The second in 2000 contained corrections on the first. Librarian's note #1: there are two editions of this novel, a rarity in the field. The routine business trip for Jessica becomes murderous-when she discovers Marjorie stabbed to death in her own bedroom. Marjorie is the grand dame of mystery writing but she's in frail health. She's also looking forward to seeing her mentor, Marjorie Ainsworth, who will be hosting a party at her country estate to celebrate her latest book. I highly recommend this novel.Jessica Fletcher is off to London to deliver the keynote address at a mystery writers convention. It was nice to read how Jessica and George met. I also thought there was a nice theme throughout the conference portions of the novel pondering how literary mystery novels could be, or is it all just popular fiction? My own take is that I do believe they can be literary fiction. Jessica’s good friends, Seth and Mort, showed up in London to assist her. There were questions if Marjorie was in fact the author of her recent novel Gin & Daggers. There was a clever red herring/misdirection.

He also knows of her reputation in solving some cases in her hometown of Cabot Cove. He does not seem to take her seriously as a suspect because he takes her out to dinner numerous times. This is how she meets her long-distance romantic interest, Inspector George Sutherland of Scotland Yard. Jessica is deemed the prime suspect (especially after she inherits some money from Marjorie’s will). In the middle of the night, after the dinner, she finds Marjorie dead in her bedroom with a knife sticking out of her chest. Jessica is invited to her estate, along with a group of friends in the publishing world. Before the conference, she visits Marjorie Ainsworth, who is considered the grand dame of mystery writers. Jessica is invited to a mystery writer’s conference in London, England. (My reason for this is documented in my review for Book 2). As I explained in a previous post, I was confused on what novel was Book One in the Murder, She Wrote mystery series.

Gin and daggers