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.

Brokenwood's favorite dentist, Sonny Lyman, is the subject of Jools Fahey's amorous attentions; Jools becomes a prime suspect when Sonny's wife is found gassed in an oven.

The House of Screams, a local scare attraction, becomes the venue for an actual murder when a teenager is found with a sickle through his neck.

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 Mike mysteriously leaves Brokenwood on other police business, Kristin is left to lead the investigation into a 1970s party where several party-goers wind up dead.

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?

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.

The Cream Boat is a charming vessel that chugs its way up the scenic Brokenwood waterways. It carries sightseers and Christmas parties and often Hen Parties. Professional tennis player, Ophelia Marley, is one such lucky Hen. Her Bridesmaids have organised a big day migrating from the township via the Cream Boat to the Tidal View Lodge where they stay overnight.

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.

Mike and his team are taken into a world of Victorian dress-up and escapism when they investigate a murder at the Brokenwood Steampunk event.

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 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

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

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.

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.

Mike, Kristin and the team investigate the murder of a Farmer's Market Owner who staggers into the crowd with a garden implement fatally embedded in her back.

A fundraising evening at the historic Brokenwood Empire Cinema turns deadly when a fire breaks out, and when the smoke clears, a local businessman is found strangled.

Mike Shepherd and the team get a lesson in local history when the Brokenwood museum uncovers a dead body in the most unlikely of places.

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.

In the remote community of beaches at Pateke Point, a local resident ends up bludgeoned to death by an unknown blunt object and locked inside a house not her own.

When the world champion of the curious sport of Spoofing is found dead in a fountain, the Brokenwood detectives must determine who was willing to commit murder in order to win at all costs.

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.

The charred remains of a body are discovered in a burned out rural shed. Mike and Kristin are tasked with identifying the body; it seems that this is the third in a run of "accidental" deaths, all attended by the Brokenwood Fire Brigade.

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

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.