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| 2 | %%Image kept on page per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1651066610079274300 |
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| 5 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/murdershewrote02.jpg]] |
| 6 | [[caption-width-right:350:''"[[LampshadeHanging What is this, the death capital of Maine?]]"'']] |
| 7 | |
| 8 | ->'''Jack Kowalski:''' You ask a lot of questions.\ |
| 9 | '''Jessica Fletcher:''' I'm nosy. |
| 10 | -->--"[[Recap/MurderSheWroteS1E5LoversAndOtherKillers Lovers And Other Killers]]" |
| 11 | |
| 12 | ''Murder, She Wrote'' is a popular, [[LongRunners long-running]] television [[CrimeAndPunishmentSeries/DetectiveDrama mystery series]] created by Peter S. Fischer and the team of Creator/LevinsonAndLink, starring Creator/AngelaLansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher, who lives in the fictional town of Cabot Cove, Maine. The series aired for 12 seasons on Creator/{{CBS}}, from 1984 to 1996. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | [[StrictlyFormula Ruthlessly formulaic]], most of the show's episodes follow a standard format: a murder is discovered, Jessica [[AmateurSleuth starts snooping around]], the police tell her to let professionals handle things, [[PoliceAreUseless she ignores them]], then deduces the murderer's identity in a EurekaMoment, and finally [[EngineeredPublicConfession engineers a public confession]], frequently by tricking the murderer into a JustBetweenYouAndMe. And then [[EverybodyLaughsEnding everybody laughs]]. Later seasons did mess with the formula a bit, changing the mysteries from [[Creator/AgathaChristie Christie-style]] whodunnits to [[Series/{{Columbo}} Columbo-style]] [[ReverseWhodunnit howcatchums]]. All three of the show's creators were tied to ''Columbo''. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | The series was followed by a series of four made-for-TV films, aired from 1997 to 2003, and also led to a short-lived SpinOff, ''The Law and Harry [=McGraw=]''. Angela Lansbury has said she'd like to take one more swing at Jessica Fletcher, but no one else has shown interest. Additionally, rumors began in late 2013 that a possible reboot was in the works, with Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer as a "hospital administrator and amateur sleuth who self-publishes her first mystery novel." After a lukewarm reception from fans and Lansbury herself, the idea was shelved. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | An [[EpilepticTrees amusing interpretation]], [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded in the show, no less]], is that there is no better explanation for [[MysteryMagnet the sheer number of murders the lead character encounters]] throughout the long run of the series than [[TheKillerInMe her involvement in all of them]]. Indeed, if Cabot Cove alone were really to have suffered that many murders, it would top the FBI national crime statistics by several orders of magnitude. Not only does this one town see more homicides in a season than the entire state of Maine sees per year in real life, but the town has an estimated murder rate '''eighty-six times''' higher than the most murderous city in the real world, Caracas, Venezuela. Also, if you're Jessica Fletcher's friend in any capacity but not [[PlotArmor an episode regular]], you're pretty much [[DoomMagnet doomed either to kill someone or be killed, or be wrongly arrested for being a killer]]. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | -> [[LampshadeHanging “What is this, the death capital of Maine?! On a per capita basis this place makes the South Bronx look like Sunnybrook Farm!”]] — [[LogicalLatecomer new Sheriff Mort Metzger on Cabot Cove]]. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | In an interesting cross-media spin-off, Donald Bain wrote [[ExpandedUniverse several mystery novels inspired by the series]], all of which credited Lansbury's character Jessica Fletcher as a co-writer. The series continued after his death, with Jon Land [[PosthumousCollaboration completing Bain's last work (book #47)]] and then taking over as main writer (with Bain's grandson as a consultant) for books 48 to 52. As of July 2020, Terrie Farley Moran has been announced as succeeding Land as the main author, from books 53 on. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | Now has a [[Characters/MurderSheWrote character sheet]]. Feel free to contribute. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | ---- |
| 27 | !!The series in general contains examples of: |
| 28 | |
| 29 | [[folder:A-K]] |
| 30 | * ActorAllusion: Given [[Creator/AngelaLansbury who the lead is]], this is inevitable. [[Literature/DeathOnTheNile Playing drunk]] in "My Johnny Lies Over the Ocean" comes to mind. |
| 31 | ** The very first episode starts with Jessica Fletcher watching the rehearsal of a murder mystery play and calmly pointing out who did it by the end of the first act. Angela Lansbury did much the same thing at the beginning of the 1980 film adaptation of ''The Mirror Crack'd'', in the role of Miss Marple. |
| 32 | ** Another one for Angela Lansbury, in "It Runs In the Family" (in which Jessica doesn't appear at all, and Angela plays Jessica's lookalike cousin Emma) Emma sings "How'd You Like To Spoon With Me?", a song Angela performed originally in an MGM musical, ''Til The Clouds Roll By''. |
| 33 | ** In "Sing a Song of Murder" Angela Lansbury, also playing Jessica's cousin Emma, sings "Goodbye Little Yellow Bird" a song that Lansbury also sang in the film version of ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' in 1945 |
| 34 | ** "Hooray for Homicide" features a movie producer that specializes in the slasher genre, played by [[Film/BlackChristmas1974 John]] [[Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet1984 Saxon]]. The episode aired only weeks before ''A Nightmare On Elm Street'' came out. |
