his wife and daughter both roll their eyes, and Paddy the dog covers his face with his paw.
- Eye Scream: The killer incapacitates the second victim Francis Shirewel by garrotting him into senselessness, then places a ceramic mask over his face and murders him by driving a pottery hole cutter into his eye: pounding it home with several blows from a mallet.
- Fake Pregnancy: Jordana Linsbury fakes a positive pregnancy test in an attempt to trick Francis Shirewell into marrying her. This being Midsomer, it ends very badly for her.
- Grievous Bottley Harm: After pushing their intended final victim down the stairs, the murderer grabs a wine bottle and follows them down, intending to finish them off, only to run into Barnaby and Winter.
- Hand Gagging: Ursula is gardening when someone creeps up behind her and covers her mouth their hand. They struggle and Ursula kicks him and runs away.
- Last Disrespects: At their father's funeral, Ursula Shirewell gives Lucian a rose and tells him, “It's not too late to make your peace, Lucian.” Lucian stabs the stem of the rose into the top of the coffin, “May you rot in Hell!,” he yells. The crowd gasps.
- Murder by Cremation: The killer disposes of their their third victim by locking them in a ceramics kiln and cranking the temperature to the max. Fleur helpfully comments as she is sifting the ashes for human remains that the kiln reaches the same temperature as a crematorium furnace.
- Staircase Tumble: At the end of the episode, the murderer reveals that decades earlier they had murdered their mother by shoving her down the wine store stairs; an event that was assumed to have been an accident.They then attempt to dispose if their final victim the same way.
