“The Queen of Poisons” Starts with the Marlow Mayor’s Murder
'The Marlow Murder Club' is back on the case with "The Queen of Poisons Part 1."
We’re back in Marlow for a third straight year as The Marlow Murder Club returns. We open at the town council, where Mayor Geoffrey Truman (Peter Davison) is preparing for this month’s meeting. The council members trickle in: local architect Terrence Clarkson (Tony Gardner), then estate owner Marcus Percival (Nigel Harman), trying to one-up each other over snacks as the Mayor makes himself a coffee from the Keurig. They’re followed by accountant Debbie Smith (Jacqueline Boatswain), who also clearly dislikes Marcus, and finally, podcaster Sophia Hollingbry (Sarah Alexander), who runs in just as the meeting gets underway.
They’re just dealing with a request from one of the town pubs to stay open late for a book signing when club member Suzie (Jo Martin) arrives. She’s not on the Council; she’s there to complain that her favorite dog-walking trail is closed because the bridge is out, and the landowner is too cheap to repair it. The Council claims they can’t help, so she decides to start a protest group.
As I noted recently in a Grantchester recap, the Law of Guest Stars dictates that the most famous face cast is that week’s murderer; however, one subsection in the by-laws notes this law cannot be upheld if said famous actor drops dead before the opening credits. As such, Suzie’s arrival was perfectly timed to witness the Mayor die of poisoning, and rather spectacularly at that. (Let’s all hope David Tennant’s FIL had fun.)
Suzie’s fellow club members drop what they’re doing instantly. Vicar’s wife Becks (Cara Horgan) sent her husband, Colin, and children camping, and puts her bottle of wine and a chocolate bar on hold; Judith (Samantha Bond) is on a brunch date with Darius (Hugh Quarshie), who looks a little startled – though not surprised – when she races off. DI Tanika Malik (Natalie Dew) and her minions, DC Jason (Tijan Sarr) and DC Alison (Holli Dempsey), arrive, and Tanika’s partner in crime-solving, DS Brendan (Phill Langhorne), follows her inside, where they determine the Marlow Mayor has been murdered. (Brendan has a crush on Tanika, right?)
The toxicology report confirms Geoffrey died from aconite poisoning. Becks knows all about it, as it was recently featured on the podcast Notes from the Marlow Garden, with host... Sophia Hollingbry. The trio put away their phones and head over to Hollingbry’s very (very) nice house. When she doesn’t immediately answer, Judith makes a beeline for the “Poison Garden” (helpfully labeled and everything!). When Sophia finds them, she denies the poison came from her; besides, Geoffrey always looked out for her. She seems to have had a crush on him, probably because, unlike her husband Paul (Jason Merrells), he actually paid attention to her.
At the coffee shop, Marcus corners the trio; his oily personality makes his obvious attempt to pump them for information creepier than the mystery phone call Judith receives telling them to “follow the money.” Mysterious phone calls are police business, so they head to the station and hand over Judith’s phone, letting Alice add an app so future calls like this get recorded. As Alice is dispatched to the phone box where the call was made, Brendan starts pulling up the Council’s financial records.
The next morning, as five years’ worth of bankers’ boxes arrive, Brendan notes the poison was injected into the Keurig pod – everyone knew Geoffrey was the only one who drank decaf. Between the financial angle and accountant Debbie’s fingerprints on the pod, she’s next to be questioned. Turns out she works for Paul Hollingbry, and she removed the pod to insert her own as the only other person who used the machine regularly. She asks if the police questioned Alec (Ranjit Krishnamma), the tea-and-coffee delivery man.
Tanika calls Judith to say she’s heading to question Alec at his home, and hangs up. Except she’s going to the wrong address; Alec also does the tea and coffees for the parishes, and Becks knows he lives in a caravan during the summer. The three decide to find him, since Tanika will not, and discover why the police missed his presence the first time – he wasn’t there. Sophia had rung and told him the meeting was canceled.
Since Colin is out, Becks digs through his files and finds information on Sophia’s “graveyard incident” where Geoffrey looked out for her. Apparently, if it weren’t for Geoffrey working with the Bishop to get it sorted, she would have been prosecuted and jailed, as she somehow managed to mix up the plots where people were to be buried. Moreover, when all was said and done, one of the deceased she lost track of... never turned up.
The whole Council has been vocally insistent that Geoffrey was beloved, part of multiple committees dedicated to helping residents. However, social media tells a different story: Judith starts scrolling the comments section and finds that “Marlow1628” has been spamming it with accusations that the Council is a “cesspit of corruption.”
On their way back from Alec’s, the Mysterious Caller rings again, and we get a high-ish speed driving chase as Suzie races her adorable little lorry off to the phone box Alice identifies as the call’s origin. (This is extra fun if you, like me, think of Jo Martin as secretly the Fugitive Doctor who is hiding in a small English village.) There’s no CCTV; however, there is a church, and Becks remembers there’s a peregrine falcon nest live cam in the bell tower, which has footage of the caller.
The trio head to ask Sophia why she canceled the tea service, arriving just as the rest of the Council does for a meeting. Sophia denies she did and says she doesn’t recognize the Mystery Caller; the second half is proved a lie, though, as Debbie says he’s David Butler (Perry Millward). Paul hired him to work on Sophie’s podcast studio as well as his own office (a fact he helpfully confirms).
Sophie’s not the only liar – CCTV caught Terrence by the town notice board arguing with Geoffrey before the meeting – plus everyone’s favorite town gossip, Mrs. Eddington (Rita Tushingham), hiding in the bushes. Poor Tanika and Brendan have tea with her and Mr. Eddington (Ian Barritt) in hopes of getting information, but all she heard was Geoffrey scolding Terrence, not why. When questioned, Terrence claims he wanted the comments section turned off because of the harassing posts. He does note he saw a blonde man leaving via the kitchen after setting up the tea service.
Meanwhile, the trio visit David and discover Geoffrey was helping him get his book published. His calls were because he’d noted, buried in the public filings, that the Council’s petty cash expenditures were weirdly high. He believes Geoffrey found something dodgy and was going to report it; he tells them where the spare key is and to look in Geoffrey’s office. However, the key is already in the door, and the house is unlocked when they get there. Judith finds a woman’s earring before they’re interrupted by whoever was already inside, trying to escape with a box, which he drops on the way out.
Though he gets away, the trio have what they didn’t know they were looking for: dozens and dozens of poison-pen threatening letters, proving Geoffrey maybe wasn’t as beloved as everyone thought.
The Marlow Murder Club Season 3 will continue with new episodes on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on most local stations, the PBS app and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel. All six episodes are available for members via PBS Passport from premiere day.
Seasons 1 and 2 are also available for PBS Passport members; Season 4 is already in production and is expected to debut in mid-2027 on both sides of the pond.
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