Leafing Through Pages – A Deadly Judgment (Murder, She Wrote # 6)

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Stars: 3 / 5
Recommendation: Definitely a plot that starts slowly, rambles along a bit, and suddenly drops you into a maze of clues, suspects and scenarios before it ends up neatly tied up in a little bow.

A Deadly Judgment is the 6th book in the Murder She Wrote series co-written by Donald Bain & fictional writer Jessica Fletcher. It was first published on April 1 1996. In this plot Jessica is a jury consultant to her eccentric lawyer friend Malcolm McLoon who is defending a tycoon William Brannigan of killing his own brother Jack Brannigan. Again she gets pulled into a web of conspiracy, murder and hidden agendas.

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.

I wonder if they will stop writing these novels anymore considering the death of Angela Lansbury (the star who portrayed the role of Jessica Fletcher in the TV Series and who has her face on the covers of these books) on October 11 2022. Although they did have the 56th novel in the series, Death on the Emerald Isle, published on Jan 3rd 2023, three months after her passing away.

In the Murder, She Wrote series, we see Jessica become a foreperson in the Season 2, Episode 13 Trail by Error. Incidentally in this book the author makes her a jury consultant. At a time when jury consulting was pretty new to te world of law and order.

We get a front row view of Boston and its surroundings from Jessica’s tourist eye. Makes me want to go see those Purple Windows and Swan Boats myself. While exploring Boston we see a murder trail from her point of view taking the readers into the world of gambling, conspiracy, innocent murder victims and greedy businesses.

Its surprising to see so many grammatical and character errors in the book. Someone who edited it, apparently havent done a good job at all. Despite the errors, the plot did held the reader’s attention although the eccentric lawyer was more than expected. Also the closure for the lawyer was very unexpected.

Author Bain gave considerable twists and turns sometimes bordering on confusing the reader. However, he managed to tie them all together towards the last few chapters. Although one key person’s aspect is not closed, and looks like there could be more story to follow, and felt like an abrupt end. Then there are a few loose ends for other characters as well that are left hanging.

Being one of the earlier books, we see considerable mis-steps by the author. Yet its definitely a plot that starts slowly, rambles along a bit, and suddenly drops you into a maze of clues, suspects and scenarios before it ends up neatly tied up in a little bow.

Spoiler Alerts:

1. Plot Reveals:
    a. Towards the end Jessica is set to base her next book on a small regional airliner. But I read the next book in the series already - the 7th book, A Palette For Murder; and it is far from airliners. 🙂
    b. Dr. Seth Hazlitt is seen dating jury consultant Jill Farkas at the end of the book. 

2. Sub Plots:
    a. 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 "Mort" Metzger, Cabot Cove Sherriff and his wife Adele; Henry McGraw, her private eye friend; Eve Simpson, realtor friend working at Cabot Cove Realty; Jed Richardson, only bush pilot for Cabot Cove; Mara, restaurant owner; 
    b. Jessica Fletcher’s family – Grady Fletcher, nephew that she and Frank raises
    c. George and Jessica decide to meet up in London in the seventh book, A Palette for Murder – I wonder which future book was based on that trip.
    d. In the 50th book, A Time for Murder, Jessica is shown at Hill House, Cabot Cove’s very own Inn due to a fire at her Victorian home at 698 Candlewood Lame. I wonder if the 49th book, Murder in Red, has anything to do with her house getting caught fire which almost killed her.
    e. Ex-Sherriff Amos Tupper and Jessica reminisce on a case they solved that happened on a bus they were taking to a police convention. This is a real episode that was on the TV show – Murder Takes the Bus from Season 1 Episode 18.

3. Grammatical / Character / Plot / Geographical / Historical / Mythological Errors:
    a. On Pg. 12, Line 6, Jessica is addressed as "Ms. Fletcher".
    b. On Pg. 17, Line 8, it ends with a closing quote that is not required.
    c. On Pg. 37, Line 3 from bottom, shouldn’t it be "…I can never seem to…"
    d. On Pg. 42, Line 2 from bottom, it should be "…nothing about…"
    e. On Pg. 44, Line 2 should be "…that a pleasant…"
    f. On Pg. 64, Line 11 from bottom, an extra opening quote at the beginning of the line is not required.
    g. On Pg. 81, Line 2 from bottom, an extra opening quote at the beginning of the line is not required.
    h. On Pg. 99, Line 7 it should be "…the grin on…"
    i. On Pg. 134, Line 8, the word "My" is capitalized without cause.
    j. On Pg. 140, Line 8, it should be "..did another jig."
    k. On Pg. 144, Line 7, shouldn’t it be "…that derail the defense.."?
    l. On Pg. 149, Line 2 from bottom, there is an extra opening quote at the beginning of the line "As you know".
    m. On Pg. 198, both Jessica and the driver Cathie listen to a news bulletin about Judge considering to rule about the alleged letter written by murder victim the following day. However in a later scene on Pg. 201, the driver Cathie gets surprised when Jessica mentions the letter. Shouldn’t she have guessed what letter was it based on the new bulletin?