Murder, She Wrote Book Club

Welcome to the Murder, She Wrote Book Club, dedicated to the Murder, She Wrote book series based on the hit television show! Visit our TAGS web site to find a book that will appeal to you or one of the novels you've already read but can't remember the title of. Click here to visit our Welcome page, which better explains our tagging system!

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Welcome

In 1989, the beloved longest-running primetime mystery television series, Murder, She Wrote (1984-1996) starring actress Angela Lansbury was spun-off into a best-selling book series.  No one could have predicted that the series’ international fan base would accept the books the same way they had accepted the television show.  Thirty-two years (five decades) and 50-plus books later, the novels are still being published today and finding new fans the world over.

So what’s this site all about?

Over the years, many readers, longtime and newbies, have asked fans for suggestions as to which book they should pick up and read.  Needless to say, with over 50 books in the series, it’s a hard question to answer.  Everyone has an opinion, everyone has a favorite.  You may end up with 50 different suggestions.

Some longtime readers try to remember a specific title in the series that they’ve read but can only remember bits and pieces of the storyline.  Again, with over 50 books in the series, one can easily forget.

Many readers seek out the books which coincide with something happening at that moment in their lives.  Say you’re going on vacation and will be hitting the beach?  Why not read one of Jessica’s adventures that features sun and sand?  Perhaps you’re living through a snowstorm; why not read one of Jessica’s adventures that takes place with lots of snow?  Maybe you’re going on a cruise or heading to Vegas - yep, there’s a Murder, She Wrote book perfect for that too!  Maybe you just want to escape and read a book that will transport you to another country or read a story set during a certain holiday.  This site aims to help you find the book that you’re looking for through the use of tags.

An explanation of each section and specific tags...

Season, Holiday, Weather. Location

These are pretty self-explanatory. ;)

Setting/Lodging

We decided on a combo tag as sometimes a storyline takes place mainly in the location Jessica is lodging in.  Other times this tag simply denotes where Jessica is staying in her various travels, not where the entire storyline takes place (e.g. on a ship in Murder on the QEII).  We have a Houseguest tag which signifies those stories in which Jessica is staying with friends or family outside of Cabot Cove.

Cabot Cove: This could arguably go in the Location section, but we’ve deliberately chosen instead to house it.  The tag indicates those books which are set mainly in Jessica’s hometown of Cabot Cove, not merely a chapter dedicated to Jessica getting ready to set off for a location outside of it.

Cozy: While the books are classified as “cozy mysteries”, certain books are cozier than others (in our humble opinion).  

Guest stars

The Gang: This tag refers to one or more members of Jessica’s inner circle joining her on one of her many adventures outside of Cabot Cove.  We haven’t made specific tags for characters such as Seth Hazlett or Mort Metzger since they are featured in almost all of the books.  However, if they travel with Jessica outside of Cabot Cove, the book will be tagged with The Gang.

Lane Barfield: Jessica’s publisher in Jon Land’s Murder, She Wrote series.

Vaughan and Olga Buckley: Vaughan Buckley is Jessica’s longtime publisher in the Donald Bain series. Olga is Vaughan’s wife.

Frank Fletcher: Jessica’s late husband.

Donna Fletcher, Frank Fletcher (Grady’s son), Grady Fletcher: Grady, Jessica’s nephew, who she raised with her husband Frank (not to be confused with Grady’s son Frank). Donna is Grady’s wife, and mother to Frank.

Evelyn Phillips: Editor of The Cabot Cove Gazette.

Charlene Sassi: Owner of Cabot Cove’s Sassi’s Bakery and Restaurant.

Archibald Semple: Jessica’s British publisher in the Donald Bain series.

George Sutherland: Chief inspector at Scotland Yard; Scottish; Jessica and George have romantic feelings for one another.

Topics

Can’t quite remember one of the Murder, She Wrote books you read but remember a certain topic it mentioned? Which book mentioned an alligator? This tag can help you. Trying to choose a Murder, She Wrote title you’ve yet to read? These tag may help you select a title that dives into a topic which may interest you (ice skating, fashion, art, etc)?

