Murder Month 2019 - Murder She Wrote: Gin and Daggers

• Title And Author: Murder She Wrote: Gin and Dagger by Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Physical
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Borrow from local library
• Length: 261 Pages

I bet you thought when I decided to do a possible crime reading month back in May, you didn’t think I was going to start with Murder She Wrote. But yeah, I am and I have no shame. 

The first book in the series, best selling author Jessica Fletcher is off to London for be a keynote speaker as a mystery writers convention. She’s also looking forward to meeting her friend and fellow crime writer, Marjorie Ainsworth, who she’s hasn’t seen in so long. When Marjorie invites Jessica to a house party to celebrate the release of her new novel, Gin and Daggers, Jessica happily accept. But the party ends with murder when Jessica discovers Marjorie stabbed in her bed… 

When I first discovered this book spinoff series existed, I went “This is no way going to be as fun as the TV show” and yet I still wanted to read at least one of the titles in this series. And it’s a long series. At the time of you guys reading this, its 50th instalment will be published this coming November. FIFTY BOOKS in this series, and it’s not going to end any time soon as it’s still hugely popular, plus the TV is still hugely popular with reruns still airing on TV channels round the world (according to me Googling, 5USA is the UK home for Jessica now, but ITV, BBC and Alibi have all been home in the past ten years). 

So… what do I think of this?

Where the heck do I start? Of course this isn’t the TV show. The TV series is far better, as this felt… I’m not sure how to describe it. It’s a light, fluffy read with some of the Murder She Wrote vibes. Not all of the vibes, but some. 

But you can tell this was the first in the book series as Jessica did and said things that felt very out of character. And it did feel a tad dated as this, I think, was first published in the late 1980s and was the first book in the book seres (I have been told via several reviews that the author gets Jessica from around the tenth book onwards so maybe I should try another book later in the series…)

Plus, it’s a bit weird reading a book inside Jessica Fletcher’s head when the TV series is a much more relaxed. I think, because of this, people might find this a tad jarring and, like I did find that I was skimming in some places. 

But, and here is the thing, I didn’t expect it to be good or to rock my world. I expected it to be an easy, cosy read with vibes to the TV show. Hell, I expect it to be a trashfire! So, my bar for this was low, and was surprised that I did like it. I don’t think I would read it again in the same way I would happily binge-watch the series, but I’m not going to say I will never read another book in the series. I have my eye on one or two titles, but I can understand why no UK publishers publish this series…