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reviewed Murder in Moscow by Donald Bain (Murder, She Wrote, #10)

Donald Bain, Jessica Fletcher: Murder in Moscow (1998, Signet) 2 stars

Mystery writer and amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher visits Moscow as part of a delegation of …

From Russia with scorn

1 star

I’m not sure where to begin, but know there are some light spoilers below. The best way to sum it up is that this isn’t a Murder, She Wrote novel. It’s a spy thriller disguised as a MSW novel. It was decently written—for a generic spy novel—but not for Jessica Fletcher. Despite being attached to the Commerce Department on this adventure, Jess herself ironically has zero agency, as she’s strung along by governments and subversive operatives the whole time. Jessica’s “decisions” in this book are actually just the cleverly disguised machinations of secretive government men. Nothing gets answered, Jessica plays the role of begrudging patriot, and a friendly face in the form of George Sutherland conveniently makes an appearance in the end to put everyone at ease. It was just a bunch of moving around from place to place with very little worthwhile actually happening.

This is also the second …

Bill Bryson: The Lost Continent (Paperback, 1990, Harper Perennial) 3 stars

Get Lost, Bill

1 star

This book will inspire in you an interest in the small or forgotten towns across America as much as it inspires in me an interest in reading more of Bill Bryson's travel books. Meaning, it won't. And for all the wrong reasons. Bryson's humor in his depiction of some of the locations he visits may possess a kernel of truth, but he largely comes off as resentful towards the places, hateful towards the people, and unfunny in his observations of them both. There were some times where I got a laugh, but it wasn't at the fat jokes, or the women jokes, or the fat women jokes. It wasn't at the derision and disgust of homeless people. It wasn't at how boring he said everything was over and over again. It wasn't at the irony of his disdain for tourists.

Bryson is uninterested in truly discovering anything about the places …

reviewed Murder on the QE2 by Donald Bain (Murder, She Wrote, #9)

Donald Bain, Jessica Fletcher: Murder on the QE2 (1997, Signet) 3 stars

Amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher accepts a free voyage on a luxury ocean liner in exchange …

'QE2' Sails Through Crests, Mostly Troughs

2 stars

Unlike the steady course of the titular ship, this book had stops and starts throughout. Setting the story aboard a massive ocean liner--practically a vessel-set city--was an interesting premise. The convention of using Jessica as a shipboard playwright was novel. But this rendition fell short in many of the ways the other installments do. Namely, the net was cast a bit too wide in trawling for all the characters Jessica meets. There must have been nearly a dozen people introduced and whose names and roles I had to recall. Jessica's sailing companion was a bit too chummy and too similar to Jessica herself, almost making her redundant. The time required for the ship security to review camera footage was hardly believable. And of course the involvement of Jess's white knight George Sutherland felt like yet another deus ex machina contrivance to wrap things up neatly. Jessica might be looking forward …

Simon Hawke: Friday the 13th (1987) 4 stars

More than just the campfire tale we've heard before

4 stars

What a surprise this book was. An adaptation of the guilty pleasure movie we all know and love, this story gives us a much deeper look at the characters while staying perfectly true to the source material. Some people reading the book will not like peering into the minds of the characters to see what makes them tick, the thoughts of a bunch of teenagers and 20-somethings in the background of a summer camp slaughter. If you're just after the kills, I recommend skipping this and watching the movie instead. But if you care to know why Alice and Steve had that weird tension we see in the film, or what maybe pushed Ned to act like such a goof-off all the time, or what drove Steve Christy to reopen the camp after so many mysterious and tragic incidents, then you'll get that and more in this novelization of one …

reviewed The Highland Fling Murders by Donald Bain (Murder, She Wrote, #8)

Donald Bain, Jessica Fletcher: The Highland Fling Murders (1997, Signet) 3 stars

The seventh novel based on the television program finds Jessica Fletcher on a visit to …

A High Point So Far

3 stars

I honestly had pretty low hopes for this installment in the series, since I assumed it would feature heavily on the character of George Sutherland, whom I don't care about. I read for two reasons--Jessica and murder. Not Jess's romances. Even so, the story kept my interest the whole way through. A creepy old castle thrust into darkness, with the pall of the local town's urban legend hanging over everyone, spooky apparitions, and a close call for our protagonist on an outing. Like a Scottish haunted house story. Unfortunately, as seems to be a theme for these books, the ending got muddied. Motivations were a bit lacking, and the killer(s) not believable. Overall, an improvement for sure, but these still need work.