| 35 | ** The episode "Murder in a Minor Key" has Shaun Cassidy playing a young college student who turns AmateurSleuth to solve a murder, a callback to Shaun's biggest role of Joe Hardy in the ''Series/TheHardyBoysNancyDrewMysteries''. Not to mention the character's named "Chad Singer"... a reference to [[TeenIdol Shaun's pop music career]]. |
| 36 | ** "Sticks and Stones" features Parker Stevenson -- aka [[Series/TheHardyBoysNancyDrewMysteries Frank Hardy]] -- as Michael Digby, a travel book writer/photographer. At one point Michael is trying to show his photos to a very disinterested Jessica (which is funny enough, as Parker is a professional photographer in real life), Jessica asks him if he would like to play detective for her... |
| 37 | --->'''Michael:''' Play a ''detective?'' Me??? YEAH!!! |
| 38 | ** "Trial by Error": There's something ''really'' [[CastingGag ironic]] about [[Film/{{ToKillAMockingbird}} Brock Peters]] as a juror most steadfastly convinced that the man on trial is guilty. |
| 39 | ** "Birds of a Feather": Jeff Conaway as a man who used to be an aspiring actor who drove a [[{{Series/Taxi}} taxi]]. |
| 40 | ** [[Film/AnimalHouse John Vernon]] ironically has a non-faculty role in "School for Scandal". |
| 41 | ** [[Series/Adam12 Martin Milner]] plays a sheriff in "Reflections of the Mind". |
| 42 | ** George Hearn [[Theatre/SweeneyTodd runs a restaurant]] in "Trials and Tribulations". |
| 43 | ** Creator/LeslieNielsen is [[Film/ThePoseidonAdventure a ship captain]] once again in "My Johnny Lies Over the Ocean". |
| 44 | ** "Something Borrowed, Someone Blue" has [[Film/FridayThe13Th1980 Betsy Palmer]] as [[spoiler: the murderer]] once again. |
| 45 | ** In season 1 episode "Sudden Death" real-life football star Dick Butkus and Olympian-turned-reality-TV-personality (and former high school football player) Caitlyn Jenner (pre-transition and still credited as Bruce) play football players on fictional team the Leopards. |
| 46 | * AgainWithFeeling: This is very common. It's often paired Jessica Fletcher having a "Eureka!" Moment. Often, she makes a casual statement about something unrelated to the crime at hand, then realize how it proves the culprit's guilt and triumphantly repeats herself before rushing off to share her findings with the police. |
| 47 | * AllJustADream: Well...more of a daydream with [[spoiler: "The Petrified Florist". Jessica spends a tedious dinner party imagining the other guests as characters in a murder mystery she'd write. We don't find out it was all in her head until the end]]. |
| 48 | * AlwaysMurder: Enforced by the show's format. If the episode doesn't open with a murder and seems to start with a different crime, expect someone to turn up dead later so Jessica has to work through not only the other crimes but a murder as well. There's a few notable exceptions: |
| 49 | ** [[spoiler: "Just Another Fish Story"]] and [[spoiler: "Footnote to Murder"]]: Self-defense. |
| 50 | ** "To The Last Will I Grapple With Thee": Suicide staged to look like murder to frame a longtime enemy for the crime. |
| 51 | ** "The Christmas Mystery": Attempted murder; the victim survives. |
| 52 | ** "Test of Wills": The victim attempted to take a gun off someone who was attempting suicide and was accidentally shot. The attempt to cover it up may push it into criminal manslaughter territory. |
| 53 | ** Inverted in one episode where the victim's death is thought to be the result of medical malpractice and her doctor is about to be either sued for this or arrested for manslaughter/negligent homicide. Further investigation, however, determines that she was poisoned, meaning it ''is'' a murder after all. |
| 54 | ** "Jessica Behind Bars" subverts this and then plays it straight. [[spoiler: The first victim was a GuiltRiddenAccomplice who actually committed suicide. The circumstances of her death and the pilfering of a suicide note made it at first appear to be murder. However, the second victim was in fact killed because she was a loose thread that may have led to the reveal behind why the first victim took her life.]] |
| 55 | ** "Mirror Mirror On The Wall" also toys with this. Played straight with the first victim, but the second victim [[spoiler: (Jessica's friend Seth)]] survives. |
| 56 | ** Inverted then played straight on "Sing a Song of Murder" where after multiple attempts on her life, Jessica's cousin Emma [[spoiler: fakes her own death.]] Later in the episode however, [[spoiler: Emma's assistant is killed, the murderer mistakenly believing her to be Emma]]. |
| 57 | * AmateurSleuth: Jessica has no formal law enforcement or investigation training, and never acquires any throughout the series; she occasionally mentions research she does for her books, but aside from that, her skills are chiefly based on her career as an English teacher who has a deep understanding of the mystery genre, and applying her understanding of it to RealLife. Once, though, when a witness is unwilling to be questioned with Jessica present, the sheriff says he'll deputize her if necessary. |
| 58 | * AntiVillain: |
| 59 | ** One murder victim ([[spoiler: Charolette in "Trouble in Eden"]]) turns out to have been blackmailing the more prominent men of her small town, but then it's implied she was using the money to anonymously support charities for orphans and widows. |
| 60 | ** The killer in the first episode is being blackmailed over a crime for which he was framed originally, and he kills his blackmailer. [[spoiler:He only loses Jessica's sympathy because he kills someone ''else'' too.]] |
| 61 | ** Many of the inmates in "Jessica Behind Bars" are this, in that the riot and eventual hostage situation are caused mainly to stop the police from pinning the crime on fellow prisoner Mary and because of the substandard conditions they've had to endure. Well, one half, led by hotheaded Kat, want to blast their way out to freedom, while the others want Jessica to find out who really killed Dr. Matthews. Inmate Bertha even mentions that "If any of us had any brains we wouldn't be in this joint," a self-deprecating comment about their criminal pasts. |