Cessna: Unlike the Airplane tag, which denotes storylines in which Jessica is traveling as a passenger, not flying the airplane herself, the Cessna tag specifies which books have Jessica, who has her pilot’s license in this series, flying her Cessna airplane, sometimes with instructor Jed Richardson by her side.

Other

Hardback: This tag reveals which books were released in hardback. All books have a paperback edition.

Jon Land: This tag reveals which books were written by author Jon Land who took over the series after the death of Donald Bain in 2018.

Terrie Farley Moran: This tag reveals which books have been written by author Terrie Farley Moran (who will be taking over the series from author Jon Land starting in 2021).

Learn Something New: Certain Murder, She Wrote books dive heavily into certain subjects such as French cooking or give reader’s the history of a certain location Jessica has traveled to. This tag reveals which books may teach you something you may not have already known.

Skulls on Cover (paperback only): You may or may not have noticed that there are skulls hidden on the covers to many of the paperback books. They were discontinued at a certain point.  This tag indicates which ones feature them and you should try to find.

Where can I find these books?

Amazon (US, UK), eBay, and at your local library!

Where can I find audiobooks?

Audible, iTunes, Hoopla

Hey, I have a suggestion for a tag!

Feel free to join the Murder, She Wrote Book Club on Facebook and drop us a line!

Now, head on over to our sperate TAGS web site to make your selection!

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The Body in the Trees (2025)

It’s leaf-peeping season in Cabot Cove, but for someone, it’s killing season!

A quartet of friends from Florida have come to Maine to experience a New England autumn, complete with hiking in the woods and fishing. When one of them goes missing, the town rallies to find the presumably lost but otherwise safe tourist. But when newspaper editor Dan Andrews is biking on the trail along a ridge, he looks down and sees a leg caught in the branches of a tree. Count on Jessica Fletcher to uncover the secret reason the victim came to town . . . and how it led to her murder.

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A Body in Boston (2025)

Jessica Fletcher has dinner with her old pal Harry McGraw and gets pulled into a puzzling murder case.

Invited to deliver a lecture at the Boston Public Library, Jessica Fletcher excitedly makes plans to see local friends. Naturally that includes dinner at Gilhooley’s with PI Harry McGraw. Harry excitedly talks about his latest client, the CEO of Cure All Pharmaceuticals, who’s received anonymous blackmail demands and wants Harry to identify the culprit. Cookie, Gilhooley’s longtime bartender, also has something he wants to tell Jessica: he asked Harry to investigate his daughter Aileen’s boyfriend, who Cookie thinks is too slick by half, but now Harry is too wrapped up in this new case. While Jessica wonders how best to approach Aileen, the young woman stumbles into Gilhooley’s covered in blood. She just discovered her boyfriend’s corpse — and quickly becomes the chief suspect in his murder!

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Snowy with a Chance of Murder (2025)

In a nod to Rear Window, this newest entry in the USA Today bestselling Murder, She Wrote series finds Jessica Fletcher coping with an injury that leaves her homebound—and a murder just outside her window!

Jessica Fletcher has taken a nasty spill on the ice, leaving her in a wheelchair for several weeks. She tries to work on her latest manuscript but finds herself distracted by a new neighbor moving in across the street. There’s good reason for her to be distracted, because soon after unpacking his sparse belongings, Mr. Rymer is out in the front yard, building somewhat risqué (read: naked) snow sculptures.

While Cabot Cove debates whether the sculptures are a protected form of art or a public display of lewdness, someone starts destroying them at night. Rymer doesn’t seem upset. He just makes new ones. No need to get the police involved over a little snow, he says. Especially when there’s plenty more of it and a blizzard in the forecast.

The morning after the storm, Jessica looks out the window to see a new sculpture across the street—and the body of Mr. Rymer half-buried in the snow. Can Jessica catch a cold-blooded killer from her chair by the window?

