The Brokenwood Mysteries Episode Rating Graph

When an animal activist is killed on the first day of duck hunting season, Mike and the team must determine whether it was an accidental shooting, or something more sinister

World-renowned crime-writing author Jack Rudd visits Brokenwood to give a reading at the local book club from his latest novel - but never leaves, falling victim to a method of murder portrayed in his own book.

When four masked men attempt to rob the Brokenwood Savings Bank, it's up to Mike and the team to determine which one of them pulled the trigger and killed the bank manager.

A 160-year-old family feud over gold becomes the main motive for murder when a modern-day cowgirl is gunned down in cold blood.

Mike, Kristin and Chalmers must determine who wanted a local vet nurse dead when she uncovers a doping scandal and gets murdered for knowing too much.

Some familiar faces return when the team investigates a suspicious suicide at the Brokenwood Women’s Prison.

The team at Brokenwood must navigate a group of nuns who've taken a vow of silence when a member of their order is strangled on their way to chapel.

A motorcycle gang comes to Brokenwood to celebrate the wedding of one of its members, Debbie. But a tragic death saw a couple stop the party.

Philip Henderson stands next to an impressive scarecrow amidst a field of damaged vegetation. His whole crop has failed. The scarecrow may have kept the birds away but this catastrophe is something bigger. Angered and distraught, he confronts his neighbour, the cantankerous Doug Randall, and accuses him of spray drift. Doug is having none of it and an ugly altercation ensues. The following day Philip is discovered dead in his field – the victim of an obscure poison. Suspicion falls on Doug and his new wife, the strident and doggedly loyal Trudy Neilson, whom it was well known had ongoing tensions with Philip over an unpaid bar tab at her pub, The Toad and Lion. But as Mike and the team dig further into the mystery, more suspects come into play. Philip’s other neighbour is the cagey Tamati Taylor, who is less than forthcoming, but as it transpires Philip had a twin brother. Why does he seem remarkably unmoved by the death of his sibling?

Mike and the team discover more than one dead body, and a significant amount of family rivalry, in the manor house where a pair of aging siblings live.

A death at a motel at first looks like an accident, but something is not right in the stories the guests tell.

The Brokenwood crime fighters are called in to investigate a murder at a music festival, where it would appear the victim was quite literally killed by sound.

Brokenwood is in mourning as beloved local poet Declan O’Grady is being farewelled at St Judas Church after being struck down by cancer. But things go from bad to worse when his coffin accidentally falls from the hearse revealing that the corpse inside is not Declan but a young woman identifiable only by a notable scarlet tattoo.

Sunset Manor is a rest home in Brokenwood for the aged and bewildered. The new resident is Edward Alderston. Having recently lost his wife, his family has decided Sunset Manor is the best place for him, especially now that the Alzheimer’s is taking hold. Mrs Marlowe is a regular visitor, offering sing-alongs at the piano for the residents. But Edward is hoping for more of an ally than that. He’s planning an escape. In fact he’s been practicing. The only problem is he can’t remember the plan. But when a man is found with a Samurai sword through his back floating in his swimming pool in the neighbouring street, Edward’s exact whereabouts becomes of real importance.

When a young cast member of The Brokenwood Theatre Society collapses and dies at the end of a performance of Hamlet, the initial belief is that it was from natural causes. However, Mike detects there is ‘something rotten in the state of Brokenwood’ when he gets a whiff of a lethal poison. In doing so he uncovers a complex web of ego driven dissention amongst the troupe. Was Ben Faulkner expended to create opportunity for another young rising star? Or can his death be linked to the words of the Bard himself? And how did Jared end up playing the lead role? As Mike and his team investigate the hidden secrets of this curious group of thespians ‘To be or not to be’ takes on a whole new meaning.

It's the annual Brokenwood A&P show, time for that special kind of Kiwi carnival! Amidst the shearing displays, the ‘Calf Day' competition and wood chopping, is the usual assortment of fun rides and fairground attractions. The sun is shining on happy family entertainment and ever popular this year is the shonky old Ghost Train.