| 62 | ** Possibly most actively seen with the recurring character of GentlemanThief Dennis Stanton, who started his side career as a jewel thief as revenge on the insurance company who refused to pay out for the medical treatments that might have saved his beloved wife. He later evolves to AntiHero when he gives up his life of crime (except when a little breaking and entering helps him solve a case, of course!) to become an investigator for a different insurance company. |
| 63 | * AssholeVictim: The vast majority of the main murder victims, with a few exceptions. Rarely is the murderer some brutal and heartless killer; he or she is almost always someone whom the victim has wronged in some way, even if the killer themselves turns out to be a jerk. This is so common that it's more unique when the victim actually didn't deserve their fate. |
| 64 | ** In "My Johnny Lies Over the Ocean", the episode's actual murder takes place almost halfway through the storyline, though staged as a suicide by a woman who was trying to reconnect with her biological son and later learned the stress of uncovering his adoption led to his suicide. In addition, she was also framed as being a stalker who was gaslighting his grieving widow. [[spoiler: As it turned out, she was murdered by her husband who simply married her for her money and had in fact been the person harassing both her son and his widow in an attempt to drive his wife crazy enough that she would ''appear'' to have committed suicide.]] |
| 65 | ** One episode featured a woman being poisoned to death by her husband, who wants to collect her insurance money and run off with his mistress. At no time is she ever made out to be someone who got what was coming to her, nor is he made out to be sympathetic. |
| 66 | ** Played with, then averted: special mention probably goes out to Marge in "Who Killed J. B. Fletcher?" The initial scenes portray her as a bumbling burglar and identity thief who causes some major grief for poor Jessica. She turns out to be an aspiring AmateurSleuth herself who's taking her Jessica Fletcher fandom a trifle too seriously (and her son's a politician, who doesn't need headlines about his criminal mom!). [[spoiler: She thinks she's getting proof of a major (by small-town Texas standards) scandal; instead, she accidentally catches a pair of killers in the middle of disposing of the body. Instantly HeKnowsTooMuch.]] |
| 67 | ** Subverted in another episode. The assumption for much of "Dead Letter" is that Bud, the victim and also a neglectful (if not outright abusive) husband, was killed in self-defense by his wife's lover when he attacked them out of jealousy, and then the building he was in was set on fire to cover it up. As it turns out, [[spoiler: he was really murdered because he witnessed the arsonist burning the building. He, an off-duty volunteer fireman, had broken in to put out the flames and make sure there was no one trapped inside, and in the process stumbled onto his killer.]] |
| 68 | ** Averted completely in "Menace, Anyone?" The murderer [[spoiler: Doris had a psychotic hatred for Carol and tries to kill her by ''blowing up her car with dynamite'', but kills Carol's boyfriend by accident. She later tries planting evidence in Carol's house, and kills a police investigator who arrives moments later by stabbing him to death.]] It's one of the few times in the series where the killer has absolutely no reasonable chance at defending their actions, because their victims did nothing to provoke them and were simply in the way of their real target. |
| 69 | ** "Sing a Song of Murder" featured a mysterious assailant trying to kill Jessica's lookalike cousin Emma. The person who actually dies is simply someone to whom Emma had promised her coat after her death -- and that person dies when the real murderer mistakes her for Emma when she's wearing the coat. |
| 70 | * BigDamnHeroes: The police force of whatever location Jessica happens to be in (see BusmansHoliday and BluffingTheMurderer for the overlap). |
| 71 | * BluffingTheMurderer: Jessica typically finds some way to bluff the murderer into seeking her out, thinking her to be alone and thus defenseless. |
| 72 | ** Her favorite method is to show off a piece of paper she claims is the evidence of the killer's guilt, goading a confession. Lampshaded when the sheriff asks to see the "evidence" and chuckles "you get more mileage out of a blank piece of paper than anyone I know." |
| 73 | * BrokenBird: Jessica is something like this as the series begins. Seth Hazlitt makes a remark that she got into writing her first novel, ''The Corpse Danced at Midnight'', as her way of coping with the death of her beloved husband Frank; he makes a few other comments in early seasons which imply that her grieving has been extensive, and he's trying to help her work through it. (Being a widower himself, he has some understanding of her process.) |
| 74 | * BusmansHoliday: Jessica takes a lot of vacations, and death always follows her. It's entirely possible they started having her travel because Cabot Cove would have eventually run out of people. |
| 75 | * ByTheBookCop: |
| 76 | ** Cabot Cove's first sheriff is Amos Tupper, an honest cop and a close friend of Jessica. He retires after the fourth season. |
| 77 | ** Tupper is replaced by Sheriff Mort Metzger, a former NYPD detective who takes the job in the mistaken belief that the town is a peaceful place. |
| 78 | * CatchPhrase: Jessica has one just prior to getting neck deep in the current investigation: |
| 79 | ---> '''Jessica:''' [to current investigating officer] I know it's none of my business, but... [Insert recommendation of next investigative move]. |
| 80 | ** She also has a variation of her OncePerEpisode disagreement when the current officer in charge makes the first accusation: |