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A Killer Christmas (2024)

It’s Christmastime in Cabot Cove, but there’s more homicide than ho-ho-ho in the newest entry in the USA Today bestselling Murder, She Wrote series. Christmas is not an easy time to sell a house, but in Boston tycoon John Bragdon, Cabot Cove Realtor Eve Simpson has found a buyer for the old Jarvis homestead. Unfortunately, Eve gets a lump of coal in her stocking in the form of Kenny Jarvis, who has been missing for years and presumed dead but has now come back to stop his sister from selling their childhood home. Eve presses on, organizing a welcome dinner for Bragdon and his wife, Rose Marie, to meet the leading citizens of the town, including Jessica Fletcher. Dinner is interrupted by an uninvited guest—not Santa but Kenny, who threateningly promises Rose Marie she will never live in his house. When Rose Marie is found dead a few days later, Kenny is the natural suspect. But Jessica isn′t so sure he′s on the naughty list . . .

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Murder Backstage (2024)

The newest entry in the USA Today bestselling Murder, She Wrote series.

Jessica Fletcher’s British cousin, Emma MacGill, will be traveling to Edmonton in Alberta, Canada, to perform with internationally famous star of stage, screen, and television Derek Braverman in an old-fashioned musical review. Emma would love for Jessica to join her there and suggests she bring along some friends. Having just finished her latest book, Jessica is ready for a vacation and is delighted to agree.  Dr. Seth Hazlitt and Sheriff Mort Metzger are huge fans of Braverman, so they are eager to tag along, and their fanboy behavior gives Jessica and Mort’s wife, Maureen, more than occasional cause to roll their eyes. Upon arrival in Edmonton, Jessica is quickly outed as mystery writer J. B. Fletcher, and despite numerous protests, a hotel staffer arranges a book signing for her. This and touristy adventures arranged for the group make for a much busier trip than Jessica was expecting. When a hotel bartender, who also happens to be a stagehand for Emma’s play, turns up dead backstage at the theater, Jessica’s fun and relaxing vacation quickly becomes anything but.

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Fit for Murder (2024)

Order here ... Read an excerpt here!

Jessica Fletcher learns that exercise can be murder in this new entry in the USA Today bestselling Murder, She Wrote series.

Former editor of the Cabot Cove Gazette, Evelyn Phillips is back in Cabot Cove. Evelyn tells Jessica and Seth that she got a couple of really weird notes from Bertha Mae Cormier so she’s come back to town to check on her old friend. She demands that Jessica come with her to see Bertha Mae, who is a bit dithery but no more so than Jessica remembers her being in recent years.

Jessica does become somewhat concerned when Bertha Mae starts to talk about her new neighbor, Martin Terranova. He is quite charming and very health conscious and he teaches yoga and meditation in his pool house. Maureen Metzger says that she and Bertha Mae became friends in Terranova’s class and mentions how solicitous he is to his older clients.

Jessica attends one of his classes and does notice that Terranova is flirtatious with several elderly clients, especially Bertha Mae. Evelyn is becoming convinced that Bertha Mae is being mesmerized by Terranova and that he is after Bertha Mae’s money. A short while late, Martin turns up dead in his weight room. What at first blush seems to be an accident, soon proves to be murder and Jessica must put her investigative skills to the test when Evelyn becomes the prime suspect.

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Death on the Emerald Isle (2023)

A trip to Northern Ireland becomes unexpectedly grim for Jessica Fletcher in this new entry in the USA Today bestselling Murder, She Wrote series. Jessica Fletcher is quick to accept an invitation to replace a speaker who couldn’t attend a Book Festival in Belfast, Ireland. When her Cabot Cove neighbor Maeve O’Bannon hears about the trip, she asks Jessica to deliver some paintings to her family in the village of Bushmills. Happy to extend her travels and see more of the Irish countryside, Jessica agrees. The festival goes off without a hitch, and it seems like Jessica is in for a relaxing vacation. But then Maeve’s cousin Michael is discovered dead under suspicious circumstances. Jessica finds herself once again in the midst of a murder investigation, and she’ll have to dig into the O’Bannon family’s secrets to unmask the killer.

