The fictional county of Midsomer has so many deaths I’d be absolutely terrified to live anywhere close. However, this does make for some gripping stories.
As we wait for Midsomer Murders season 24 to finally air, ITV are re-showing some old episodes and one of the most recent ones was Wild Harvest. I’ll never forget this one as the first person to die in season 16 episode 3 is farmer Martin Strickland and he’s eaten alive by a wild boar.
Thankfully, you don’t see this on screen but it’s still a grisly way to go. His daughter Amy then dies after trying poisoned watercress soup at the local fine dining restaurant at Wyvern House.
She works in the kitchen with the formidable chef Ruth Linklater, whose husband Johnny helps her run things. If you’ve only just come across this Midsomer Murders episode and are wanting more detail about who was behind the Stricklands’ murders, I’ve got you covered with all the details.
Who is the killer in Midsomer Murders Wild Harvest?
The killer in Wild Harvest is none other than Angela Linklater, the pub landlady. She admits to her crimes at the very end of the episode after witnessing DCI John Barnaby and DS Charlie Nelson arresting one of Ruth's chefs, Nick Iver, for Martin and Amy’s murders.
This turns out to be a clever scheme by the three of them to get Angela to own up. They pretended that her ex-husband Johnny was in a critical condition in hospital after being poisoned and begged Nick to tell them what he used.
Desperate to save Johnny, Angela revealed that she put belladonna in Ruth's sloe gin and begged them to call the hospital so they could save her ex. After making her confession, Barnaby zoned in with his questions as he got to the bottom of what happened to Martin and Amy.
When the policemen still didn’t ring the hospital, the landlady believed that Johnny must have already died because of what she did. It was only after he got all he needed from Angela Linklater that Barnaby took her outside and she saw Johnny standing by a police car with Ruth.
She realised she’d been tricked but it was too late for her. Johnny reunited with the couple’s son Ferdy as Angela was led away from Midsomer Wyvern.
Why did Angela kill Martin and Amy in Wild Harvest?
As we see in so many of the best crime dramas, love was Angela’s main motive for killing Martin - in this case, her enduring love for Johnny. Although the exes seemed to be getting on well since their split, Angela never quite got over him.
She was convinced that Ruth "stole" him from her. This is something that their son Ferdy denies is true. The teenager overhears what’s being said as Angela’s role as the murderer is revealed in the pub and says his parents broke up "years" before Johnny even met Ruth.
Angela wasn’t having any of this. She furiously responded, "You know nothing about love and I don’t suppose you ever will".
If anything was going to show how delusional Angela was about her marriage ending, it was this. She murdered Martin because he had been about to ruin Johnny’s business and take Wyvern House from him. He had evidence of Johnny stealing truffles from him and was blackmailing him.
Either Johnny would hand over control of the restaurant to Martin, or he’d reveal everything. Instead of being pleased about her boyfriend’s plan, Angela sprung into action to stop it from happening.
She drugged Martin, tied him up in the woods and smeared his chest with truffle oil to attract the wild boar. Angela’s motive for killing Amy was slightly different as her death was accidental.
The pub landlady even admitted to Barnaby and Nelson that she "had nothing against" Amy Strickland, she just "got in the way". Angela had been trying to kill Ruth when she swapped the watercress for the soup with hemlock.
When Ruth told Amy to test the soup to see why it wasn’t up to her standards, she’d ingested the poisonous plant and died. As she’d failed to kill her love rival, Angela tried again by putting belladonna in the chef’s sloe gin.
Johnny was teetotal so his ex-wife could never have predicted that it wasn’t just Ruth who’d drink the deadly gin. Thankfully, both Johnny and Ruth Linklater ended up receiving medical help in time as they were found passed out on the Wyvern House lawn by Lizzie Thornfield.
Lizzie knew all about plants and herbal remedies and even though she had a grudge against Ruth for many years, she stepped up to help. Ruth had dated Lizzie’s son Max when they were teenagers and was in the car with him when he died in an accident.
Ruth was the driver but after she knew Max was dead she moved him in front of the wheel to cover this up. Lizzie always suspected Ruth was hiding something but it seemed that she’d found a way to forgive her by the end of Midsomer Murders Wild Harvest.
All episodes of Midsomer Murders seasons 1-23 are available to watch now on ITVX.
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