Murder, She Wrote: Death on the Emerald Isle

The Jessica Fletcher books are remarkable in the way that they completely capture the tone and spirit of the original TV series. Yes, they are longer, and could not be told in an hour film, but the sensibility is there. The words SOUND just like Jessica would say them. Her attnetion to detail and discovery of clues is as always. The only thing about this book is that it has a large number of characters, some related, some related by marriage, some connected by business. And with similar Irish names. In a book like this, I would have loved to see and old fashioned "Cast of Characters" listing towards the beginning, so I could refer to it and remember exactly how everyone fits in the story. Clearly, a lot of research was done on the locations. The Devil's Causeway, for example, is a real geological site in Ireland, and it's described here beautifully.

Good book

Arrived in great shape. Good buy

Very goodA very good book.Nice read. Describes lots of scenery.Very good but a long read for me that is. Much scenery described. Made your feel like you were there.

In process of reading this now. Seems like it’s going to be very goof

This book was a great Murder, She Wrote. It was written in the same style that Donald Bain used for his books. Also, I did not guess who committed the murder. I really enjoyed 2 of the characters, Maggie and Owen. The author should consider them as the main characters in a new mystery series. Finally, there was a tribute to Angela Lansbury who brought these books to life.

Jessica Fletcher is at her best as a savvy amateur (not so amateur anymore) sleuth in this fifty-something outing, and the taste of Irish life is simply delightful. Kudos to Terrie Moran who has done good research, probably on the ground, into village life in Ireland. It helps that Terrie claims Irish heritage, but the result is some good reading. I'm looking forward to where Jessica goes next.

Jessica Fletcher’s trip to Northern Island to help a friend as well as a neighbor proved to be disappointing in this somewhat pleasant but oddly constructed tale that’s told slowly, too slowly for this reader.Death on the Emerald Isle features our heroine undertaking a two-part journey, first as a substitute guest speaker at a book festival, and then as an emissary for her Cabot Cove neighbor, Maeve O’Bannon, delivering antique paintings to Maeve’s family residing in the village of Bushmills. What’s perplexing is that Jessica meets some quirky characters at the festival that are promptly forgotten. The author could’ve made this book far more interesting by linking these characters with members of the O’Bannon family Jessica encounters later on.The body of Maeve’s cousin Michael O’Bannon isn’t discovered by Jessica until 70 pages into the book, and the story continues to drag as though the author couldn’t decide on how Jessica should proceed. Too much time is wasted on tea drinking, scone munching and sightseeing, and on Jessica being exalted as a goddess by people who don’t even know her, outside of her popular mystery books. Oddities in the narrative include myriad party scenes, a hallmark of both the TV and book series, that don’t lead anywhere, and a tea party with members of the O’Bannon family gathering around a dining table and asking Jessica to recount her discovery of Michael’s body. It’s all a little too unbelievable.The back of the book talks about O’Bannon family secrets, but that proves to be a weak selling point. The conflict is centered around the O’Bannon family business, a merger and a shipping issue. One highly apparent clue planted toward the end of the book immediately identifies the killer. Jessica’s unmasking of the perpetrator is somewhat memorable, but hardly as exciting as some of the nail-biting finales of other Murder, She Wrote offerings.Although a highly imaginative tale, Death on the Emerald Isle suffers from a lack of character and plot development, and a little too much frivolity, for it to be considered one of the best in this long-running series.