Garden of Death is the first episode of the fourth series of Midsomer Murders and first aired 10th September 2000.
Barnaby and Troy investigate the murder of Fliss Inkpen-Thomas in the village of Midsomer Deverell. Her mother Elspeth owns the local manor house and is very much disliked in the village for her plans to close a memorial garden on the Manor grounds and open a tea room. There is a neighbour who already dislikes the trouble tourists cause; the daughter of the architect who designed the garden some years previously; the manor's gardener with whom both mother and daughter had been having an affair; and a second daughter, Hilary, whom Fliss tormented at every opportunity. When a second member of the Inkpen family is murdered, Barnaby believes the murders have a far different motive.
Tropes:
- Broken Bird: Hilary, initially tormented by her half-sister and then broken completely by the Awful Truth that her grandmother had been extorting money from her father through her existence to the point she set about wiping the Inkpens out.
- The Casanova: The gardener Daniel Bolt has slept with both Elspeth and her daughter Fliss, and once they're both gone he sets about trying to seduce Hilary. In parallel to that, he also attempts to flirt with Joyce.
- Constructive Body Disposal: The body of Cynthia Bennett was buried in the Memorial Garden (which was under construction then).
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Being force-fed a poisonous plant that will leave you to die in utter agony certainly ranks up there. As Barnaby muses, that Elspeth suffered such an excruciating death suggests the killer really hates the Inkpens.
- Gargle Blaster: Daniel Bolt's home-brew alcohol is so potent that he genuinely fears he might have killed the boys he gave it to.
- Impoverished Patrician: The Inkpen family, which had to sell the manor (which had been in the family since the Reformation) 25 years earlier and could only buy it back 20 years later thanks to blackmail money.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Naomi Inkpen survives while both her daughter Elspeth and granddaughter Fliss are killed.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After discovering that her family only valued her for the fact that her existence allowed them to blackmail money out of her father's family, Hilary snapped and proceeded to bump them off one by one.
- Shovel Strike: Fliss is done in by a blow to the head from a shovel.
- What the Hell, Hero?: After they dig up a body in the memorial garden, Troy immediately goes to press one of their suspects about it. Once Barnaby catches up to him he chews Troy out for jumping the gun, pointing out that not only have they not yet identified the body as being the woman they believe it is but they haven't informed the next of kin either.
