ARC REVIEW: Death In The Sunshine – by Steph Broadribb

Title: Death In The Sunshine
(Retired Detectives Club #1)
Author: Steph Broadribb
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Detective
First published: March 1st 2022
Publisher: Amazon Publishing UK
Finished reading: March 5th 2022
Pages: 319

“Sometimes doing the right thing means you have to step into the danger zone.”

*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and Amazon Publishing UK in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***

Right… I most definitely didn’t expect to be having this reaction to Death In The Sunshine to be honest. I LOVE her Lori Anderson books, a series I consider one of my favorites, so as soon as I first found out about this new series I knew I had to read it immediately. I also always love a focus on an older main character, so combined with my love for Steph Broadribb‘s writing I fully expected to have found a new favorite series to follow. Imagine my surprise when the complete opposite happened! Oh yes, sadly I can’t say that I had a great time with Death In The Sunshine… I’ll try to explain briefly why.

First of all, I do have to say that I still love the premise of this story. The setting in a Florida retirement village, the four retired detectives/CSI deciding to investigate a murder after the local police doesn’t seem to be doing their job… It sounds like the perfect recipe for a good story and it kind of has that The Thursday Murder Club vibe. The unofficial investigation let by our retired team is engaging and has enough twists to keep you entertained. It does make you wonder just how much detective Golding is screwing up/wanting to hide the truth though…

Death In The Sunshine uses a multiple POV structure, where we switch between the four members of the retired detective team. It’s definitely helpful to add a more dynamic feel to the investigation as well as helping to show different angles as things started happening. BUT. I felt that none of the characters were actually properly developed beyond the whole ‘I have secrets to hide’ and your typical detective/police officer cliches. This applies especially to Moira, Lizzie and Phillips as Rick doesn’t seem to have much to hide though. On top of this, I didn’t really get the sense of getting to know them better, and the constant reminder of those secrets and it being important for nobody finding out about them got annoying real fast.

Unfortunately, I can’t say that I was really impressed by the writing either. Somehow the story never managed to grab me completely, and the plot felt rather slow and repetitive in points. The constant mention of having to hide their secrets I previous mentioned didn’t really help either… And if I have to read the word tabula rasa one more time, I think that I’m going to scream. The final twist did come as a surprise at least, because I never guessed who would be behind it all.

To keep things short, I have to say that I ended up being surprisingly underwhelmed by Death In The Sunshine. I expected a new favorite, but instead sadly ended up with a dud… Repetition and bland characters don’t exactly call for enticing reading, and I don’t think I will be continuing the series at this point.