"The Dogleg Murders" lures Barnaby and his detectives to an upscale country club when one of the club's biggest supporters is killed in the woods near one of the course's most nefarious holes. It seems Barnaby has his work cut out for him this time though, since pretty much everyone in the club seems to hold a grudge against the late Jerry Drinkwater. As the team starts to dig deeper into the club's workings, they start finding even more unpleasant going-ons.
"The Black Book" starts off when a masterpiece painting by artist Henry Hogson is discovered in an old lady's attic. When the long-lost painting is auctioned off, the proceeds go to the local art school. What no one expects is the death of the old lady who found the painting and the fact that she appears to have been tortured.
Barnaby ends up learning quite a lot about the local artist and discovers some interesting details about the recent Hogson finds. When another body shows up, this time, that of the collector who placed some high bids in the auction, Barnaby will have to do some fast investigation work if he is going to solve the crime before the murderer strikes again.
In "Secrets and Spies," Barnaby finds his investigations hampered when the murder he starts to investigate is that of a former Cold War spy. The dead man has only just arrived at Midsomer Parva, but when Barnaby starts investigating other former spies that live in the area, he gets shut out and has to find new ways to investigate the crimes on hand. Other deaths occurring in the area appear to be caused by a wild animal, and a legend called the Beast of Midsomer surfaces. The question is, are these two sets of deaths related in some way?
"The Glitch" has a few interesting side stores that go on that made this my favorite episode in the set. A local software development company is being attacked in a rather unusual manner. It seems someone is attacking its employees with red paint. Meanwhile, the company's former head researcher is threatening to go public about a flaw in one of his designs. If the public learns about the flaw, it could cost the company a lot of money, but if the defect is actually put into production, it may cost lives. This head researcher, George Jeffers (David Haig), also heads up the local bicycling club. When a local school teacher, and Jeffers' girlfriend, is run over in the middle of the night, it seems pretty obvious that the target might actually have been Jeffers; she was riding his bike and coming from his house after all. Of course, the obvious suspect is the company's owner, American businessman Clinton Finn (Nigel Whitmey), but as the investigation deepens, it seems that quite a few people were sleeping around which makes the list of suspects grow quite a bit before the actual murder is revealed.
Midsomer Murders: Set 17 is pretty light on the special features. Each disc has one extra on it and these include a pair of production notes, cast interviews with Nettles, Hughes and Dillon and a list of interesting facts about what has happened in the show's 12 seasons. This last part includes details like the number of deaths recorded in the show and the various ways people have died. This should be a nice addition for anyone who has been following the show from the start. The production notes are just a couple of paragraphs revealing small tidbits about that episode like Nicholas Le Prevost never actually picking up a set of golf clubs before taking on the role of Jerry Drinkwater in "The Dogleg Murders," but nothing really special. As for the interviews, even those are just text on the screen. For each of the interviews, you have several screens of text to go through and learn about the actor's feelings about returning to his or her role. In the case of Dillon, she also talks about the efforts to make her character a bigger part of the show.
Having only seen a few episodes of Midsomer Murders over the years, I can't really speak to these four episodes' quality compared to the rest of the series, but I enjoyed each of these mysteries and think that most followers of the series will also find them to be a fitting addition to their collection.
