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One with an intelligent but peculiar and eccentric detective inspector who invariably solves the murder crime in the end. Aslan Kennedy has an idyllic life as leader of a spiritual retreat for wealthy holidaymakers on one of the Caribbean's most unspoiled islands, Saint Marie. I still watch Death in Paradise - casually, kind of - but I've never quite forgiven it for quickly and brutally dispatching Richard and then making all the other characters forget him almost instantaneously. There is a big difference between writing a screenplay and writing a novel, and this book is case in point. Wow our reading has seriously been in tune this year as I think we have read two books the same this year already.
His interactions with his colleagues are no less enjoyable, especially his number two, the vivacious, impulsive Camille Bordey, with whom he is constantly butting heads. The island setting and the characters are just as they are in the series, and the story very much follows the way that the episodes are plotted. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading. It is too calm and nice a read for my crime fiction tastes and I should have known that by the fact that I don't watch the TV programme A Death in Paradise. I am the author of The Pocket Detective, The Pocket Detective 2 and How to Survive a Classic Crime Novel.I don't think the characters were very well developed, apart from Richard Poole's obvious OCD/mild Asperger's and the plot was mediocre - I had most of it worked out not long after the murder. In 2008, Robert entered the inaugural Red Planet Prize and was a chosen finalist, where he was able to pitch his 'Copper in the Caribbean' idea to Tony Jordan. If you are a fan of the BBC/Netflix show A Death in Paradise, then reading this book would def be the most logical step. It is a story which really kept my attention – with its twists and turns and red herrings which meant that I was convinced at times that nearly all the suspects were guilty. I was so annoyed by this by the midpoint that I started keeping a tally of the worst offender, "After all", which was used 15 times in the second half of the book.
The beginning of the mystery reminded me of Christianna Brand’s work in that, Thorogood also plants some good subtle clues in his opening chapter. I am a huge, huge, huge fan of the BBC television series "Death in Paradise," as it features "locked room" mysteries in a tropical setting wherein the detective investigates a list of suspects before bringing them all together at the end for the classic denouement where the killer is revealed.I enjoy how Poole quickly shows using logic and physical evidence that a seemingly straight forward crime is a more complex one and that we don’t have endless pages of the sleuth basing their actions on a vague hunch before finding something more tangible to support their ideas with. It is a standalone Richard Poole story with all the familiar characters (and more) from the series and it is a read which I really, really enjoyed. This odd group of talents always get underestimated but at the end of the case anybody still doubting their talents has probably not paid attention.
I think there is something therapeutic about observing Poole as he woefully resists/struggles adjusting to the Saint-Marie climate. Soon after leaving Cambridge, Robert set up a theatre company that toured small theatres and schools, the highlight of which was a production of Molière's The Miser that he directed and acted in alongside Robert Webb, David Mitchell and Olivia Colman. A locked room murder, various suspects that appear both guilty and innocent at the same time, a grumpy but funny detective inspector, and on top of all an idyllic location on a Caribbean island under a burning sun. In other words, can anything happen in these stories that hasn't already happened in the series (say, vis-à-vis Richard and Camille's relationship.His second in command Camille Bordey, a beautiful woman with the intelligence to match that, is always annoyed by her so quintessential English boss who at tropical temperatures still wears his woolen suit and who is so incredibly smart and a fickler for details. Although I do wish that A Meditation on Murder hadn't been such a one-man show and that I could have seen more from the members of the detective inspector's team, let's face it-- Richard Poole is a marvelous character. This is one tv show that I actually advise anybody even if we have by bow arrived at the third English detective in Saint Marie and of the original crew only Dwayne and the Chief of Police remain. This was a really enjoyable read especially, but not exclusively, for fans of Death In Paradise which is back on our screens on Thursday 8 January 2015. It’s a classic locked room mystery, and there are soon lots of additional unexplained mysteries for the team to solve.
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