Story List

Based on Death in Paradise novels

1. A Meditation on Murder – 'The Prayer Tower'

2. The Killing of Polly Carter – 'The Shower Scene' (2 parts)

3. Death Knocks Twice – 'The Fashion Show'

4. Death in the Caribbean – 'That Stage' (5 parts)

Based on film/TV

1. Razzle Dazzle – 'I Want a HUG'

2. The Prince and Me – 'Who is the Real Prince?'

3. Pride and Prejudice – 'Darcy Who?'

4. Malice Aforethought – 'Starved?'

5. Molly Moon – 'So Sad to be an Orphan Boy'

6. Hunting Venus – 'Venus Hunts'

7. 4321 – 'The Nerve of the Man!'

8. Agatha Christie's Marple: The Body in the Library – 'A Body... but not in the Library'

9. Within the Whirlwind – 'Reaping'

10. There's Only One Jimmy Grimble – 'Black Leather'

11. Primeval – 'Double The Fun' (6 parts)

12. Bridgerton - 'Oh, Lord! It's Lord F!' (2 parts)

13. Bridgerton - 'What Dreams May Come (8 parts)

14. The Parole Officer - 'An Educational Movie'

15. Off The Rails

...wip

"A Meditation on Murder" - The Prayer Tower

He looks down at his prayer tower of pebbles and cobbles, closes his eyes and makes his wish, putting his heart and soul into it… all the years of loneliness, despair, and yearning welded into a single diamond point that spears up into the wide empty sky.

A slight clicking noise makes him look down. His tower is collapsing… stones settling out into an untidy heap. Just like his life. He sees his dreams assume the usual pile of nothing he's come to accept.

He hears a step. His Detective Sergeant is beside him, hands on hips, looking down at the rubble.

"Oh, dear, it fell down. Let's see now." She stoops and checks over the detritus, "I see where you went wrong. You have a solid base but you're missing your heart stone."

"My what?"

"Your heart stone… the one that goes in the centre and holds it all together. Hmmmm." She reaches into a pocket, pulls out a dark stone, pauses, studies it. "Is this prayer tower a wish to go back to England?" She waits for his answer.

He looks down onto the crown of her head, an incredible nimbus of night hair, "No."

"OK, then." She quickly reassembles the tower and stands up.

Together they look down at it. A silly little pile of stones that now looks firm, sturdy, solid, ready to stand for years to come… with a stone of night holding it all together.

He clears his throat, "May I ask? Why did you have that stone in your pocket?"

She shrugs, "I found it on my doorstep this morning. I almost tossed it aside but it suddenly felt warm and comfortable in my hand. Something I'd want to keep forever. Odd, eh?"

He looks at her, sees her for the first time.

She nods to the stack, "Make your wish now. It's ready."

Ducking his head shyly, he murmurs, "I don't need to. It's already come true."

END