Brandy & Bullets: A Murder, She Wrote Mystery by Jessica Fletcher & Donald Bain

               Finally!  It has taken four books, but I am now starting to hear Angela Lansbury’s voice when I read this series.  It’s not all the time.  Just lines here and there where I can hear Ms. Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher say the words on the page.

                Now, with that starting to get in order, I am curious as to why the story says Mrs. Fletcher doesn’t have any teaching experience.  In the TV show she was a teacher for years.  Despite the book series growing, there are definitely still some inconsistencies from the show.

                For years the town of Cabot Cove has been allowed to use the Worrell Mansion as a conference center and park.  That may all change with the most recent heir of the mansion deciding to sell the property to a group who wants to turn it into an art retreat center.  People will be able to go to the center to work on their art and enjoy the grounds.  The art can be writing, music, or painting, amongst other types of art forms.  The thought is the center will help Cabot Cove become the cultural center it wasn’t before.

                The townspeople do not see things the same way.  They claim that all artists are drug addicts, alcoholics, and addicted to sex.  Over and over they say this directly in front of best-selling mystery author and Cabot Cove resident, Jessica Fletcher.  None of them pause to think they may be spouting stereotypes or insulting a woman they call a friend.  In fact, the mayor is so bold, that after insulting Jessica and writers like her, she asks Jessica for her help in stopping the center.  Refusing to take sides, Jessica tells everyone to wait and see what happens once the center gets running.

                What happens is a suicide, an attempted suicide, and a missing person.  Jessica doesn’t know the first two people, but she knows the man who goes missing.  His name is Norman Huffaker, and he is an old friend of Jessica’s.  A successful screenwriter for many years, Norman is struggling with his most recent screenplay.  He goes all the way from California to Cabot Cove, Maine to attend the retreat in hopes it will help with his writer’s block.  What happens instead is Norman disappears, considered possibly another suicide.

                With so many occurrences and possible deaths, something odd has to be going on at the retreat center.  To find out exactly what, Jessica checks in herself.

                I read this book so quickly.  Even though I really should have been doing other things, all I did was read.  Maybe it’s because Jessica was back in Cabot Cove, but for the first time I felt I was reading about the TV series I love.  That is probably why I did not want to put the book down.  So, I didn’t.