Things have changed a tad on the island of Saint-Marie. Detective Inspector Mervin Wilson has discovered he has a brother, Commissioner Selwyn Patterson has resumed his role as the oldest serving police officer in the world and Officer Darlene Curtis has left the island to be replaced by Sergeant Mattie Fletcher, an officer with a secret in her past. But luckily not too much has changed because there’s still eight murders a year on the island to deal with…

Yes, Death In Paradise has just wrapped up it’s fifteenth series. It’s the TV show equivalent of my blog – well, they started at roughly the same time anyway – and it’s time for the annual round-up!

Episode One – in which someone jumps from the roof of Selwyn’s office just as he arrives for his first day back at work. It couldn’t be murder, as the door to the roof was locked from the outside…

Not bad, but it does fall down as it contains one of my least favourite tricks in locked room mysteries.

Episode Two – the woman running a couples retreat is found drowned 100 metres off shore while the only suspects were having dinner together at the same time.

Not the most convincing episode, involving a massive amount of luck.

Episode Three – the death of a recluse takes a sharp twist when his past life as a hitman is discovered.

A really nice episode with a small cast but still an effective mystery. One of the best of the series.

Episode Four

A parishioner is found dead, crushed by a large crucifix at Officer Rose’s mother’s church. It must have been an accident, because the church was locked from the inside.

Another good episode, with a variant of the obvious trick. The murderer is pretty obvious though, as while the detail may change, the basic method stood out a mile.

Episode Five

Four actors drink from the same bottle on stage but only one is poisoned – that old chestnut.

Perfectly fine, the method is clued, but something about the episode didn’t really grab me.

Episode Six

The situation with Mervyn and his brother comes to a head, as Mervyn heads to Antigua to find him, only to be knocked out, waking to find himself tied to a chair with a dead body in the room and his brother and his partner-in-crime watching over him.

Probably the best episode of the series with a clever set-up and an actually surprising solution.

Episode Seven

A long-serving agony aunt on the local paper is poisoned by a letter accusing her of past sins. But why did she overcook her morning egg?

Another good episode – it’s hardly the most revolutionary method and wouldn’t the victim have SPOILERed someone, but pretty good.

Episode Eight

Death by sea monster? A monster hunter is found dead alone at sea with marks on his body matching the tentacles of the monster he was hunting…

It’s a decent back story and motivation, but it did need to do apply some strange logic to get the marks on the victim’s body.

So, mystery-wise, a few really good episodes and nothing that was terrible – a pretty decent hit-rate for something in series fifteen.

Cast-wise, I think this might be one of the best groupings for a while. Mervin is a decent lead and his supporting team – Naomi, Seb and newcomer Mattie – work very well together, contrasting but still gelling. Hopefully Naomi actually gets a story next series, rather than repeatedly sorting out Mervin, as I do think that Shantol Jackson is the best actor in the show (apart from Desmond Warrington, obviously). The ongoing story of Mervin’s brother wasn’t anywhere nearly as intrusive as I thought it would be, although I’m a little wary of the new status quo already set for the next series.

Regardless, this is still my go-to for my TV detective show. Interesting plots, fun characters and lots of sunshine. I’ll deal with Beyond Paradise in the meantime – it’s a lot better if you change your expectations and realise it’s not just DIP in Cornwall – but will be counting down until the next series. Unless, of course, we get a trip to Dolphin Cove before then…