There's a well known BBC TV series called "Death in Paradise," which is about a British detective - set on the small fictional island of St. Marie in the Caribbean. The first two series starred Ben Miller as the British detective, the third through sixth series starred Kris Marshall as Humphrey Goodman (the replacement British detective). I watched the first through third series (still going strong on series 12 in 2023). This is a follow-on series specific to the life of Detective Inspector Goodman - who has now returned to the U.K. He's joined the police force in the small town of Shipton Abbott, the home town of the fiancée he left Saint Marie to be with. Apparently Marshall as Goodman was popular enough in the role that a lot of people wanted to see what he got up to back in the U.K.

I love that most of the crimes are not murder. In fact, none are technically murders, although one of the six episodes does involve a suspicious death. Instead, they deal with art theft, a family's disappearance, attempted murder, arson ... And it's all the more believable for it, as opposed to the less believable shows where the detective lives in a tiny town and there's a murder (or two) every single week. It also definitely leans to the light-hearted and comedic more than the dark.

Episode 3 did have a severe attack of obvious: I spotted the guilty party almost immediately, and it was clear that in a locked room with a cop in it, of course the painting on the wall he's guarding will vanish, and I also figured out the heist method about half way through the episode - well before the detective did. Aside from that episode though, I found that the mysteries all made sense and could be solved with the evidence presented, without being brutally obvious.

The show also spends a fair bit of time on the relationship between Goodman and his fiancée (Sally Bretton), who's starting a small restaurant in town (in partnership with her ex-fiancée ...). I'm afraid I saw this mostly as a waste - time that could have been better spent on the mysteries. Still, I enjoyed the series considerably more than I expected. It's also shot in a very lovely seaside town ...