3.5.
the solution of this mystery was quite interesting (although it did just one or two turnarounds to much for my liking). the characters, however, weren't that much. i haven't watched the bbc series, so i cannot judge how the characters translate to the screen, but the colonialist and racust undertones in this were not easy to bear at times (whoooo, the great british detective solving cases the mostly poc police officers of a colonized island apparently aren't able to solve on their own), as well as the misogynist (the oh so evil wife, the dumb soprano who is unbearable to her husband, manipulative women all around, the male gaze subtly sexualizing all the women the protagonist encounters). meh. at least the author seems to have learnt some things since this book came out more than ten years ago, his new series is definitely better.