When two fishermen find the body of a local farmer in the river, Detective Inspector Mike Shepherd is sent to the small rural town of Brokenwood to investigate the death. Is this the suicide of a man guilty of his own wife’s murder or is he the victim of foul play? As Mike uncovers a family’s tragedies and secrets, he also learns that Brokenwood is a place where shadows lurk just beneath the surface.

Cycling is very de rigour around the globe and no less in Brokenwood. When one such MAMIL, (Middle Aged Man In Lycra), Lester Nyman, reaches the top of a local mountain after a gruelling ride and suffers a massive coronary, it doesn't seem suspicious. But then Gina reveals his toxicology showed astronomical levels of caffeine in his system and Mike starts to look more closely.

The history of Brokenwood gets new life as a musical. But the setting literally brings with it a shock for the composer.

After dinosaur fossils are discovered in the foothills of Brokenwood, the town buzzes about the potential boost for tourism; but when a paleontologist turns up dead, the future doesn't look so rosy.

Holly Collins is not only DSS Mike Shepherd's favourite country musician she's also playing in Brokenwood. Unfortunately it turns out to be her final gig. When she is found electrocuted it appears to be a rock'n'roll suicide. But then again it could have been a drunken accident - or, as Mike suspects, it is perhaps something less obvious. With a careless note scrawled in lipstick the only clue, Mike has to set aside his personal interest in the victim and strike the right note with Holly's dysfunctional band members: Slim Fingers, Waylon Strings and Jesse James. But the more he finds out, the more he needs to know and the less he likes what he learns.

The bucolic coastal waters off Brokenwood support a thriving fishing industry. But when Jared discovers a severed human hand in a crayfish pot it appears to be harbouring something far more sinister. Who does the hand belong to and are they still alive?

The Brokenwood Cheetahs are a local rugby team of legendary status. Their losing streak of 50 straight games has broken national records. So when their hapless coach, Arnie Langstone, is found dead - stripped naked and strapped to a goalpost - some think it might be blessing in disguise – perhaps now they might start winning again. But amidst this DSS Mike Shepherd is perplexed by several other issues. Firstly, why was a pair of women’s underwear stuffed down Arnie’s throat? And what do the neatly embroidered initials ‘G.G.’ signify? But then a second body is discovered and Mike and his team are stretched to the limit. Is this the work of a serial killer or merely a puzzling co-incidence?

The Frog and Cheetah’s publican, Ray Neilson, has branched into tourism with his ‘Lord of the Ringz Tours’ tailored to non-English speaking tourists. But when Ray’s wife Debbie is discovered dead under a giant foam spider in a supposed film location of Mirklewood things get ‘mirky’. Especially when Debbie’s cause of death is revealed to be from New Zealand’s only native venomous spider – the Katipo. But if it was, how did one spider administer ten times the lethal dose?

Mike and his team are thrust into a world of antiquities when a TV crew from the hit series All Things Old and Beautiful comes to town, and one of the hosts is murdered.

The annual Riverstone Beach Hop is a colorful festival that brings classic car enthusiasts together from far and wide to celebrate everything petrol powered and chrome plated. But on the morning of the event Charlie Baxter, the Chairman of the Classic Car Restoration Society, is found dead next to his beloved El Dorado with a lungful of gasoline. Was this a petrol siphoning accident or something more deliberate? And does it have anything to do with the unidentified dead body found in Charlie’s garage the day before?

While a visiting theatrical troupe puts on a nativity play at St. Judas, a precious holy relic goes missing, and the actor playing Jesus is killed.

With Brokenwood touted for its burgeoning merlot, the annual wine show is a major event. Having bought a 10-acre block with maturing grapes, no one is looking forward to it more than DI Mike Shepherd. But when a guest judge and wine critic is found dead, drowned inside a fermenting vat, the show takes second place to the murder investigation.