Review: 'The Killing of Polly Carter' by Robert Thorogood (2016)

When famous supermodel Polly Carter is found dead at the bottom of a cliff all signs point to suicide, but as the evidence continues to mount DI Richard Poole declares it to be a murder. Now, with a houseful of suspects Richard has to narrow the field and discover who the murderer is before it’s too late. At the same time his mother is arriving from England and throwing his whole perfectly ordered life into turmoil. Not only does she want to be involved in island life, but all signs are beginning to point to not all being right in Richard’s own family…something he cannot help but attempt to fix.

Several months ago I was part of quite a special blog tour. Some of you might be familiar with the BBC TV series 'Death in Paradise', which had a lot of viewers and has been quite the success. Robert Thorogood, the creator and writer of the series, decided to write several murder mystery novels based on the TV show and the first book, 'A Meditation on Murder' was released last year. Today I've got a repost of my review of the new second part of the series, 'The Killing of Polly Carter', to celebrate the paperback release of this great read!

The 'Death in Paradise' novels focus on Richard Poole, an English detective who is sent to the sunny Caribbean to lead a team of police people and solve murder cases over there. When famous supermodel Polly Carter is found dead at the bottom of a cliff, Richard and his team are asked to investigate whether it was a suicide or a murder. There are quite a number of suspects who might or not might have anything to do with Polly's suspicious death and it's up to Richard to make sense of it all. However, this turns out to be quite a challenge, especially when his mother decides to pay a visit to the Caribbean at the same time...

What a fantastic read! I straight away want to go out and buy the first part of this book series and want to watch all episodes of the BBC show, because this was a thoroughly convincing read and one I enjoyed so much more than I initially expected. Robert Thorogood is a great author with a distinctive writing style that held my attention throughout the whole book. I was taken in by the story from the first few pages and it really had me guessing until the very end, which is a great thing when reading a detective/murder mystery novel. It often happens that you can at least guess who did it or find out as the end nears, but this really still managed to surprise me until the last few chapters. 

I particularly liked the characters in the book. Main character Richard Poole is a true Englishman who loves tea and cold weather, and it was interesting to see how he adapts to life in the Caribbean, and how he deals with everything, like the murder case but also an unexpected visit from his mother. Richard has a great time with different personalities in the form of Camille, Dwayne, and Fidel, who all complement each other. The novel can definitely be read as a stand-alone, so even if you're not familiar with the other novel in this series or the TV show, it's still definitely worth picking up. This book made me wonder, guess, laugh, and I already can't wait for the next one. 'The Killing of Polly Carter' is a fantastic, well-written, gripping 'whodunnit'; a truly entertaining puzzle which I wanted to solve but also didn't want to end!
Rating:9,5/10

  For more information about this book: Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Goodreads

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review.