| 81 | ---> '''Jessica:''' ''*shakes head*'' I'm not so sure, [officer name]... |
| 82 | ** Also, upon having her EurekaMoment, she has a variation of the same basic quote: |
| 83 | ---> '''Jessica:''' [EurekaMoment] I believe I know what happened. Excuse me... [cut to catching the culprit and getting a confession] |
| 84 | ** She also has a delightful habit of saying "I don't mean to intrude" while forcing her way into someone's home/hotel room/office when they don't want her there. |
| 85 | ** Then there's her go-to when a detective hastily guesses what happened based on only a quick glance-over of the crime scene: |
| 86 | ---> '''Jessica:''' Well, that's certainly the most ''obivious'' conclusion, detective, but have you noticed - ''*points out a piece of overlooked evidence that contradicts the detective's theory*'' |
| 87 | * CaughtOnTape: Too many episodes to note involve a murder taking place because the murderer learned the victim had a recording of them confessing to a crime. |
| 88 | * TheCharmer: Michael Hagarty, Jessica's friend in [=MI6=], often invokes this as part of his undercover operations or other crime-fighting activities. Jessica is more often seen to be exasperated by it than anything, since he frequently uses it on ''her'' to hide his true motives for doing something. |
| 89 | * ChekhovsGun: Inevitably, at some point in an episode, the camera focuses just a little longer than necessary on something utterly random and mundane that turns out to be significant regarding the identity of the killer. Occasionally, this happens even before the actual murder does. |
| 90 | * ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Ethan Cragg (Claude Akins), who appears often enough in the first season to be considered a recurring character, disappears without explanation at the start of season two. His role as Cabot Cove's resident lovable curmudgeon is filled by Dr. Seth Hazlitt for the rest of the series. |
| 91 | * CleanFoodPoisonedFork: An episode has Jessica attend a party in Hong Kong, where the host dies after dipping century egg and ginger in vinegar. It turns out that it was the glazing of the plate was laced with poison and the host died from eating it when he dipped his egg and ginger in the vinegar. |
| 92 | * ClearMyName: Naturally, this happens in a lot of episodes, where an innocent man is the prime suspect of the murder (although it's usually not an intentional FrameUp on the real killer's part), making Jessica's task twice as hard. |
| 93 | * ContrivedCoincidence: One episode revolves around Jessica getting sued when the plot of her latest novel is staggeringly similar to a real-life murder case. Jessica is shocked when she reads the reports from the actual case and realizes it ''is'' similar, even though she's never heard of the real case. In fact, the book is so similar that the guy who is suing her [[spoiler: uses it to discover who actually murdered his wife, and subsequently gets killed by the same culprit: his former secretary/second wife.]] |
| 94 | * CoupledCouples: It's indicated in a few episodes that Jessica, her husband Frank, Seth Hazlitt, and Seth's wife were this when all four were alive, and that it's the reason that she and Seth are still so close since they've both been widowed. |
| 95 | * CreatorBreakdown: Reversed, in-universe. The reason Jessica started writing her mysteries in the first place was to give herself an outlet to work through her grief over her husband's death. In a later episode, Seth expresses concern that she's investing too much of her time in her books and missing out on life. |
| 96 | * DeadGuyJunior: Grady and Donna's son, Frankie, is named after Jessica's late husband. |
| 97 | * DeadpanSnarker: A couple, although regularly appearing ones in Cabot Cove are Seth Hazlett and, later in the series, Sheriff Metzger. |
| 98 | ** Rarely, but [[BewareTheNiceOnes Jessica]] herself can take the wind out of someone who thinks they can talk down to the retired English teacher who ''clearly'' doesn't know anything about solving murders or is just being an ass to her in general. One of the best examples is in "Killer Radio", where she brings up Dostoevsky to insufferable shock-jock Marcus Rule. Rule suggests that he have the famous Russian author on his show. Jessica tells him that would be impossible, as he died some time ago, but the title of one of his books would suit Rule just fine... ''The Idiot''! |
| 99 | * DeathByFallingOver: "Doom With a View" and "Three Strikes, You're Out!". |
| 100 | * DefrostingIceKing: Harry [=McGraw=] is incredibly cold towards Jessica when they first meet, in part due to the circumstances of their introduction. But after this first episode, they become good friends and he's more than willing to help her whenever she needs it. |
| 101 | * DarkerAndEdgier: "Snow White, Blood Red" has the most graphic scene in any episode, where a victim is stabbed to death and hung from a showerhead. When he's discovered, the entire floor of the stall is covered in blood and it's dripping slowly down his lifeless body. |
| 102 | * DirtyCop: [[spoiler: "Bite the Big Apple"]] and [[spoiler: "Lone Witness"]] both have the killers turning out to be the detective Jessica was working with the entire time. PlayedWith in [[spoiler: "Hannigan's Wake", as the detective actively tries to misdirect Jessica's investigation to protect the killer, his son]]. |
| 103 | * DoomMagnet: Is Jessica Fletcher visiting your town or home? One of three things is going to happen. You'll either be killed, accused of killing, or be revealed as a killer. Being accused is your best bet, as Jessica will invariably prove you innocent when she reveals the real killer. |
| 104 | ** Lampshaded more than once. In "Witness for the Defense," a prosecutor tries to discredit Jessica's testimony by listing her [[{{Nephewism}} nieces and nephews]] who have been [[ContinuityNod arrested for murder in the last two years]] (one of them ''for two different murders''). |
