The Brokenwood Mysteries

When DC Breen and his rugby team show up for practice, they are appalled to find their coach's body. Shepherd and Sims take the lead on the case to find out who would want to do this to a beloved pillar of the community. When a second body is found, the detectives believe the deaths are related.

Jared lands the title role in The Brokenwood Theatre Society's production of Hamlet, but a young cast member, Ben Faulkner, dies at the end of a performance. Initially the detectives think Ben died of natural causes, until Shepherd follows his nose to the real cause of death.

When Jared discovers a severed human hand in a crayfish pot on Brokenwood Beach, Shepherd, Sims, and Breen set about finding who the hand belongs to--and whether or not they are still alive. Signs seem to cast suspicion on the Keely family, owners of the crayfish pot and fierce protectors of their family's fishing legacy and territories.

Shepherd and Jared attend a country concert by Shepherd's favorite musician, Holly Collins, and she announces that it will be her final show. When she is found electrocuted the next morning in her hotel bathtub, it appears to be a suicide--or perhaps a drunken accident. But Shepherd believes the cause of death to be more sinister.