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Read an excerpt

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Killer on the Court (2022)

Jessica Fletcher’s sunny beach vacation with her nephew’s family takes a dark turn in this new installment in the USA Today bestselling series. Jessica is delighted when her nephew Grady invites her to spend a few days with his family in an oceanside New York bungalow. She packs her bags and heads down to the city, ready to spend some quality time with Grady, his wife, Donna, and their young son, Frank. But the morning after Jessica’s arrival, Donna finds her boss dead on a tennis court, and Jessica’s dreams of a relaxing visit are quashed. Everyone in the small beachside community is a suspect, and the local authorities—headed by an old colleague of Cabot Cove sheriff Mort Metzger—have asked that no one leave town. Will Jessica be able find a killer and salvage the rest of her trip?

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Debonair in Death (2021)

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When a local art shop owner is murdered, Jessica Fletcher is surprised to once again be working alongside her old friend MI-6 agent Michael Haggerty to solve the case in the newest mystery in this USA Today bestselling series. When Nelson Penzell, co-owner of a local art and treasure store in Cabot Cove, is murdered, the nail tech from Jessica Fletcher's favorite beauty parlor is the main suspect. After all, she's the one who ran out of the store screaming, covered in blood, and holding the murder weapon. Jessica is positive that despite the circumstances, Coreen can't possibly be guilty, and is determined to prove it. When Michael Haggerty, handsome MI-6 agent and Jessica's old friend, is caught snooping around the victim’s home, it's quickly apparent to her that she was right. Nelson has always had a bit of a reputation for being a rake, but Haggerty is sure his sins go far beyond what anyone in town imagined. If she wants to clear Coreen's name, Jessica will have to work alongside Michael to find out who killed Nelson—and maybe help bust a crime ring in the process.

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Killing in a Koi Pond (2021)

When a friend’s husband dies while Jessica Fletcher is in town visiting, Jessica’s vacation turns into a murder investigation in this latest entry in the long-running USA Today bestselling series. After traveling to Bethesda for a mystery writers’ conference, Jessica Fletcher decides she’s earned a vacation and takes a train to Columbia, South Carolina, to visit her old college friend Dolores, who has recently married her third husband, Willis Nickens, a wealthy and cutthroat businessman. They’ve moved into an opulent historic home with plenty of space for guests, and Jessica is ready for a week of shopping, gossiping, and relaxing at the grand estate. But the morning after she arrives, Jessica discovers Willis facedown in the koi pond, and despite what the police think, she’s sure foul play is involved. She hadn’t known Willis long, but it’s clear to her that he didn’t concern himself with making friends. The question isn’t if her friend’s husband was murdered but by whom.

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Murder in Season (2020)

Christmas has come to Cabot Cove, but a peaceful holiday season is not in the cards after Jessica Fletcher is pulled into a centuries-old mystery in the latest entry in this USA Today bestselling series. With work on the reconstruction of her beloved home almost complete, Jessica Fletcher is in high holiday spirits, spearheading the annual Christmas parade and preparing for her nephew Grady and his family to come to town. The only thing dampening the holiday cheer is the discovery of two sets of bones on Jessica’s property: one set ancient, the other only about a year old. It’s concluded that they were both placed there during the reconstruction, and Jessica suspects that, despite the centuries between them, the remains might be connected. Soon tabloid reporter Tad Hollenbeck arrives in Cabot Cove to write a story about what he calls “the murder capital of the country.” But when Tad himself is murdered, Jessica speculates that his arrival, his death, and the discovery of the bones are all somehow linked. As Jessica digs deeper to find the connection between the bones and Tad’s murder, everything seems to come back to a mystery that has long plagued Cabot Cove. If she wants to solve the case, she’ll need to delve into her beloved town’s dark history, or else this holiday season may be her last….

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The Murder of Twelve (2020)

In the latest entry in this USA Today bestselling series, Jessica Fletcher takes on an Agatha Christie-style mystery when she finds herself stranded in a hotel during a blizzard with twelve strangers and a killer in their midst…. Still staying at the Hill House hotel while her beloved home is being rebuilt, Jessica Fletcher finds herself sharing the space for a weekend with a dozen members of a wedding party who have gathered there for a rehearsal dinner. The families of the bride and groom can’t stand each other but have agreed to put aside years of long-simmering tension to celebrate the nuptials. Unfortunately, weather forecasters underestimated the severity of a storm that turns into a historic blizzard that dumps nearly five feet of snow on Cabot Cove, leaving everyone stranded.  But the hotel guests have bigger things to worry about than bad weather conditions and potential cold feet, because a murderer has shown up uninvited–one who has vowed to take them down one by one….

