The Killing of Polly Carter (2015) by Robert Thorogood

Recently, I got back into watching Death in Paradise, as my husband is a keen on the show. This is perhaps what also prompted me to take his copy of today’s read out of the collective TBR pile (and by collective, I mean about 90% my books and 10% his).

Synopsis

‘Supermodel Polly Carter was famed for her looks and party-girl lifestyle. Now she’s dead, apparently having thrown herself from the clifftop near her home on the island of Saint-Marie. Those who knew her say Polly would never have killed herself…and when he is called in to investigate, DI Richard Poole is inclined to agree there is more to Polly’s death than meets the eye. Already fighting a losing battle against the intense summer heat of the Caribbean, Richard now faces fresh adversaries: a stream of alibis; a host of conflicting motives; and, worst of all, a visit from his mother. A frenzy which would surely allow a murderer to slip away unnoticed…yet Richard is certain that the guilty party is still on the island. As his team closes in on Polly’s household, Richard becomes convinced that the model’s death was an inside job. And he’s determined to prove who planned the killing of Polly Carter, and why…’

Overall Thoughts

Here are two signs of a successful prologue:

Sign #1: You recapture and replicate the humour of the TV series your readers enjoy so much.

Part of the attraction of the Death in Paradise TV series is the character comedy it generates, and I was pleased to see that this was foundational to the spin-off novel. The prologue depicts some delightful comic British fury when something very unfortunate happens to Richard Poole’s morning cup of tea.

Sign #2: You reveal that your protagonist has a secret and then swiftly switch the narrative elsewhere to reveal something else intriguing.

Given that this was a TV series first, I am not surprised that the spin-off novel also adopts narrative switches reminiscent of TV scene cuts:

‘Richard decided that there surely couldn’t have been another person on the whole island of Saint-Marie who was having as miserable a morning as him. But he was wrong. There was someone. This was because, just a few miles further along the coastline, a woman called Polly Carter was sitting in her kitchen wearing a bright yellow summer dress, drinking a freshly press glass of mango juice, and smoking a cigarette – and although she didn’t know it yet, she only had a few minutes left to live.’

Poole’s secret is not kept for long, but the way it is teased out of Poole as he attempts the impossible in trying to keep it quiet, is very well done. Poole’s secret makes an entertaining subplot and I felt it complemented the main story.

There is also arguably a third intriguing element to the prologue and that is the fact we are told that Polly’s death is murder. Yet when Poole and his team initially arrive at the crime scene the death is set up as suicide. However, the basis for Poole asserting it is a murder is well-founded through the use of eyewitness discrepancies and physical evidence which quickly complicate the crime. These complications continue as the case unfolds and the team find out more about the lives of the suspects and the victim. Each complication arguably makes suspects look more guilty, but which complication points towards a killer? In addition, I also enjoyed how some of these complications are quite bizarre such as the victim’s sister’s phone being hidden inside a chandelier.

Another aspect of the investigation that I liked was how the book shows that the island of Saint-Marie is a diverse community and the investigation manages to interact with different groups in an engaging and meaningful way. This also allows for some moments of irreverence towards the British wealth and aristocracy:  

‘Like any closed-off community, then, the shanty town was most happy when it was left alone to get on with its obscure rules, rituals and observances without any undue scrutiny from the outside world. A lot like the British upper classes, Richard had often thought to himself.’

For mystery fans who enjoy a good puzzle, this book is as good as the series, at enticing you and encouraging you to try and solve the case yourself. Not that far into the case Poole puts together a key list of four questions, which if answered correctly should, he thinks, identify the killer and I found this to be a gentle but satisfying nod to the challenges to the reader that we find in Golden Age Detective fiction. There are a variety of ways of collecting evidence and finding clues – I never realised how a suspect’s story could be unravelled by cricket chirping speed. Certainly, a new one on me! When it came to solving the mystery, one of my theories proved to be the main red herring, but another of mine was on the right track, even if I did not identify whodunnit. But like many other fellow mystery readers I don’t mind not solving a case fully, if there are plenty of clues I could have picked up and didn’t.

So, all in all, this was a book I really enjoyed and consequently I am keen to try the others in the series: A Meditation on Murder (2015), Death Knocks Twice (2017) and Murder in the Caribbean (2018).

Rating: 4.5/5

See also: The Puzzle Doctor also rated this one very highly.