Death in Paradise

The team are called to St Vincent's, a local church. Sylvie Godwin, an elderly parishioner, has perished after the large cross she was dusting apparently toppled on top of her. It looks like a tragic accident. The church was locked from the inside. And who could possibly want to kill the sweet and pious Mrs Godwin? But Mervin has his suspicions...

The case has a particular resonance for Seb. His mother is the long-time pastor at St Vincent's, and he has grown up in this church. Could one of the congregants, whom he has known all his life, really be capable of murder? As the investigation deepens and secrets surface, Seb must battle to keep his emotions out of a highly personal case.

Meanwhile, Mervin redoubles his efforts to settle into life on the island. After finding himself out of his depth at the local dominoes club, he devises a plan to bring a little flavour of London to Saint Marie.

The play's the thing! A touring theatre company are in town for their final performance of Shakespeare's The Tempest on one of Saint Marie's pristine beaches. During a raucous drinking scene, one of the leads keels over dead after drinking from a bottle of red wine. Tests reveal that the liquid contained a lethal quantity of cyanide. But two other actors drank from the same bottle both before and after the victim and emerged unscathed. So how on earth did he, and only he, perish?

Meanwhile, Mervin is informed that his half-brother Solomon is set to inherit everything from their deceased mother and promptly sell it off. Mervin is desperate to hold on to at least some sort of memento of her. The trouble is, Solomon will not return any of his calls. With time slipping away, Mervin may need to go unexpected lengths to reach his brother.

Mervin stumbles across a crime scene when he goes in search of his brother Solomon on Antigua. In a remote cabin, a local businessman has been shot. But Solomon and his associate Cheech both swear the other is responsible. And they're not letting Mervin go until each one has convinced him of their account. One of them is lying. But who?

Mervin and the team investigate the murder of a local newspaper's notorious agony aunt, poisoned the morning after her retirement party while reading her final advice column. The paperboy is swiftly ruled out, but the police are left stumped when he insists he delivered the stack of papers at random. Nobody else in the neighbourhood was taken ill, so how could the killer have ensured the victim would pick up the only poisoned copy?

Meanwhile, Mervin resists the counselling sessions Selwyn has imposed after the case in Antigua. And as he grapples with his feelings towards his brother, Mervin gets a rude awakening from an unexpected figure. Is blood really thicker than water?