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.

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?

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.

On the edge of Brokenwood sits an abandoned mental health facility, an asylum named Brokenwood Downes. Now derelict, the spooky buildings provide a great hideout for local teenagers.

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.

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

A group of erstwhile members of the Brokenwood Golf Club, committee members no less, have gathered for their regular Wednesday morning round. They are playing their approaches to the first green when a zombie-like figure lurches from the early-morning gloom, coming towards them. It takes the golfers a moment or two (apparently) to realise this is actually Adele Stone, the Club owner - her face red and blistering; gasping desperately for breath. Then she falls from sight, into a greenside bunker. By the time the guys get to her, Ms Stone is very much dead. And so Mike and Kristin are called to investigate what appears to be homicide by poisoning.

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.

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?

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?

When Kristin, Breen, and Gina celebrate Mike’s birthday with a picnic in Brokenwood Domain, they are witness to a fatal skydiving accident. To make matters worse, Kristin knows the victim – entrepreneur Andre Barrington, an ex-boyfriend who moved onto another woman – Grace Turner, an adrenalin junkie and fellow skydiver. As the investigation unfolds, an unsettling truth is revealed. Andre’s parachute was never going to open as the cords were severed. Was it an elaborate suicide or was Grace having second thoughts about Andre? Then again – Andre’s older brother Felix was tired of living in his shadow, and his mother Lorraine’s maternal love verged on the side of sinister. Both of them were jumping with Andre too. And what about Andre’s business partner Dean Young, who was less than impressed by Andre’s work ethic? Mike and his team are forced to confront the old adage: ‘what goes up must come down’ – but not always in the way you want.

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.

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.

Four close friends go hunting in the bush on a stag trip. But the groom-to-be never comes back – he was shot through the head. Initially this would seem to be just another tragic hunting accident amidst picturesque New Zealand bush. The only problem is none of the remaining three friends own up to pulling the trigger that fired the lethal bullet - yet all three had discharged their rifles – with no deer to prove it. The question is – who shot Hayden Renner? Was he mistaken for a real stag or was there something more sinister at play?

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?

With December approaching Brokenwood is alive and well with Christmas spirit. That is until a gruesome sight confronts Mike and his team; Santa Claus with his throat slit. Or as Mike insists – ‘not Santa, but a man dressed in a Santa suit’. The man is in fact the much-loved local Mayor, Evan Whitestone, who dresses as Santa every year for the Christmas parade. But with local elections looming, attention turns to his four rivals for the mayoral chains. Each of them has an axe to grind with Evan or, in this case - a cut throat razor.

Charity Highmore-Browne is the owner and curator of Brokenwood's Historic Village. A stickler for all things Victorian, Charity lives in a time warp. Her sudden death by an arrow brings Mike and his team into the realm of New Zealand's colonial past as they deal with a blacksmith, a missionary and the local postmaster. Not to be overlooked is Charity's sister who once represented the country at the Olympics, missing out on a bronze medal in archery. As the investigation brings up questions about Charity's lifestyle and the mysterious disappearance of her husband seven years earlier, the team are faced with the possibility that Brokenwood is dealing with its first serial killer. Things are complicated further when Mike is forced out of the office due to a health scare and Kristin takes charge of the case. But can Mike truly hand over the reins?

The Brokenwood Health Retreat proves rather unhealthy for one unfortunate visitor, leaving the team of detectives with a very tricky case to solve.

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

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.

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 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.

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

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 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.