Nick Summersbee is a character appearing in the episode The Dagger Club of the ITV crime drama Midsomer Murders.
Nick is a general practitioner who had a brother, George Summersbee, who was a famed mystery writer of the John Dagger novel series. Nick grew increasingly jealous of always standing in the background of his brother's success, as George met and married a woman named Jeannie, had daughter Bella, and even drew the attention of multiple women he had affairs with. Yet Nick was still a valued consultant for the accuracy of the novels' material due to his medical knowledge and expertise. George was still beloved by the public even despite his gambling addiction, which eventually put more strain on George's own family. When George was sinking deeper into debt, he conspired with Nick for a solution. To get all his debts paid, and believing Bella was better off without him, George arranged for his supposed "death" by boat propeller blades, which Nick faked with the cadaver of one of his patients, Mark Sampson.
The ruse worked for three years, and Nick was elated to take the spotlight. He met a woman, Maggie Markham, who became his wife and life partner and eventually arranged for the publication of a memoir in Nick's name to write a narrative about the brothers and get Nick his own attention, which Jeannie regarded as largely fictitious in every word. Nick's parade was rained on when George, who hid in Midsomer Mere with his steady mistress Cecilie Petersen, continued to write novels and sent a manuscript for his latest draft to Suzie Colebrooke, the wife of his publisher Niall, Cecilie and Suzie being the two other people who knew George was still alive. Nick was furious and wanted to stop the publication to get George to be forgotten again, but he decided to take his time making his brother suffer first.
The first Dagger novel, The Wheels of Justice, showed murders by roulette wheels rigged with deadly electrical wiring traps. He constructed some which he used to kill Suzie and Cecilie, addressed by people they knew and trusted to cover his tracks. As Niall was still to go ahead with the book, Nick knocked him out with a wooden object and crushed him in his own printing press. George was successfully lured out, arranging his meeting with Bella for the first time in years at a shack they used to play at when she was a child. When they got split up, Nick cornered George at a small bridge, pulled his head back, and pierced a dagger in his neck to leave there. Bella found her father dead and pulled out the dagger on reflex.
Nick was confronted at the event that was to show the manuscript, which Maggie was revealed to have "stolen" from Suzie's home for publicity. But he was finally confirmed and done for as the murderer when Sampson was revealed to be the mangled corpse under the boat. John Barnaby used a trick from George's own books to confirm Nick's guilt: he tossed Nick a poker chip, which he caught with his dominant left hand, the same hand he stabbed George with. In the confrontation, Nick showed rejoice more and more in his building confession, blaming everything on his now definitively dead brother and called him out on all his problems to show how much he hated everyone still loved him. Nick was kept from lunging after the manuscript to destroy it, but then he turned to Maggie and said he also was afraid of losing her, as one of his worst fears and greatest motives for the murders was George getting any woman he loved. Maggie was distraught and insisted she'd never want to leave Nick, then threw the pages right into the gallery to show she was done with the Summersbees' publicity. Nick was shocked by her proving him wrong, then arrested and driven away by police.
Victims[]
- Suzie Colebrooke - Received a package containing a boobytrapped roulette wheel with a note "To Suzie from Maggie. Whatever You Do Don't Touch The Spinner." and as she spinned it, was killed by a massive electrical shock from the roulette's mechanism.
- Cecilie Petersen - Received a package containing a boobytrapped roulette wheel with a note "To Cecilie from Me. Whatever You Do Don't Touch The Spinner." and as she spinned it, was killed by a massive electrical shock from the roulette's mechanism.
- Niall Colebrooke - Knocked unconscious by receiving a blow to the back of the head, possibly with a wood plank, then lifted onto a printing press and crushed to death.
- George Summersbee - Chased through the woods, then, once he was alone, was held from behind and stabbed in the left side of the neck with a dagger.