A Meditation on Murder

I do watch the television series and Richard is my favourite character of all the policemen. He's very much a certain type of traditional Englishman. The book is really enjoyable and flows really well. It's a locked room murder mystery with the murderer being caught at the end. The characters are interesting and its set in a beautiful location (which it would be nice to learn more about).

Who doesn’t love a locked room mystery?

Only six people were in the locked meditation room:
• Aslan, owner of The Plantation Spa and murder victim
• Julia, part-time secretary and confessed killer
• Saskia, vacationing secretary
• Paul, vacationing pharmacist
• Ann, Paul’s wife
• Ben, rich vacationer

Detective Inspector Poole investigates but doubts Julia’s confession. He insists that a single drawing pin found at the scene is significant as is the crime’s location.

Meditation on Murder is highly recommended to armchair detectives still mourning Agatha Christie and John Dickson Carr’s deaths. 5 stars!

Thanks to the publisher, Canelo, and NetGalley for an advanced copy.

4 stars

I was so thrilled to see that Mr. Thorogood is writing these stories down. I watch this show religiously on Netflix, and I really enjoy it. I was glad to see DI Richard Poole and the gang back again. Camille, Dwayne, Fidel, Camille’s mother Catherine and even Commissioner Selwyn all make an appearance in this novel. It was delightful.

DI Richard Poole is grumbling in his unique way about the heat and humidity on the island of Saint Marie when the phone rings. A murder has occurred. The team heads out to The Retreat, a rambling old plantation that has been restored and converted to a health spa for very rich people. The murdered man is Aslan Kennedy. He was the co-owner, along with his wife Rianka, of The Retreat. He fancied himself a guru and led meditation sessions and so on. In the “meditation hut” were five people and Aslan. The confessed killer was Julia Higgins. She has been working there for six months.

When she tells Richard her story, she says she doesn’t recall stabbing Aslan to death. She liked him. Since she was holding the knife, she must have stabbed him. Right? Richard is not so sure.

The team works very hard on trying to figure out who killed Aslan. They find out that each of the people in the Meditation Hut had something to hide. They are lied to repeatedly.

The team discovers that Aslan was a very successful con artist in his younger days. He ran a Ponzi scheme that finally ended when he was arrested and put in jail for five years. They further learn that Aslan has been inviting his “victims” to the Retreat as a way of atoning in some small way for taking their money. All of the people that they speak to say that Aslan was a kind and generous man. They seem surprised that he was the one taking their money. Or, were they?

As the team ploughs on, they learn more and more facts. Richard is not sure just how all the facts fit together. How could someone get in the hut when it was locked from the inside? No damage was done to the paper walls of the hut. The participants were drugged. Who spiked their tea? More and more questions seem to arise as the case goes on.

When Richard finally figures out who killed Aslan – and why, he calls all of the suspects together, as is his way, and tells a very interesting story. The identity of the killer didn’t surprise me, but the depth of their deception did. This person was very manipulative and had the police going from the discovery of Aslan’s body right through to the denouement.

This is a well written and plotted book. I liked that it had humorous little asides like Richard’s whining about the heat and his problems with Harry the lizard. Richard himself is an interesting character while brilliant he has OCD problems and is emotionally stunted. But the reader can’t help but love him. The team gets along very well and is highly competent.

I want to thank NetGalley and Canelo for forwarding to me a copy of this delightful book to read, enjoy and review.

I will admit I am a fan of the Death in Paradise TV series so I was intrigued to see how much the book and the TV series were the same as quite often you find that several things will change between what you see on TV and what you read in a book. Thankfully that was not the case.
In A Meditation on Murder you follow DI Richard Poole and the team of the Saint-Marie police as they try to discover who murdered one of the owners of the health spa. Faced with the fact that it happened in a room that can only be locked or unlocked from the inside and someone has confessed to the crime, the majority of the team think this is an open and shut case. DI Pool however is not convinced and as they investigate some of the other guests at the spa, his theory may just prove to be correct as it turns out several others may have had a motive, and they too were in the locked room at the time of the murder.
A Meditation on Murder is more in the style of Miss Marple and cosy crime and you get to see the relationships between the whole team. DI Pool hates being on Saint-Marie and he sees his time there as some kind of punishment, yet he is determined to go a good job and follow all the leads no matter what. His uptight attitude is very much a result of his upbringing and in stark contrast to the laid back attitude of the Caribbean and this causes amusement amongst his colleagues.
As I have watched the TV series I did find myself chuckling as whilst I was reading the book I could actually picture the characters and hear their voices. This for me really brought the book alive. It also gave me a sense of familiarity of the surroundings and the main characters even down to the pesky Lizard that Richard hates so much.
The books are very much a stand-alone so you can pick up any one of them and enjoy it without feeling that you have missed anything. If you enjoy easy going crime books (or if you have ever watched the TV series) then I would heartily recommend picking up this book and looking out for others in the series.

I watch the PBS series, Death in Paradise, on my local station. I had no idea it was a UK book series until this popped up on NetGalley.com. I loved the book immensely. It was such a wonderful read for a hot summer day spent lounging on the patio with a cool drink.
DI Poole is a delight in his awkwardness and his quirks make him endearing. The island of Saint Marie is a character with its own personality that has shaped the people who love her. If only they could make DI Poole see the beauty of the island itself.
The mystery was well paced and wonderfully plotted. Giving the readers enough clues to begin putting things together and wrapped up with a heart warming seen at the home of DI Poole.