Leafing Through Pages – A Palette For Murder (Murder, She Wrote # 7)

For review of all movies and TV shows by Dame Angela Lansbury, go here.

For movies, TV shows and books surrounding actors and actresses who were part of Dame Angela Lansbury’s 80’s and 90’s American crime drama television series Murder, She Wrote, go here and here.

Stars: 3 / 5

Recommendation: Delving into deadly under-belly of the art world is no walk in the park. Yet Jessica braves into that world while keeping her rooted to the outside world. Unusual to see so many errors in these books, yet it made for a very decent cozy mystery.

A Palette for Murder is the seventh book in the Murder She Wrote series by Donald Bain and fictional writer Jessica Fletcher. This was first published on October 1 1996. Jessica Fletcher is in the elegant Hamptons for a much needed leisure time as well as to indulge herself with her secret passion of painting Instead she gets embroiled in a murder mystery of fellow artists, a deadly conspiracy involving art forgery and an evil killer out to get Jessica.

This is my take on the series of books written by a plethora of authors and Jessica Fletcher (fictional author) based on the 80s and 90s popular American crime drama television series Murder, She Wrote. These books are ghost written by Donald Bain and fictional author Jessica Fletcher for the first 43 books until 2015. Then Donald Bain wrote these with Renee Paley Bain and Jon Land for more books before Jon Land alone continued with Jessica Fletcher for 5 more books until 2020. Starting 2021 the series was picked by Terrie Farley Moran again pairing with the fictional writer Jessica Fletcher.

Jessica has her faithful publisher Vaughan Buckley of the Buckley House and his model wife Olga Buckley by her side while she is solving the mystery. One thing I did see different from the TV series is her potential love interest – in the TV show it was Michael Hagarty while in the book series in seems like it is George Sutherland. Both are mentioned to be Senior Inspectors with Scotland Yard, although Michael is tied with MI6 as well.

The plot coves not only art forgery but also black market business in book publishing. Not sure if it still happens, but the author mentions how book stores tear the paperback covers of their unsold books, return the covers to the publisher for a full refund while they sell the coverless books again to street vendors.

It is not a straight forward murder again that Jessica tries to solve. There are loops and hoops to jump; genuine and fake clues to traverse; all the while dealing with the evil artist who is bent on killing everyone that come in their way. Art forgery and international smuggling of artifacts is taken to a new level with this plot.

Delving into deadly under-belly of the art world is no walk in the park. Yet Jessica braves into that world while keeping her rooted to the outside world. Through her eyes we get to see the lives of various people around her. Unusual to see so many errors in these books, yet it made for a very decent cozy mystery.

Spoiler Alerts:

Plot Reveals:

1. Various folks Jessica comes across in her hunt for the murderer – Dean Carlisle at New York University; Hans Muller; Maurice St. James, a gallery owner; Carlton Wells, art instructor; Anna Harris, another artist ; Mr. Scott, inn owner; Blaine Dorsey, murdered girl Miki’s father; Waldine Peckham, another artist; Chris Turi, another artist; Fred Mayer, her cab driver while in the Hamptons; Deputy Watson’ Debbie Lane, another artist; Chief Hopeful Cramer.

Sub Plots:

1. Friends of Jessica Fletcher – her publisher Vaughan Buckley of Buckley House, his fashion model wife Olga Buckley and their dogs Sadie and Rose; Dr. Seth Hazlitt, long-time friend in Cabot Cove, Maine; George Sutherland, senior inspector with Scotland Yard; Morton Metzger, Cabot Cove Sherriff.
2. George Sutherland and Jessica Fletcher are seen to have first met in the very first book based off of the famous TV Show, Gin and Daggers published in January 1st, 1989 and written by Donald Bain and fictional writer Jessica Fletcher. I haven’t read that book yet.
3. There is mention of Martinis & Mayhem, the 5th book in this series again written by Donald Bain and Jessica Fletcher, where she connects with George Sutherland again.
4. George and Jessica decide to meet up in London – I wonder which future book was based on that trip.

Grammatical / Character / Plot / Geographical / Historical / Mythological Errors:

1. Shouldn’t it be “J. B. Fletcher” on Line 6 in Page 11?
2. Again J. B. Fletcher is mentioned as “J. D. Fletcher” on Page 18, last line.
3. On Pg 22, Line 9 it is “J. D. Fletcher” again.
4. It’s again the same on Pg. 45 last line – J. D. Fletcher.
5. On Page 217, Line 3, it should be “number given to me…”
6. The first page of Chapter Twenty-Six is printed twice.