I love this TV series and was excited to read the book but unfortunately I found the style and dialogue a little stilted and it didn't engage me as much as I'd hoped. Ok but not great, sorry.

Absolutely perfect! Robert Thorogood is a real joy to read and the characters cant help but come alive while you read this. The plot is perfect and quite difficult to solve! It was a true joy to read and I cannot wait for more!

Death in Parafis is a staple of a good night on the BBC. It's completely off the wall when it comes to plot and it doesn't matter. Enjoy this with a tropical contain and a brochure for St Lucia where hopefully the murder rate is lower.

I'm a big fan of the TV series and also this book series so i couldn't wait to get my hands on this book (thank you Netgalley for letting me have a copy to review).

Just for context we are following the original detective (Richard Poole) and his assistant (Camille) so you know right away that we're going to be following a very grumpy detective. In this story the team are investigating the murder of an apparently homeless man on the coffee plantation run by the Beaumont family. No-one seems to know who this man is or why he would come to be found dead in a locked shower room on the premises. Alongside this the team are having to investigate an islander selling bootleg rum outside hotels as directed by their superiors.

I really enjoyed this book both for the story and also for the portrayal of the characters. Having watched the TV series i loved that the characters in the books are so similar in the way they all react to each other. It felt almost like coming home reading this book, which is especially helpful given there are so few episodes of the TV series. Reading these books will definitely tide you over between series. You really get that same feeling of cosiness that you get in the TV show, you know that some people will die but they will be new to you characters and nothing bad will happen to the main lead characters.

I have to say that i had guessed some of the twists at the end, but not the actual killer. Although once Poole has talked us all through it in a very Agatha Christie kind of way it does all make sense. You aren't all of a sudden surprised entirely by anything it was all there to see if you were keeping an eye out for it.

Overall i really enjoyed this book and i'll keep reading this series. I'm wondering if at some point we'll get to read books from the point of view of the new detectives ...

So wonderful to read a new DI Poole story, with all the TV characters in my head! As always, a tale with twists and turns galore and a fabulous denouement!

This is the third 'Death in Paradise' novel and this time the challenge for DI Richard Poole, stuffy english detective in his woollen suits in the Caribbean and his rather more laid back team, of Camille, Fidel and the Dwayne.

An unknown man is found dead, shot twice in an old shower room at the Beaumont's coffee plantation. The door is locked from the inside, the window as well. He could not possibly have been murdered.

Could he?

As DI Poole employs his propensity for such unexplainable acts it seems that perhaps there is more to this unknown man than first thought. The coffee plantation, seems to be running at a loss and the Beaumont family are at odds with each other as well as what to do for best about the plantation.

Of course the truth is obvious, when you know where you are looking, but with every good detective novel there has to plenty of red herrings, plot twists and perhaps another murder. Who is telling the truth?

Of course methods of detection are notoriously slow on such a  laid back Caribbean island and DI Poole has to result in some old fashion research and plenty of patience. He knows if he was back in England, wet dreary England he would not be in this predicament.

But when the answer is revealed... it is time to gather everyone together and 'name the murderer'!

As with the previous two novels, this encompasses the bygone era of crime writing such as Christie and simply transports it to somewhere warm and appealing. With humorous characters and someone one is never going to fit in and chooses to remain the odd one out. Of course there is another plot running through this and that is the bootleg rum which is being sold on the island, and it might even mean the grumpy english man in his woollen suit might need to go undercover as a proper islander......

A good whodunnit, taking you away to where the sun shines, the water is warm and the chance of death could be quite high!

4.5

Being a fan of the tv series, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this third instalment of Detective Inspector Richard Poole's 'adventures'. Once more, Thorogood puts together a compelling murder mystery. While investigating a possible stalking case, the team hears a couple of gunshots, only to find someone dead in a 'locked room', and what at first looked like a suicide is of course anything but.

In these days of police procedurals using more and more advanced technologies, it is refreshing to have a crime story dealt in an old fashioned way, reminiscent of Agatha Christie's style. The small island of Saint-Marie in the Caribbean provides not only the reason behind the penury of resources but also an idyllic setting, with its natural beauty and relaxed attitude. The reason however why these books work so well has all to do with the characters, from Camille with her fiery frenchness to happy-go-lucky Dwayne, but the unlikely hero is of course Poole. Here we have this grumpy, choleric, unsocial, English man dropped in a paradise on earth, hell to him, and it is odly fascinating to see him go against everything, bumbling on, forever sweltering in his woolen suit. And yet for all his faults, idiosyncrasies and social faux-pas, Richard Poole is a brilliant investigator.

