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Mack Howard and Murray Gruen were a celebrated comical duo but party in anger years back. Now Murray's daughter Corrie and Mack's son Kip (a young and shaggy George Clooney) are engaged, and some family and friends, including family friend Jessica Fletcher, are meeting for an engagement dinner at Murray's run-down Hiawatha lodge. It's not long before Murray and Mack are at it again, each claiming the other stole a fortune in royalties on videos of the duo. There's back-stabbing and murder, quite literally, before any resolution can be found, thanks to JB.
posted by filthy light thief on Mar 21, 2015 - 3 comments

When Jessica gets a call from a British solicitor telling her she has inherited her cousin Emma McGill's estate, she heads off to London. The estate in question is primarily a 50% share in the Mayhew Music Hall where Emma and her good friend Oliver Trumbull headline a old style revue that, unfortunately for them, isn't very popular any more. But soon after Jessica arrives, she learns Emma is alive and well. She has faked her death because she believes that someone has tries to kill her on several occasions. Emma has been under pressure to sell her share of the Mayhew and is certain that is behind it all. Suspicion soon falls on Trumbull but both Jessica and Trumbull's daughter Kitty feel that he is innocent. Working with Scotland Inspector Roger Crimmins, Jessica lays a trap.
posted by filthy light thief on Nov 15, 2014 - 2 comments

Jessica goes to visit her niece, Nita Cochran, an actress in a daytime soap opera. The show features the mysterious masked murderer, "The Avenger," and it turns out that a pretend victim is really dead.
posted by filthy light thief on Nov 8, 2014 - 0 comments

Jessica is in New York for meetings with her publisher but her nephew Grady has a new job as the accountant for a new Broadway musical that will star Hollywood legend Rita Bristol and her daughter Patti. After a rehearsal Barry (Rita's son, who put the financing for the show together) and Patti Bristol are walking to the parking garage when a pistol-wielding mugger jumps out from behind a dumpster demanding money. Patti is seriously wounded but Barry, who's been mugged several times, kills the man with his own gun. It doesn't add up for Jessica however and when an attempt is made on Rita's life, Jessica sets a trap.
posted by filthy light thief on Sep 23, 2014 - 3 comments

Jessica is shocked when the stars of a visiting Russian ballet defect with the help of her friend and fellow Cabot Cove resident Leo Peterson. In the confusion following the performance and defection, Russian security officer Serge Berensky is stabbed to death in the defectors' dressing room. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Sep 14, 2014 - 5 comments

Jessica travels to Hollywood when she learns that producer Jerry Lydecker is making substantial changes to the film version of her book. Jessica isn't the only one who is upset with Lydecker, the hard-nosed businessman who has a knack for alienating everyone around him. Who doesn't want that guy dead? Was there a conspiracy around the murder, or something else?
posted by filthy light thief on Aug 26, 2014 - 7 comments