An English eccentric through and through, Richard is awkward, uptight and absolutely the wrong person to live and work on a tropical, heat-soaked island. So, following the murder of the police inspector on Saint Marie in the Caribbean, Richard is sent to live and work on the tropical, heat-soaked island.
It may be paradise for some, but for Richard it's purgatory and he even refuses to adjust to his new habitat by dressing appropriately or by making an effort to accept the more relaxed pace of life the locals enjoy.
Where he does thrive, however, is in the police work. Someone who is constantly worrying, analysing, questioning and obsessing over the tiniest details may be a nightmare to live with, but these traits make for quite a brilliant detective. And so, case after case gets cracked - but the more successful the sleuthing, the harder and harder it is for Richard to leave.
He does, at least, start to acclimatise to his new environment and, by the end of Series 2 of Death in Paradise, he's formed friendships with his team and learned to take things a little easier.
A shame, then, that Richard is bumped off at a Cambridge University reunion on the island, and a replacement in the shape of DI Humphrey Goodman has to take up the reins. Who knows? A bit longer and Richard could have truly 'gone native'. Then again, maybe not.