| 105 | ** In certain other situations, Jessica finds herself stuck solving crimes that happened years, if not decades, before she ever entered the picture, alongside the brand new deaths that happen when she enters the vicinity. |
| 106 | * DownerEnding: Naturally on a show about people dropping dead, solving the case doesn't necessarily bring peace, such as in episodes where the murderer was themselves a victim of that week's AssholeVictim, when the murder happened to cover up an even worse event, or the revelation of the killer is particularly traumatic to the survivor left behind. |
| 107 | ** The pilot film shows Jessica being so determined to get to the truth that she chooses to confirm that [[spoiler: her publisher and potential new flame was the killer. She appeals to his better side to get him to turn himself in, but she's clearly heartbroken.]] |
| 108 | ** "Murder to a Jazz Beat" ends with pretty much everyone Jessica meets dead or in jail when their tough pasts catch up to them. [[spoiler: Plus the murderer in this case was a man who discovered that the AssholeVictim was planning to kill his wife. Since she refused to believe him when he tried to reveal the plot, the murderer chose to simply kill the AssholeVictim with the poison intended for his wife. This is on top of the fact that the episode covered their extremely tough lives.]] |
| 109 | ** "Funeral at Fifty Mile" ends with [[spoiler: Jessica convincing the true murderers to turn themselves in in exchange for not revealing that the AssholeVictim was the biological father, via rape, of the person the murderers had been trying to protect from him.]] |
| 110 | ** "Sing A Song of Murder" ends with the murderer [[spoiler: sobbing in her father's arms as she confesses that she tried to kill the woman he loved. His tragic stare at realizing what his daughter has done and that he will lose her to jail ends the episode.]] |
| 111 | ** In "Hannigan's Wake", Jessica discovers the culprit of the sixteen-year-old murder case she solved was [[spoiler: JR, the son of the very police chief she'd been working with the whole time. JR became a DirtyCop a few years after graduating police school due to the stress and ended up accidentally killing the VictimOfTheWeek over drug money he was owed by her brother. The victim's husband was falsley arrested for the crime and JR guiltily cleaned up his act afterwards, but was killed in a shootout a few years later. The chief admits he covered up the truth and let an innocent man stay in prison for sixteen years due to the love of his son; he begs Jessica to let JR's good name stand and not break his mother's heart. The episode ends with her calmly asking a friend for a ride to the police station and walking away, while the chief tearfully watches her go]]. |
| 112 | * TheDragon: This trope doesn't usually come up, but there are some episodes where the AssholeVictim had someone who carries on their dirty work after their death, like "Murder At The Oasis", or the murderer has someone who helps them carry out their deeds, like "Jessica Behind Bars". |
| 113 | * DrivingADesk: Used for pretty much any driving scene during the entire run of the show. Not really noteworthy in the early seasons when this was common practice, but it does stand out in the late seasons as ChromaKey had essentially become a standard on other shows. |
| 114 | * DudeMagnet: Jessica gets a lot of attention from older gentlemen, and in one episode a college-age guy who LikesOlderWomen flat-out propositions her. This was at least partly because of a direct request by Lansbury. She felt very strongly that Jessica should be a realistic middle-aged woman, rather than a 'dried-up old biddy' stereotype. She still never hooked up with anyone permanently. This was possibly due to a mix of ExecutiveMeddling and fan opinions, who never liked any of Jessica's potential love interests... at least, those who made it to the end of their introductory episode without being killed or revealed as the killer. |
| 115 | * TheDutifulSon: Plenty appear, due to making good suspects. |
| 116 | * EagleEyeDetection: Jessica's ability to pay attention to minute details is usually what reveals the killer. In one example, Jessica notices that one character has been hiding his hand in his pocket since the murder because [[spoiler: a dog bit him after he committed it]]. |
| 117 | * ElectrifiedBathtub: "Sticks and Stones", "Unauthorized Obituary", and "The Phantom Killer". There's also an electrified Jacuzzi in "The Way to Dusty Death". |
| 118 | * EngineeredPublicConfession: [[OnceAnEpisode The standard format]] has Jessica BluffingTheMurderer into confessing in the mistaken belief that it is JustBetweenYouAndMe, when she's arranged for a police officer or other responsible person to be in the next room. |
| 119 | * EurekaMoment: OncePerEpisode with some minor detail that ties all the other evidence together, and leads into the confession scene. Seth and Mort [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] it in later seasons with exasperation as they see her staring off into space, realizing she's figured it all out. Subverted in one episode when she does this... and then announces she's worked out the ending to her latest book. |
| 120 | * EverybodyLaughsEnding: The show rolls the end credits on Jessica's laugh in roughly 99% of the episodes. The few which ''don't'' end with her laughing (such as the pilot) end instead with a freeze shot of her astonished face as she realizes something important or is taken by surprise in some way. |
| 121 | * EvilAllAlong: [[spoiler:Harry Pierce, a real estate agent, is a recurring character for the first half of season two, until his third appearance where he murders a woman to get his hands on her property. Lest you think he's new to villainy, he also burned a building down a year prior.]] |
| 122 | * ExpandedUniverse: The novel series, which started back in 1989 and continues to the present day, with book 50 being released in 2019. |
