The author has written the scripts for a BBC TV series, Death in Paradise, but this is his first novel. The TV series featured a new Detective Inspector but fans will enjoy returning to DI Richard Poole here. Set in Saint Marie, an unspoilt Caribbean island, it centres on the murder of a spiritual leader who was once a criminal but ‘saw the light’ while in prison and opened the retreat with his wife. Early on he is murdered and there are plenty who’d like to see him dead. This is a very light, comic, rather silly tale to just switch off and relax into. ~ Sarah Broadhurst
Aslan Kennedy has an idyllic life: Leader of a Spiritual Retreat for wealthy holidaymakers on one of the Caribbean's most unspoilt islands, Saint Marie. Until he's murdered, that is. The case seems open and shut: when Aslan was killed he was inside a locked room with only five other people, one of whom has already confessed to the murder. Detective Inspector Richard Poole is hot, bothered, and fed up with talking to witnesses who'd rather discuss his 'aura' than their whereabouts at the time of the murder. But he also knows that the facts of the case don't quite stack up. In fact, he's convinced that the person who's just confessed to the murder is the one person who couldn't have done it. Determined to track down the real killer, DI Poole is soon on the trail, and no stone will be left unturned.
Robert Thorogood is the creator of the hit BBC One TV series DEATH IN PARADISE. He was born in Colchester, Essex, in 1972. When he was 10-years old, he read his first proper novel – Agatha Christie’s Peril at End House – and he’s been in love with the genre ever since. He now lives in Marlow in Buckinghamshire with his wife, children and an increasingly cranky Bengal cat called Daniel.