Murder, She Wrote

Rum & Razors

  - Jessica Fletcher

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The rating is for this particular book, though the review is for the books 1-3 (I rated the other two at 3 stars, but I was kind of frustrated by the time I reached this one).

I like reading murder mysteries and action thrillers, but the old school types (like Holmes and Christie, Perry Mason and Alistair Mclean) that do not feature psychopaths and sexual abuse. In my online reading group, I had seen recommendations of this series as cozy murder mysteries, and heard of the TV series also. Though I had assumed that TV series was based on books, but learnt that it was the other way around.

I read the first three books in the series over the weekend. The mystery part was okay, but I found the protagonist, Jessica Fletcher, increasingly annoying, so that I was ready to abandon the third book midway (but I find it very difficult to leave a book midway, not because of a compulsive behavior, but because I am too curious to know what happens in a story 😄).

Does anyone else who has read it (I haven't watched the series so can't comment on that) find it exasperating that she leads a fairy tale life (which is not so troublesome in itself), and appears to think that her fame and charm gives her the right to invade other people's privacy and professional confidence? That other people owe her answers to satisfy her curiosity? That she lacks the common sense to keep her mouth shut when occasion demands it?

She finds some crucial information about a murder and blabs it to everyone (in real world, and even in good murder mysteries, it leads to a person getting killed 😄) She meets a senator and tells him that she is visiting senate house to see him because she heard of the corruption charges against him (even if he is friend of a friend, and she is terribly famous, no sane or courteous person would speak this, specially in a first meeting 🙄) She asks a police officer to get a false charge against a person published in newspaper and he even does so (in real world it would result in a big lawsuit!)