A Meditation on Murder: A gripping and uplifting cosy crime mystery from the creator of Death in Paradise: Book 1 (A Death in Paradise Mystery)

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Murder in the Caribbean from the get-go deviates from the pattern established in books one and two in this series.

But, such trifles aside, I have been binging the 'Death in Paradise' TV series over the past few weeks, and it was an absolute joy to be in the company of Richard Poole, Camille, Fidel, and Dwayne, once again. There is a big difference between writing a screenplay and writing a novel, and this book is case in point. Now if only Thorogood can keep writing Death in Paradise novels forever with Inspector Poole and Sergeant Bordey, that would just fine with me. I can say that there were moments of "slowness" but it wasn't enough to stop you from reading it, being that the same man who wrote the show wrote the books, it was very true to form. This book also reminds me of the killer Poirot faces in The ABC Murders (1936), in the sense that the killer is manipulating the investigation through the evidence they leave for the police to find.I suspect that the author has taken a screenplay and turned it into prose without realising that novelists have a different skill set from dramatists. Having enjoyed watching the BBC's "Death in Paradise," I looked forward to reading its creator's first mystery novel using the same setting and characters. Enhance your enjoyment of the series as, for the first time, Robert Thorogood brings the characters to life on the page in an all-new locked-room mystery. Thorogood wrote many of the early episodes of the TV show so I think that helped with the spin off novels, as he was able to replicate the TV characters on to the page.

Especially loved Richard Poole, his hangups and his love/hate relationship with the lizard colonizing his home and the island he finds himself living in. I think there is something therapeutic about observing Poole as he woefully resists/struggles adjusting to the Saint-Marie climate. This fiendishly difficult puzzle is made more complex as the chapters progress where ever more apparent motives are raised, only to be dashed by even fewer opportunities for execution. 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.Poole also parallels at the end of this passage that sense of personal challenge which Poirot experience more directly with the ABC letters he is sent. Now, this is not something I normally mind, but I did feel that this novel was a tad bit overwritten and that's the only thing I didn't like about it. With this novel written by the show's creator, I can finally breathe a sigh of relief as the original cast from the first two series is back in full force, including Richard, Camille, Sergeant Fidel Best, Officer Dwayne Myers, Camille's very French mother Catherine and Police Commissioner Selwyn Patterson. Twitter creeping has revealed that there are some people out there who think they have amazing chemistry, but I assume they've been watching a different show to me.