| 123 | * FairPlayWhodunnit: The show had quite a few, given that the killers usually revealed themselves by [[INeverSaidItWasPoison saying something only the killer would know or assume]]. |
| 124 | * FashionDissonance: Big hair, shoulder pads, and leisure suits abound, especially in earlier seasons. It ''was'' TheEighties, after all. |
| 125 | * FictionalDocument: Jessica's novels; several of the titles are named in the series, such as her first book, ''The Corpse Danced at Midnight''. Some of the actual crimes are also solved with these providing key evidence. |
| 126 | %%zce* FramingThe GuiltyParty: Pops up from time to time. |
| 127 | * FriendOnTheForce: Jessica acquires a large number of friendly detective acquaintances over the course of the series, not to mention her friendships with the Cabot Cove sheriffs. |
| 128 | * FriendsRentControl: On a retired teacher's pension, her husband's life insurance, and her book sales, Jessica is able to afford to not only maintain her Cabot Cove two-story home, but also a Manhattan apartment, and routine trips to exotic ports of call. Some of this is probably covered by her publisher, since she does go on book signing tours and such, but not all of it. |
| 129 | ** Given that the show started in TheEighties, with both Jessica and Frank working, the house might very well have been paid off by the time Frank died. |
| 130 | ** Also, a lot of those trips have Jessica being put up in a private residence by an old friend or professional acquaintance; anyone who's planned trips overseas knows that airfare can be the cheapest part of a trip compared to accommodation costs and meals. |
| 131 | ** To be fair, it's implied in-universe that she became a very successful writer, enjoying great sales [[note]] in the season 5 two-part finale ''Mirror mirror on the wall'', a publisher specifically says that Jessica's last ''six'' books have been best-sellers[[/note]] movie offers [[note]]her first book, ''The Corpse Danced at Midnight'' was bought for a title-only adaptation in an early episode, and she goes to Hollywood at least twice to discuss movie adaptations[[/note]] and the like. Also, the Manhattan apartment is her residence while she's teaching at a university for a spell, and the rent may be covered by the university as part of her salary, or outright owned by the university to host visiting lecturers. |
| 132 | ** She must be well-off enough because in "We're Off to Kill the Wizard" she gives away the ''million-dollar check'' the victim's RichBitch wife wrote to her to solve the murder to his secretary he treated like crap. |
| 133 | * GenderFlip: Series/ElleryQueen as a middle-aged female. |
| 134 | * GenreBlindness: There's no other possible explanation for why people continue to want to be Jessica's friends and neighbors. |
| 135 | * HappilyAdopted: Grady, Frank and Jessica's nephew, was orphaned young and raised by his loving childless aunt and uncle. Grady is absolutely devoted to Jessica and names his son after Frank. |
| 136 | * HaveYouToldAnyoneElse: Jessica is a master at subverting this trope. Often when she only has a hunch and no concrete evidence of someone's guilt, she sets things up so that the perpetrator believes it's such a situation when in fact she has the cops ready and waiting. |
| 137 | * HeroOfAnotherStory: Several episodes follow someone other than Jessica solving murders their own way, but still keeping in with the show's formula. They range from characters seen in previous episodes to [[AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent someone totally different who's never been seen before.]] Sometimes they're even the characters from Jessica's books. As noted below, this became a bit more common in later seasons in order to lighten Angela Lansbury's workload; episodes using her characters were usually introduced by Jessica working on edits or otherwise [[NoFourthWall explaining to the audience]] what they were about to see. |
| 138 | ** The most common of these were Keith Mitchell as high society [[GentlemanThief jewel thief]] (later insurance investigator) Dennis Stanton, and Jerry Orbach as Harry [=McGraw=] (who even got his own spinoff), though he more often appeared as a {{Deuteragonist}} with Jessica. |
| 139 | * HeWhoMustNotBeSeen[=/=]DeadToBeginWith: Frank Fletcher, Jessica's late husband, passed away prior to the series. Throughout the series, Jessica interacts with her multiple nieces and nephews, some of whom belong to Frank's side of the family. At one point, she even reunites with her brother-in-law and other relatives connected to the family. The only thing the viewers have as far as a description on Frank is that he and his brother looked alike and they brought in an actor to provide his voice. |
| 140 | ** Frank Fletcher does appear as a young man on a newsreel in "The Last Flight of the ''Dixie Damsel''." |
| 141 | * HiddenWire: Jessica does this several times as part of her {{Engineered Public Confession}}s. |
| 142 | * INeverSaidItWasPoison: Frequently used by Jessica and other characters. |
| 143 | * IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: In one episode, Seth Hazlitt sees his brother for the first time in many years. It eventually comes out that both Seth and his brother had fallen in love with the same woman; Seth's response was to leave town, so that his brother and the woman he loved could marry and be happy without him being in the way. He went on to have a happy marriage of his own, so he has no regrets, but he and his brother were estranged for many years as a result. Naturally, when his brother becomes the VictimOfTheWeek, Seth is the prime suspect. |
| 144 | * IWantYouToMeetAnOldFriendOfMine: |
| 145 | ** Creator/AngelaLansbury and Creator/JerryOrbach (Harry [=McGraw=]) were old friends from their days on Broadway. They also worked together in ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' as the voices of Mrs. Potts and Lumiere, respectively. In addition, occasional guest star Creator/DavidOgdenStiers also co-starred in ''Beauty and the Beast'' as well, voicing Cogsworth. |
