Tag Archives: Death in Paradise

#BookReview ‘A Meditation on Murder’ by Robert Thorogood #crime

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I started reading the Death in Paradise series by Robert Thorogood out of order, a long time before I read his Marlow Murder Club books. So I’ve gone back to the beginning with A Meditation on Murder. Robert ThorogoodIt’s an impossible closed room mystery. Six people go into a room, lockable only from the inside. When the door is opened again, one is dead. This is not just any room though, its a paper-walled meditation cabin at a swanky Caribbean hotel. Aslan Kennedy, co-owner of The Retreat, is dead and his killer admits she did it. Except Julia Higgins can’t have been the killer.
It’s a knotty problem for Detective Inspector Richard Poole who ‘felt as though he had a load of jigsaw pieces, but he couldn’t even begin to put them together because they all came from different jigsaw puzzles.’ Poole is a fish out of water, a process-drive Englishman in suit and lace-ups living in a shack with an inbuilt tree and a resident lizard called Harry. He’s never swum in the sea and isn’t coping well with the Caribbean heat. Inspector Poole is also stubborn, which means he refuses to discount small inconvenient clues such as the drawing pin found in the meditation cabin. He also refuses to accept Julia’s confession.
This is a very funny novel that moves along at a fair clip. I picked it up needing an easy read and read it in 24 hours. Just the job.

Here’s my review of the second in this series:
THE KILLING OF POLLY CARTER #2DEATHINPARADISE

… and other books by the same author:-
THE MARLOW MURDER CLUB #1MARLOWMURDERCLUB
DEATH COMES TO MARLOW #2MARLOWMURDERCLUB
THE QUEEN OF POISONS #3MARLOWMURDERCLUB

If you like this, try:-
‘A Cornish Recipe for Murder’ by Fiona Leitch #5NOSEYPARKER
‘Murder on Board’ by Helena Dixon #10MISSUNDERHAY
‘A Medal for Murder’ by Frances Brody #2KATESHACKLETON

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview A MEDITATION ON MURDER by Robert Thorogood https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-9Xc via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Fiona Leitch

#BookReview ‘The Killing of Polly Carter’ by Robert Thorogood #crime

14 Replies

The Killing of Polly Carter is second in the ‘Death in Paradise’ series by Robert Thorogood, and the first that I have read. I picked it up, unaware of the TV series of the same name, so I am playing catch-up. Robert Thorogood My first reaction was that it seemed lightweight, but the story and the characters pulled me in. This definitely fits into the comfort crime category so effectively occupied by MC Beaton. Detective Inspector Richard Poole is a man out of place. An English policeman on a tiny Caribbean island, he is a proper chap who persists in wearing leather shoes and woollen suits even at the height of the summer heat. His team is small and their resources are limited, which makes this more of an old-fashioned tale as they put together clue after clue. The setting is luscious.
Supermodel Polly Carter is dead, is it suicide or murder? In the true Agatha Christie fashion, of whom Thorogood is a childhood fan, this is a ‘closed room’ mystery where few people have the opportunity and motive. One by one, each of Polly’s family and friends are suspected, cleared then suspected again. In true Christie fashion, when the culprit is unveiled I thought ‘oh of course’ without actually guessing the identity correctly.
The book covers are beautiful.

Here’s my review of the first book in this series:
A MEDITATION ON MURDER #1DEATHINPARADISE

… and my reviews of books in the Marlow Murder Club series by the same author:-
THE MARLOW MURDER CLUB #1MARLOWMURDERCLUB
DEATH COMES TO MARLOW #2MARLOWMURDERCLUB
THE QUEEN OF POISONS #3MARLOWMURDERCLUB

If you like this, try:-
‘An Uncertain Place’ by Fred Vargas #8COMMISSAIREADAMSBERG
‘No Other Darkness’ by Sarah Hilary #2MARNIEROME
‘Business as Usual’ by EL Lindley #1GEORGIECONNELLY

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE KILLING OF POLLY CARTER by Robert Thorogood http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1Tj via @SandraDanby