As the 2024 Christmas Special of Death in Paradise begins, Officer Darlene Curtis (Ginny Holder) finds a man in a Santa outfit dead on the beach. 15 hours earlier, Stuart Fullwell (Marcus Brigestocke) and Tony Hurst (Steven Hartley) get dressed in Santa outfits. Tabitha Reed (Angela Griffin) tells Stuart he looks sexy as Santa. Tony does an interview and says this is the exact outfit he wore in the Christmas video. He talks about his song. While Stuart sings on stage, Kenny Simmons (Dex Lee) talks to Tabitha about his performance. Then, he speaks to Karla Hammonds (Elizabeth Carling) who is busy talking business. She decides to go to bed. Jamie Barton (Jim Howick) stops her to ask about his missing son. Karla tells him where the boy is before heading on her way. Jamie yells for Ollie to come to his room. Ollie (Charles Stagg) reluctantly comes inside. Kenny tells the crowd they’re going to do Christmas Caribbean style.

Stuart tells Tabitha he’s going to get changed. Tony returns home and goes inside. Ollie goes to the receptionist to tell her there’s a dead man on the beach. Darelen calls the Sergeant to tell him about the body at the Paradise Bay Hotel. Selwyn Patterson (Don Warrington) tells DS Naomi Thomas (Shantol Jackson) they could head over there together. Naomi reminds him they don’t have a replacement for DI Parker yet. Selwyn put a call into London to request a DI. They arrive while Darlene is busy taking photos of the crime scene. Darlene tells them about Stuart and his movements before the discovery. Marcus calls Selwyn to say they already have a detective on Saint Marie. DI Mervin Wilson (Don Gilet) gets out of the taxi while speaking to a friend on the phone about his horrible holiday. He managed to change his flight so he could get out of there earlier. Mervin gets a call from his Guv Meadows who asks him to stay and investigate. Mervin ends up having to stay on Saint Marie.

Naomi and Selwyn speak to Ollie about finding Stuart’s body. Ollie says he heard a bang outside so he went onto the balcony. He saw a man who looked hurt. Ollie saw someone run away, but he couldn’t see who it was. Ollie says he went to the reception. Tabitha can’t imagine why anyone would want to do this to her fiancé. Before they leave, Kenny tells Selwyn and Naomi about a phone call he heard between Tabitha and her friend Ali. She wanted to end it with her fiancé but didn’t know how. Darlene calls Selwyn to say there’s been another murder. It’s Tony who is also dressed as Santa Claus. Mervin meets Selwyn and Naomi at the scene. They go inside and learn that both victims were shot in the chest. Darlene says Tony wrote her favorite Christmas song, A Christmas Paradise. Mervin finds a note in Tony’s hand which says “play me”. They play a video of Tony pleading with someone not to kill him just before he is shot.

Tony was shot at 10:15, the same time as the first victim. Selwyn takes Mervin to the police station and thanks him for staying. Darlene asks Selwyn about making a statement. Selwyn will make a statement soon. Naomi says they’re struggling to find a link between Stuart and Tony. Tabitha says Stuart never met him. However, Stuart was singing Tony’s song at the party last night. Mervin asks Tabitha about not wanting to marry her fiancé. She admits she was thinking about calling off the wedding. Tabitha denies killing her husband. Darlene pulls everyone away to say the lab confirmed the same gun was used to kill both victims. Selwyn takes Mervin to his hotel and finds out why he’s in Saint Marie. Brianna Clemetson (Joy Richardson) calls the police to say she might know who the killer is. She got the registration number. Later, Catherine Bordey (Elizabeth Bourgine) invites locals to tonight’s event.

She asks Dwayne Myers (Danny John-Jules) if he’s coming to the Christmas fair. Dwayne says he’s going out on the boat with his father and they won’t be back until Boxing Day. Dwayne believes Tyrus DeMille (Michael Salami) is trying to fleece his father, Nelson (Ram John Holder). He warns Tyrus about dressing like Santa. He ends up at the police station. Tyrus explains he was shot around 10:15 on the same day of the murders. After the shooting, a car came around the bend and Tyrus saw someone running away. Darlene finds one of the bullets. Tyrus is worried they’ll come back for him. Mervin and Naomi talk about giving him protection. Selwyn gets Wesley to contact Dwayne so he can talk to him. Dwayne doesn’t like the idea of spending Christmas in a safehouse with Tyrus. Darlene invites Nelson to stay with her and her aunties. Catherine talks to Selwyn about canceling the fair. He doesn’t think she should. Naomi catches up with Selwyn while Mervin stays in the car.