| 146 | ** Creator/TomBosley as Amos Tupper is also notable, since he played Angela Lansbury's husband in ''Film/TheWorldOfHenryOrient''. |
| 147 | ** Angela's costars from ''Theatre/{{Sweeney Todd|The Demon Barber of Fleet Street}}'', Creator/LenCariou and George Hearn, both show up as regular guest stars: Len as Michael Hagarty, the [=MI5=] agent, and George as various characters. |
| 148 | ** Creator/HurdHatfield, her costar from "Dorian Gray," also shows up in a few episodes. |
| 149 | * IdenticalGrandson: Jessica has a British cousin named Emma, also played by Angela Lansbury. In the episode "Runs in the Family", only Emma is featured, with Jessica not appearing at all, and Emma proves to be a rather good sleuth herself. |
| 150 | * InsuranceFraud: The episodes featuring Dennis Stanton usually start as a case of insurance fraud that then escalate to murder. |
| 151 | * ItsPersonal: In one episode, Metzger finds the man who was responsible for the deaths of his old partner and his wife. For years, he's wanted to put his partner's murderer behind bars and he manages to find him. Unfortunately, since he has a very good motive for ''killing'' the victim, he's a primary suspect in the murder case. |
| 152 | * JustBetweenYouAndMe: Some of the not-so-nice killers always confess to Jessica or someone else in the belief that they are alone, just before trying to kill them. |
| 153 | * KnightTemplarParent: A couple of murderers kill their victims because their victim had something to do with their child's death. |
| 154 | [[/folder]] |
| 155 | |
| 156 | [[folder: L-Z]] |
| 157 | * LawOfInverseFertility: Jessica and her husband Frank were childless; in a first-season episode, when speaking to a new acquaintance [[spoiler:(who later turns out to be the murder victim)]], she explains that they "were never blessed that way", suggesting that they wanted children but couldn't have them for whatever reason. |
| 158 | ** There is one episode which has Jessica helping a young man whose mother [[spoiler:claims that Frank was the father of her son. In the end she confesses that she lied in order to get Jessica's help.]] |
| 159 | * LittleOldLadyInvestigates: If Agatha Christie's Literature/MissMarple is the most famous example of this trope, Jessica Fletcher is arguably the second most famous, as well as the most famous TV variation. |
| 160 | * LoveMakesYouCrazy: Many of the murders are done for loved ones, but there are a few where the affections made the culprit quite loopy. |
| 161 | * MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: A good chunk of the murders are played out like this. They either make it look like a tragic accident or suicide even. |
| 162 | * MoreCriminalsThanTargets: Cabot Cove has a murder rate that far surpasses even the most dangerous inner cities in the world. Given that Jessica reliably catches the (alleged) murderers, their numbers have to be replenishing with amazing speed. |
| 163 | * MysteryMagnet: People drop dead around Jessica everywhere she goes. Everywhere. It's creepy. |
| 164 | ** A Creator/TheBBC radio show called ''More or Less'' in 2012 calculated that Cabot Cove has a murder rate of 149 per 10,000; by comparison, the most murderous place in the world at the time, Honduras, had a murder rate of 91 per 10,000, making Cabot Cove the deadliest place in the world. And that's not counting the murders that happen outside Cabot Cove... |
| 165 | ** Lampshaded in "One Good Bid Deserves Another" when police lieutenant Casey threatens to arrest Jessica if he finds her near another body. "If murder were a disease," he tells her, "you'd be contagious." |
| 166 | ** Lampshaded again by Sheriff Metzger, a former New York cop who, after a year as the sheriff of Cabot Cove, asks Jessica, "What goes on in this town? I've been here one year and this is my fifth murder!" |
| 167 | * MysteryWriterDetective: Jessica Fletcher, of course. |
| 168 | * {{Nephewism}}: Jessica had no children, but many nieces and nephews. Grady Fletcher was the main repeater among them. As noted above, it's explained in a few episodes that Grady was orphaned as a little boy and was [[HappilyAdopted raised by Jessica and Frank]]; as their surrogate son, he had good reason to be a repeater. |
| 169 | ** Jessica's other repeating relatives were a niece and nephew-in-law, played by Genie Francis and Jeff Conaway, who had a continuing thread about him wanting to be in the entertainment business. |
| 170 | * NeverTheObviousSuspect: Usually played straight, especially if the accused is a friend or relative of Jessica's. Occasionally it's subverted, such as in [[spoiler: "Deadpan", where the elitist theatre critic accused of murdering his rival turns out to have done the deed and framed himself in order to make it look like someone else did it.]] |
| 171 | * NewNeighboursAsThePlotDemands: Complete with one of the new characters dying in the episode they are introduced. Seems like Cabot Cove is the murder capital of the east coast. |
| 172 | ** They poked at the edges of the trope; there were a number of recurring Cabot Covers beyond Jess, Doc Hazlitt and the sheriff, and even two episodes where one of these recurring characters was the murderer, which the GenreSavvy know isn't supposed to happen. |
| 173 | * TheNotLoveInterest: Jessica and Seth, despite the occasional hints that there actually is an attraction. |
| 174 | * ObfuscatingStupidity: Jessica doesn't hesitate to play up her "little old lady" image to get information out of people. In a few instances she even [[PlayingDrunk plays a drunken floozy]] with surprising skill, which may be justified since Jessica has a history of theater in her background. |
