Detective Sergeant Gavin Troy

Gavin Troy is the impulsive, often politically incorrect junior detective sergeant who partners with Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby in Caroline Graham's Midsomer Murders series — a younger officer whose hastiness and occasional lapses in judgment contrast with Barnaby's methodical patience. Troy's imperfections are not simply comic relief but genuine character flaws that the series acknowledges honestly, even as his instincts occasionally prove useful in ways his lack of finesse does not.

Graham writes Troy with affection for his limitations — his tendency to leap to conclusions, his unreconstructed attitudes toward women and outsiders, and his sometimes strained relationship with the Barnaby household are all rendered without judgment while still being legible as genuine shortcomings. His relationship with Barnaby develops with the specificity of a working partnership that has learned to accommodate each other's difficulties.

In the ITV television adaptation of Midsomer Murders, Troy was played by Daniel Casey through the first few series before the character was written out, replaced by a succession of other sergeants. The television series has continued for over twenty-five years and remains one of British crime television's most durable institutions.

Begin the series with Graham's novel A Ghost in the Machine or with the television series.