Death Knocks Twice offers an entertaining crime case with the necessary cast of suspects, red herrings, and final scene showdown à la Poirot. Perfect for a relaxing read.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to HQ and to Robert Thorogood for the opportunity.

Saint-Marie, island paradise and murder hotspot. Assigned to the Caribbean island against his will, Richard Poole is doing everything to maintain his sanity, despite those efforts looking like exactly the opposite to his team. Their latest attempt to help him fit in, and, basically, not to die of dehydration and heatstroke, is to convince him to stop wearing his very British suit and tie. Luckily their best efforts are interrupted by Lucy Beaumont, the daughter of the family who run a coffee plantation, who asks for their help with a strange bearded man who seems to be stalking her.

Arriving at the plantation, their investigations are disturbed by the sound of gunfire. Breaking down the door of a shower room (yes, bolted from the inside), the dead body of the bearded man lies in a pool of water. Clearly suicide – but what sort of suicide shoots themselves twice? And what sort of suicide shoots themselves after turning on the shower? As the identity of the dead body becomes apparent, it seems that any member of the Beaumont family is a suspect.


I’ve been waiting for this for a while. Regular readers know what a fan of Death In Paradise I am, and the first two novels, A Meditation On Murder and The Killing of Polly Carter, written by the series creator Robert Thorogood, were absolute crackers, giving life once again to the original lead character, DI Richard Poole. Personally, I never had a problem with the change of lead characters, but Poole’s fish out of water character was a classic creation and it’s nice to see him again. And thanks to Thorogood’s writing, he (and Camille, Dwayne, Fidel and the Commissioner) just leaps off the page. It takes absolutely no effort at all to hear Ben Miller’s voice as you read Poole’s inner thoughts, giving an extra dimension to the character than the television show could provide.I’ve always seen the television show as a bit of a game – the locked room mysteries tend to be classic ones (i.e. ones that I’ve seen before) but spotting which one (if indeed I do spot it) can be loads of fun. But here the author is trying something a little new.

Yes, there’s a locked room (and I’ll come back to that in a mo) and I’ve seen it before (although in a Paul Doherty tale rather than in something from Carr) but I only recognised this after the fact, so fair enough. But here, rather than making the locked room the central idea, Thorogood has gone for a traditional set-up, with a small cast of characters, most of whom have no alibi, and the plot resembles a more classic whodunit style. The weakness of a locked room mystery can be that if you spot how it was done, you will see who did it. But here, it doesn’t help in the slightest. The locked room is fairly unimportant to the central mystery, and that mystery is a cracker. Because, like the television series, it’s a game, and a game that the author knows all the moves to.

The least likely suspect, the character who couldn’t possibly have done it, a mysterious “suicide” in the past, the tangential character who seems unimportant. Readers of classic mysteries will make certain assumptions because they know what these tend to lead to in mystery fiction. But Thorogood knows this and doesn’t tend to take all of these strands in the direction you might expect. Some of them, yes, but by playing all of these cards, it really helps misdirect the reader. It worked on me – I thought I saw what trick he was playing, but missed the real one. And one aspect of the locked room is another great misdirection.

As an aside, there’s one strand, concerning recovering writing from burnt paper, that has a curious clash with an episode that I re-watched the other day – there, Richard performs the task overnight, whereas here… I wonder, did the author get someone nitpicking the episode and then write this into this story to justify it?

Needless to say, I loved this book. It’s the best of the three tales so far, and the other two were outstanding as well. Fans of the classic mystery really shouldn’t overlook these titles, so rush out and buy this one today. And tell your friends – in case you haven’t guessed this is Highly Recommended.

Death Knocks Twice is out today (27th July 2017) from HQ books (a subdivision of HarperCollins). Go and buy it now!