Brianna confronts Selwyn to speak to him about the murders. Dwayne and Tyrus argue and learn there’s only one bed. Mervin tells Naomi the third bullet is a match for the other two bullets. Brianna points out Mervin and claims he’s the one who has been murdering people. Selwyn speaks to Mervin in private and asks why he was on this street. Mervin says it’s nobody’s business what he was doing there. He eventually says he thinks that’s his mother’s house. Mervin didn’t check. He realized it was a mistake and was going to head home. Mervin wants to solve the murders so he can get out of there. On Christmas Eve, Karla Hammond tells the receptionist she’ll be checking out unexpectedly. Mervin tells Naomi that Tony Hurst was writing a memoir. The draft was saved on his laptop, but a laptop was not found at the scene. Mervin says Karla Hammond had a shoplifting charge in the United Kingdom in her teens. He found her fingerprint in Tony’s residence.

40 years ago, Karla recorded A Christmas Paradise under a different name. They find Karla before she can leave the island. Karla admits she was likely going to be mentioned in Tony’s memoir. Mervin finds it odd that her past celebrity wasn’t mentioned on her website. He suspects there was something in the memoir she didn’t want coming out. Karla admits she didn’t sing the song. It was a session singer and she was just a pretty face. Karla flew out to try to convince Tony not to go through with the memoir. She admits she doesn’t want to be thrust back into the spotlight after all these years. Karla claims Tony was dead when she went there that night so she just took the laptop. Dwayne tells Darlene to ask about his father. He calls Nelson who says everything is just great. Then, Dwayne learns Tyrus had a few items dropped off. Tyrus got a puppy because his daughter really wanted one. Mervin and Naomi go through the evidence.

He tells her why he likes being in the market and that he looks forward to going back to London. They discuss what they usually do for Christmas. Dwayne and Tyrus share a drink and talk about the puppy, Tyrus. Tyrus explains he picked that name so his daughter, Jasmine, will remember him. When Mervin goes back to the house where his mom may live, Brianna approaches him. She asks if he knows Dorna. Mervin admits it is Dorna Bray. He learns that she passed away a few months back. Dwayne speaks to his father again. Nelson admits it’s not the same. Selwyn visits Mervin in his room. He says he didn’t realize that his mother was Dorna Bray. Mervin admits he really didn’t know her. Selwyn offers to move him somewhere more comfortable. Mervin moves into the cottage on the beach. He gets a call from Naomi who says she has a lead. Tyrus speaks to Dwayne outside. Dwayne knows this could be his last Christmas with his father.

He wants to spend Christmas with him and he wants Tyrus to spend Christmas with his daughter. They go out on the boat. Naomi shows Mervin a music video featuring Kenny Simmons. She says Kenny sampled the chorus from A Christmas Paradise and used it in a track he released on social media. It was going to be a big hit for him, but he never asked Tony’s permission. The record company became aware and Tony refused to give him permission to use it. They confront Kenny who doesn’t want to do this on Christmas day. Mervin says the record company is keen to sign a deal now that Tony is out of the picture. Kenny admits he always wanted a singing career. He denies killing Tony. After he leaves, Darlene arrives to say she found something in Tony Hurst’s memoir. It has to do with Jamie Barton. Jamie sees the police arrive outside before stepping out with a gun. Naomi talks to Ollie who tells them where Jamie went. She agrees to stay with Ollie while the others speak to Jamie.

Mervin tries to stop Jamie from throwing the gun into the water. Instead, he throws it down into the sand. Jamie says he just wanted the money she was owed. He says his mom only wanted to sing. He blames Tony for his mom being ill. Jamie says he can’t afford it but Tony can. Naomi calls Mervin to say Jamie has a gun. Ollie pretended to shoot Stuart with it that night. Mervin warns Jamie that his kid is now involved. Jamie says Ollie knew he was getting a cowboy set for Christmas. He looked for it and found the gun. Stuart saw Ollie with the gun and realized it wasn’t a toy. Jamie insists he would never kill anyone. Darlene tells Mervin that the gun wasn’t used to shoot the victims. It’s a different caliber. Mervin gets upset that they’re getting nowhere. In the vehicle, Naomi asks Mervin to stop criticizing everything about the island. Mervin asks her to stop when he sees kids playing basketball. He tells Naomi this isn’t personal. Selwyn checks the station.

