Manuscript for Murder by Jessica Fletcher, Jon Land

Murder, She Wrote: Manuscript for Murder by Jessica Fletcher, Jon Land ISBN-13: 9780451489302 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Berkley Released: Nov. 6, 2018

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Jessica Fletcher has never had any reason to worry about her longtime publisher, Lane Barfield, who also happens to be a trusted friend. When another author claims Lane has been stealing from their royalties, Jessica reluctantly investigates. But that author and then Lane turn up dead, apparently from suicide, though Jessica spots indications of murder.

Lane's latest, sure-to-be-a-best-seller acquisition goes completely missing from the system--no traces left behind at all--and anyone who has read the manuscript turns up dead from apparent suicide. Jessica uses the hard copy Lane gave her to find clues that seem to point to shadowy powers controlling the president who are willing to kill to hide their influence.


My Review:
Manuscript for Murder is a cozy thriller. This is the forty-eighth book in the series. You don't have to read the previous novels to understand this one, and this one doesn't spoil the whodunit of previous novels.

This book was written like a thriller, only there was too much filler material slowing the pace. The author also kept repeating things again and again, even if the information had been stated just a paragraph or page ago. Also, we're supposed to believe that the manuscript is an exciting thriller. Jessica even says so. Yet she kept falling asleep every few paragraphs while she's reading it, so she never finished the book. That makes it sound very boring. Basically, the suspense was more stated ("Jessica was afraid" type of thing) than felt by me.

Jessica was so convinced that the important clues were in the manuscript that she overlooked obvious clues in reality--clues which allowed me to easily guess some of the twists at the end. Due to Jessica's focus on finding obscure clues, the story wasn't really a puzzle mystery but a race to uncover the bad guys while avoiding death. The premise is silly, though, because few people would believe that a fictional thriller revealed what was really going on in Washington DC. There was no need to kill a bunch of people and risk bringing attention to a book that otherwise would have been harmless.

There were some funny characters in this book, so it was still an enjoyable read. But the characters weren't really true to the series or even the previous books. There was no sex. There were a few uses of bad language.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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