I love the TV show that these books are based on. Yes, it was that way round; the books came after the series. This is the third in the series and, as anyone who is familiar with the character of Richard Poole knows, he is a bit of a complex character so it is best to read the first two books first to fully appreciate the character development and quirks!
So we have the death of an unknown man, found in a building on the estate of a historic coffee plantation. Add into the mix a murder weapon with only the victim's prints and the death occurring in a locked room, it can only be suicide. But this is Saint-Marie and the investigator is one DI Richard Poole so you know that it can never be as cut and dried as that... and it is the word dry we feature on when Richard starts to examine the body. For reasons he discover, there is no way that the man killed himself. It's murder!
As with previous books and indeed the TV series, we are then introduced to a whole host of dysfunctional characters with secrets and lies aplenty and it is up to Richard, aided as usual by Camille, Fidel and Dwayne, to cut through the noise and get to the truth. All whilst wearing a heavy woollen suit, wholly unsuitable for the climate. But hey, even though he is rather eccentric, you can't help loving DI Poole. Oh, and not forgetting the Commissioner who, despite the murder investigation, is determined to force the officers make time for the bootlegger that has popped up.
It's so refreshing to read a book connected to a TV series where the characters and the setting marry up so perfectly. Obviously in this case, that's easier to achieve what with the TV series coming first. This all meant that the book for me was more than just a read, I was easily able to both visualise the action as well as actually hear the characters speak. That is what I think marks these book as must reads for me as I am not usually a visual nor auditory reader.
Going back to the TV series, as I have to cos they are intrinsically linked for me, most of the time, I am as baffled as the supporting cast as to what is actually going on, what Richard is seeing that passes the rest by, and I whoop with delight when I get it before the big reveal. Here, I was delighted to have thought I had it from the off, but sadly, I was mistaken and a little disappointed with myself. I got over that quite quickly though as it was as usual brilliantly plotted. I do love the main player get-togethers at the end for the final reveal moment. But that's probably born from my love for the other great fictional detective, Christie's Poirrot who does likewise.
Yes, they are cosy, yes they are formulaic, yes there's a fair bit of the book dedicated to Richard's idiosyncrasies but it works, don't ask me why, but I genuinely love it.
I understand that the author's initial contract was for the three books. This is book three, and if this series doesn't continue then I for one will be woefully disappointed but I have a sneaky suspicion that it will. I do hope so anyway!

My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I loved Death Knocks Twice. It might not be the most puzzling mystery in the history of the world but it jumps of the page. The characters are strong and alive and interact well and the atmosphere is great. If you like books with strong characters and a bit of character study this will be ideal.

If you are a fan of the tv series then you will certainly love this. It reads exactly like an episode on tv. A handful of suspects, with the classic "of course" moment towards the end. I love the tv series, so my niggle with this book is that in the tv series DI Richard Poole died! I really wish the author had featured the characters currently in the tv series and not the original four. Despite that, still a good simply told tale that I enjoyed.

As ever, reading a Death in Paradise novel is like being enveloped in a warm, comforting hug, but I was disappointed by the lack of development here – while very much aware that lack of development is, for many, entirely the appeal of these cosily enjoyable books and the whole essence of the character of DI Richard Poole. As the mystery of an unidentified man's murder unravels, a shift in Richard's attitude is teased through his consideration of a sartorial change; there's also a tantalising moment of flirtation between Richard and Camille. But ultimately, nothing really changes. Indeed, the fact that nothing really changes ends up being the punchline of the Richard's-wardrobe subplot.

At this point, the characters' identifying characteristics are firmly established: Richard is stuffy and indignant; Camille is level-headed, with a fiery streak; Dwayne is cheeky; Fidel is enthusiastic. Personally I would prefer to read a Death in Paradise story that expanded on their personalities and developed their relationships beyond what we've already seen in the first two seasons of the show. I appreciate, however, that this is not what most fans want out of these stories: they want a nice enjoyable crime scenario with each original cast member playing out their role exactly as expected, topped off with a Christie-esque gathering and reveal. Which is what Death Knocks Twice delivers, and it's fun! But, you know, I want to get under their skin a bit more, and I will be croaking out a request for romantic Richard/Camille scenes with my dying breath.

I would like to thank Netgalley and HQ for an advance copy of Death Knocks Twice, the third novel based on the TV series Death In Paradise to feature DI Richard Poole, unwillingly seconded to the Saint-Marie police.

It's all quiet in the Saint-Marie detective division when the commissioner asks them to investigate a man selling bootleg rum in case it affects the tourist trade. They are distracted by Lucy Beaumont coming in to report a stalker on her family's remote coffee plantation. When they get there they hear gunshots and find the stalker dead.

I enjoyed Death Knocks Twice. It has an old fashioned feel to it with its twisty plot and dependence on interviewing to reach a conclusion. I had no idea of the perpetrator as the reader gets the same information as the police and as most of it is lies no one person looks more likely than the others. Excellent stuff.

The tone of the novel is very inviting and kept me reading from start to finish in one sitting. The sunny warmth of the Caribbean pervades the novel although not always in a good way. It is used to poke fun at Richard, a man who doesn't do well with change and is very stuck in his ways. He wears a wool suit, shirt and tie to work despite the heat and it is a source of much discomfort to him and much humour to his team. The sly humour in the novel revolves around this Englishman's refusal to adapt to his surroundings and determination to maintain standards and a stiff upper lip.

I have not watched Death In Paradise so I can't compare this novel with it but I can recommend the novel as a good, gentle read.