Cameron Roubique: Kill River (Paperback, 2015, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform) 2 stars

In the summer of 1983, thirteen-year-old Cyndi and her three new-found friends, Stacy, Zack, and …

Killer setting, but a little bit dead in the water

3 stars

This book definitely had some flaws. For one, it was overly descriptive. Knowing the very specific layout of the park to such specificity wasn’t a necessity. I can imagine a water park in my mind on my own with only some basic details, and it would have sufficed for this purpose. Also, I didn’t feel myself rooting too strongly for the protagonist. She was well-rounded, but just not as likable as I felt she should have been. And in the end, we didn’t get anything about the motivations of the killer(s).

And yet, the book was pretty much exactly what I was looking for—a summer camp (almost) slasher with a nostalgia factor (the 80s!)—and I couldn’t put it down. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in this series. Hopefully the author revises his writing style, brings me closer to the characters, and throws down interesting breadcrumbs about the …

reviewed A Palette for Murder by Donald Bain (Murder, She Wrote, #7)

Donald Bain, Jessica Fletcher: A Palette for Murder (1996, A Signet Book) 3 stars

Not Easel-y Believed

2 stars

From just the back cover, I was excited to start this book. But it ultimately became something different and unbelievable in the same vein as MSW #2: Brandy and Bullets. I almost didn’t even really start this book. At the end of one of the first chapters, Jessica plays a cruel trick on a shop owner, for no reason other than her own amusement. It was so far removed from the Jessica I know. I really didn’t enjoy this installment very much.

reviewed A Deadly Judgment by Donald Bain (Murder, She Wrote, #6)

Donald Bain, Jessica Fletcher: A Deadly Judgment (1996, Signet) 3 stars

Helping her lawyer friend, Malcolm McLoon, defend a tycoon who has been accused of fratricide, …

Split Verdict

3 stars

Interesting premise, sort of, but the story was a little bit of a maze. The final outcome of Jessica’s lawyer friend (was he really a friend?) felt odd too. I did not sympathize with the defendant at any point. Not awful, but definitely not great.

Edit to add: While this didn’t impact my review of the story, whatever edition I read of it was rife with spelling mistakes and incorrect names (e.g. J.“D.” Fletcher…) to an embarrassing degree. I hope the book was proofread and all these errors were fixed in a later edition.

reviewed Martinis & Mayhem by Donald Bain (Murder, She Wrote, #5)

Donald Bain, Jessica Fletcher: Martinis & Mayhem (1995, Penguin Group) 3 stars

Jessica Untethered! Almost.

3 stars

This book was better than previous ones in the series. For the first time, Jessica wasn’t saddled with her trusty friends Sheriff Metzger and Seth, though we did get brief phone calls and a reunion at the end. Even so, she was joined by yet another companion—also a romantic interest, which doesn’t interest me at all. The cast of characters was more the stuff of the MSW television series, with some diverse oddballs. I liked them, even though I felt like a couple of them were really unnecessary. Overall a welcome addition to this series, if not feeling just a tad hamfisted and overpopulated.

reviewed Brandy & Bullets by Donald Bain (Murder, She Wrote, #4)

Donald Bain, Jessica Fletcher: Brandy & Bullets (1995, Signet) 3 stars

Fell short

3 stars

I thought this story was really interesting for most of it. It was set in Cabot Cove and had more of the MSW charm the previous three novels were missing. There were some short-lived oversights in character, like when Jessica mentions that she doesn’t consider herself much of a teacher, despite having been an English teacher her entire pre-author career in the television series. But the ending really threw me for a loop and felt incredibly unbelievable.