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A Time for Murder (2019)

In the fiftieth entry in this USA Today bestselling series, two timelines converge as Jessica Fletcher returns to high school to investigate the murder of an old colleague, while we meet Jessica as a young teacher solving her very first murder… Young Jessica Fletcher’s life couldn’t be more ordinary. She teaches at the local high school while she and her loving husband, Frank, are raising their nephew Grady together. But when the beloved principal dies under mysterious circumstances, Jessica knows something is off and, for the very first time, investigates a death. Present-day Jessica returns to high school for a colleague’s retirement party and has fun seeing familiar faces. That is, until the colleague winds up dead–and his death has mysterious links to Jessica’s very first murder case. With nothing but her own instincts to guide her, Jessica embarks on a quest to find out what really happened all those years ago and who’s behind these murders. Because time is running out to catch this killer….

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Murder in Red (2019)

In the latest entry in this USA Today bestselling series, Jessica loses a loved one to unnatural causes and sets her sights on the mysterious local hospital before more people wind up dead on arrival… Jessica Fletcher’s favorite gin rummy partner, Mimi Van Dorn, checks into the brand-new Clifton Care Partners, a private hospital that’s just opened up shop in town, for a simple procedure—one that leads tragically, and inexplicably, to her death. Seeking justice in her inimitable fashion, Jessica decides to pursue her own investigation on the hospital and its shadowy business dealings. On the trail of what initially appears to be medical malpractice, Jessica digs deeper and learns her friend was actually a victim of something far more sinister. Death is bad for business, but murder is even worse, and Jessica will find plenty of both as she races to bring down Clifton Care Partners before someone else flatlines…

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Manuscript for Murder (2018)

Jessica Fletcher investigates a mysterious manuscript with deadly consequences in the latest mass-market reprint in this USA Today bestselling series…. Jessica Fletcher has had plenty to worry about over her storied career, both as a bestselling novelist and as an amateur sleuth. But she never had any reason to worry about her longtime publisher and trusted friend, Lane Barfield. When mounting evidence of financial malfeasance leads to an FBI investigation of Lane, Jessica can’t believe what she’s reading. So when Barfield turns up dead, Jessica takes on the task of proving his innocence. Sure enough, Jessica’s lone-wolf investigation turns up several oddities and inconsistencies. Jessica knows something is being covered up, but what exactly? The trail she takes to answer that question reveals something far more nefarious is afoot, involving shadowy characters from the heights of power in Washington. At the heart of Jessica’s investigation is a manuscript Barfield had intended to publish, after all other publishers had turned it down. The problem is the manuscript has disappeared, with all traces of its submission and very existence having been wiped off the books. With her own life now in jeopardy, Jessica refuses to back off and sets her sights on learning the contents of that manuscript and what about it might have led to several murders. Every step she takes brings her closer to the truth of what lies in the pages, as well as to the person who penned them.

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A Date with Murder (2018)

Jessica Fletcher investigates a friend’s murder and a dangerous dating service in the latest entry in this USA Today bestselling series… Jessica Fletcher takes up the cause of her good friend Barbara “Babs” Wirth after Babs’ husband Hal suffers a fatal heart attack that Jessica has reason to believe was actually murder. At the heart of her suspicions lies a sinister dating site Hal had used while he and Babs were having marital issues–a site that may be complicit in somehow swindling him out of millions. Jessica’s investigation reveals that Hal was far from the only victim and when his former business partner is also killed, a deadly pattern emerges. Jessica teams up with a brilliant young computer hacker to follow the trail but as she gets closer to the truth, two near misses force her to realize that she may very well be the next victim. The stakes have never been this high as Jessica finds herself being stalked by the killer she is trying to catch. She must now set the perfect trap to avoid her very own date with murder.