Murder, She Wrote: A Time for Murder by Jon Land

Murder, She Wrote: A Time for Murder by Jon Land ISBN-13: 9781984804303 Hardcover: 272 pages Publisher: Berkley Released: November 26th 2019

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Two timelines converge. 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 is interviewed by a woman who later turns up dead. She turns out to have 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.


My Review:
A Time for Murder is a cozy mystery. This is the 50th 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.

The book had two mysteries: Jessica's first murder investigation which occurred 25 years ago and one that was happening currently. The old murder was told a bit at a time, explaining the clues as Jessica spotted them. Whodunit was a strong suspect, but I couldn't be sure until the final clues that Jessica revealed as the murder was arrested.

The current murder case was connected to that old case because the murdered man's daughter was investigating that murder when she was killed. The characters bantered with each other as they traveled around asking questions and tracking down clues. The current case was solved more by a sudden insight than with clues and evidence, though I did guess whodunit as a possibility.

I enjoyed the book until the unbelievable, adventure-movie-style ending. Jessica is apparently a superwoman in disguise, and we didn't know it. The ending was also left so that we don't know if whodunit is actually arrested, which I didn't find satisfying. There was no sex. There was one use of mild bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this interesting mystery.


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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