He gets a call and learns Mervin is shooting basketball. Selwyn arrives and learns Mervin has never played basketball before. Mervin is trying to find out how he can shoot three hoops with one ball at the same time. Selwyn says London has a detective willing to fly over and take over the case. Mervin isn’t interested in that though. Mervin thinks about the case and says it wasn’t meant to be. He wonders what was meant to be and when. Mervin tries to work it all out in his head. Selwyn and Mervin shoot at the same time. Mervin says it’s not impossible and he knows how it was all done. He asks Darlene to check Jamie Barton’s gun for fingerprints. Mervin doesn’t think it’s Jamie’s gun. They gather everyone so Mervin can speak to them. Mervin talks about playing the hand you’ve been dealt. He says none of it was meant to happen. Stuart went back to his room to get changed and encountered Ollie with the gun.

Mervin says that wasn’t the gun they found Jamie with earlier this morning. Jamie sent Ollie back to the hotel so he could talk to Stuart about the gun. Mervin believes Jamie tried to get the gun off of Stuart who was shot. Jamie immediately apologizes. Mervin says the other two shootings were not accidents. He says Kenny had good reason to want Tony dead. Stuart’s death provided him with some useful misdirection. Mervin reveals they found Kenny’s fingerprints on the gun recovered from Jamie Barton. Kenny witnessed what happened on the beach and came up with a plan to make three shootings look like they occurred at the same time. Mervin says Stuart was not shot at 10:15. Then, Kenny confronted Tony and shot him. As for the third victim, Kenny allegedly told Jamie to follow Tyrus as he was heading home. Jamie was asked to fire a few rounds in Tyrus’s direction without killing him. Jamie recovered the bullets.

On Kenny’s way back, he fired three guns from the other gun in the same place. Mervin says none of it was meant to make any sense at any point. He admits they almost had him beaten. Kenny guesses it was worth a try then. In private, Mervin tells Selwyn he’d prefer to write it up in the case report. Tyrus tells Dwayne to have his auntie bring the radio down to the harbor if it’s still not working. Tyrus leaves to spend some time with his daughter. Darlene tells Dwayne she saw them all on the boat earlier. Selwyn catches up with Mervin to invite him to Christmas dinner. Mervin says he needs to finish the case report so he can get out of there. Selwyn argues there’s no rush for him to leave since they need a permanent DI. He suggests Mervin can get to know his mother by getting to know Saint Marie. Mervin just wants to get back to London. Dwayne tells his dad he wants to have more days like that so he handed in his badge.

Dwayne talks to Darlene about his decision. She calls him a good man and gives him a kiss on the cheek. Catherine says she made a special rum cake. Mervin is shown outside his mom’s house.

 

Death In Paradise Review

The Christmas Special of Death in Paradise had some fun moments although the investigation wasn’t spectacular. This probably wasn’t the best way to introduce the new DI because it felt so aggressive and unoriginal. All these shows have to start with a rocky relationship before the characters settle in.

The highlight of the episode was easily Dwayne and Tyrus. Those characters had some funny scenes as they were forced to stay together for a while. It also helped that they managed to overcome their problems. It’d be better if these characters would actually return in the future instead of just showing up once.

That’s another issue with shows like this. They really don’t have any continuity. The investigation into two murders and a shooting was pretty messy with an illogical conclusion that certainly didn’t hit the mark. Unfortunately, the victims felt more like props than actual people we should care about which is another issue with long-running British crime dramas.

If the episode had been an hour instead of longer, it probably would’ve been a bit stronger. There wasn’t a strong enough payoff at the end of the investigation to justify dragging this out for so long. Overall, the episode was okay although it really missed the mark as a Christmas Special and Mervin’s introduction could’ve been better.

The episode scores a 6 out of 10. Recaps of Death in Paradise can be found here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. Join the discussion here.