THE BROKENWOOD MYSTERIES, Series 3

All is not well in Brokenwood, where passions simmering beneath the sleepy surface regularly erupt into gruesome crimes. Neill Rea returns as Detective Senior Sergeant Mike Shepherd in four new, feature-length, standalone mysteries featuring compelling characters, dry humor, and piquant wit Series 3 follows the team investigating the death of a ‘Lord of the Ringz’ tour guide, a real-life Clue board game gone wrong, the death of a classic-car enthusiast and someone killing the Christmas spirit.  (DVD 4-disc set; Blu-ray 2-disc set, 4 feature-length mysteries, $59.99). Series 1-3 on Acorn TV.


My Thoughts


The Brokenwood Mysteries is a fast-paced series set in New Zealand. It revolves around Mike Shepard, a homicide detective. He sets out to solve some grisly murders along with his partner Kriston Sims. This season includes four exciting feature length episodes including:

The Black Widower - A women is found murdered beside a Lord of the Rings exhibit that features a giant spider.  Strangely enough, she died of a spider bite. Her husband is the prime suspect until Shepard learns that she caused a lot of other tourist attractions to lose a spot in the coveted woods. Perhaps revenge was the motive?

Over Her Dead Body - A local poet dies of cancer, but when the coffin falls out of the hearse, the wrong body is inside. The team has to retrace the steps of a role playing game to figure out what happened to the real body and who the lady with the tattoos is.

The Killing Machine - The beach hop is usually about cool cars, but  this year, the chairman is found dead next to his ride with gas in this lungs. Was it an accident or did someone take him on a murderous ride. 
A Very Bloody Christmas - Red is a great Christmas color,  but it's not so fun when Santa has his throat slit. The victim is actually the major and the motive may have been political. I really enjoyed this season, just as much as the last two. The stories were all exciting, though definitely gruesome at times. The New Zealand scenery was lovely and all the actors did a great job. Each show has a little backstory, but can still be watched stand-alone.  If you'd like to grab this awesome box set for yourself, you can find it online at Acorn Media or on Amazon.