A Meditation on Homicide (A Demise in Paradise Thriller)

Good story
Tends to be a bit too long but a good read and worth the time. The search for the murderer is intriguing.

Passable Classic-style Whodunit
Inspector Richard Poole, UK native, is unhappily serving in the police force of the fictional Caribbean island of St. Marie. His social awkwardness and his dislike of heat, lizards, sea and sand don’t prevent him from earning the tolerance and support of his diverse team of subordinates nor from working out the solution to a convoluted double murder. The crime here is very cleverly constructed, though its complexity does verge on unbelievability. Poole and his team are reasonably well-drawn characters, the cast of suspects a bit less so. Another disappointment was that, despite the island location, I felt the author failed to give readers a feeling for the exotic setting. Copy editing was also lacking. Mixing up “sow” and “sew” and “avenge” and “revenge” are sloppy mistakes as is using “nonplussed” to mean both unsettled (correct) and unfazed (wrong). Finally, I purchased this title as a Kindle book. The file rendered properly in the Kindle app for Android, but rendered without paragraph indents in the Kindle Cloud Reader–very annoying. I bought this book in a package deal with its two sequels. Its shortcomings were not so grievous as to completely turn me off, so I will probably read the other two books as well. Unless the sequels show marked improvement in their literary and technical presentation, though, I doubt I would read any subsequent novels from this author.

Inspector Poole is back in all his grumpy glory!
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. If Hercule Poirot were to make an appearance, I wouldn’t be at all surprised.Though I continue to watch and enjoy the show with its current cast, including its primary sleuth, the bumbling and good-natured Detective Inspector Humphrey Goodman (played by Kris Marshall), I still miss the original cast, most especially the persnickety, pessimistic Detective Inspector Richard Poole (played by Ben Miller) and his number two, Detective Sergeant Camille Bordey (played by Sara Martins).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. Once again, we’re treated to an impossible murder with unlikely suspects. In this case, the guru of a spiritual retreat on the island of Sainte-Marie is stabbed to death in a locked meditation room with five other people, one of whom has already confessed to the murder, but it doesn’t take long for Poole to doubt her guilt.The more Poole and his team investigate, the more baffling the case seems. The murder victim is revealed to have had a criminal past as a con man. Though everyone vouches that he has changed for the better, the question remains, had he returned to his old tricks? Was the young woman who confessed guilty? But how could she be when the knife wounds were right-handed and she was left-handed? The clues are there for the clever reader to decipher its meaning and help unmask the true culprit. A wonderful puzzling treat for any mystery lover.But the biggest treat is seeing Richard Poole in the midst of tropical heaven, who lives under his own personal dark cloud of grumpiness (in his proper wool suit ready for heatstroke), and equating sun, sand and surf with sheer hell. 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. But despite all his complaining, his investigative instincts are as sharp as ever.I’m proud to say I figured out whodunnit (though I couldn’t quite work out the how; maybe next time) and I’m already looking forward to Thorogood’s next novel in the series, “The Killing of Polly Carter.” Now if only Thorogood can keep writing Death in Paradise novels forever with Inspector Poole and Sergeant Bordey, that would be just fine with me.

schnelle Zusendung, unterhaltsames Buch!

What makes this story intriguing is not just the absorbing mystery, but also the fascinating character of its protagonist, DI Poole. I truly empathise with the idea of choosing to rewire your lamp over a late night mixer.