| 175 | * OccamsRazor: One case has a nasty version of this [[spoiler: until you realize that the woman who made this 'mistake' is that episode's perp and is shifting blame away from herself. Before TheReveal, it's just jarring.]] Basically, Jessica returns home to hear her phone ringing, but it disconnects before she can answer it. Soon after, she's subpoenaed to appear in front of a federal court over the disappearance of a person she doesn't know. Does the prosecutor just accept that Jessica doesn't know who it is and that it's a wrong number [[spoiler: as Jessica finds out while snooping around the victim's office]]? No, she charges Jessica with contempt of court and has her thrown in jail for a night. [[spoiler: Even if she was just trying to frame someone else, if the prosecutor had just gone along and admitted that it was a wrong phone number rather than haul Jessica to the witness stand, she would've gotten away with it.]] |
| 176 | * OfficerOHara: Lt. Timothy Hanratty in "No Accounting for Murder" and "Smooth Operators." |
| 177 | * {{Oireland}}: "The Celtic Riddle", "Nan's Ghost", "A Killing in Cork", "Another Killing in Cork", "The Wind Around the Tower", and "To the Last Will I Grapple With Thee" (set in New York but involving an Irish blood feud)... |
| 178 | * OminousOwl: Especially in later seasons. (Also ominous loons and wolves sometimes, but mostly pre-murder hoots from nearby woods.) |
| 179 | * OneSteveLimit: Averted. Andy Broom is the name of young hotel employee who befriends Jessica and is accused of murder in “A Little Night Work” in season 5. Andy Broom is also the name of the recurring deputy under Sheriff Metzger for the last couple of seasons of the series. |
| 180 | * PacManFever: Surprisingly averted for a show focused on murders and generally populated by adults who are focused on anything but video games (save one episode where the murder occurred at a virtual reality game developer). In one early episode, Jessica's friend Ethan is playing a ''VideoGame/SpyHunter1983'' arcade game. When footage of the game is shown, it is perfectly accurate, complete with the player's hands making movements and the vehicle on screen matching them. |
| 181 | * ParasolOfPain: GentlemanThief Dennis Stanton has an umbrella that's a SwordCane, and can launch darts out of the tip. Since he prefers to avoid bloodshed, he generally has other uses for it. It "makes an excellent club", he's had lockpicks built into the handle, and he frequently uses the hook to trip people up. |
| 182 | * PlatonicLifePartners: Jessica and Seth have this dynamic. They obviously care about each other, but there's little to no indication of anything romantic between them. At least one episode implies that when their spouses were alive, [[CoupledCouples the four of them were close friends who spent a lot of time together]]. |
| 183 | * PlayingDrunk: Jessica, in a few episodes, as noted above. |
| 184 | * PoliceAreUseless: Often, but not always. Generally, if a police officer/federal agent/other law official is willing to listen to Jessica, they're portrayed as sensible and helpful; sometimes they even readily welcome her help in the case, such as an inspector in a season 4 episode who was a big fan of Jessica's and had read most of her books. The useless ones are those who tell her to stay out of their way. Some of the cases are justified (officers in rural areas may never have actually investigated a murder and Jessica actually has more experience doing so, like in "No Laughing Murder" where the NewMeat constable's senior partner is having surgery and the only "officer" he has to help him is his ''mother'') while others are not (Faraday in "Murder, She Spoke" is so condescendingly misogynistic that it doesn't occur to him that a woman could have committed a murder [[note]]although in that case it ''was'' a man that killed the AssholeVictim[[/note]]). |
| 185 | * PoorlyDisguisedPilot: In everything but intent. When Angela Lansbury started to tire of the pace of a weekly network show, a strategy was devised that would allow the network to do a full season without Lansbury having to do a full season. Slightly more than half of the episodes of the season would be full adventures of Jessica Fletcher. The remainder would be Poorly Disguised Pilots, for which Lansbury, as Fletcher, would film bookend sequences, explaining the new character we'd be seeing for the next hour. Sometimes these were Jessica's own fictional characters, but other times they were friends or relations of Jessica's, such as Dennis Stanton. They weren't really intended to spin-off any of the characters -- although if any were exceptionally successful, why not? |
| 186 | * PrettyInMink: Some furs show up. |
| 187 | * PutOnABus: Sheriff Amos Tupper retired when Tom Bosley left to star in ''Series/FatherDowlingMysteries''. |
| 188 | * ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Most of the sheriffs/police chiefs tend to be this. While they can be gruff and impatient with Jessica, they do want to do their job and catch the killer. |
| 189 | * RedHerring: Usually OncePerEpisode there will be someone who seems all too obviously the killer. They hated the victim, they are angry individuals, they have a shady record, they certainly have means and motive, they made some kind of threat to the victim, and/or they're the first one implicated by evidence (which incidentally is almost a guarantee for Jessica to prove their innocence, or have them end up murdered by the true culprit). |
| 190 | ** Played with once with [[spoiler:Kate Mulgrew in her third appearance. The killer actually speaks during the murders and sounds like a disguised version of Kate's distinct breathy voice. Kate played the killer in two previous episodes, so it seemed likely that she'd be it again.]] |
| 191 | * RedemptionEqualsDeath [[spoiler:And Making Up With Jessica]]: [[spoiler:Preston Giles.]] |
| 192 | * RewatchBonus: Almost OnceAnEpisode, or more. One notable example Jessica herself wasn't present for is in in "Jessica behind Bars" when [[spoiler: The assistant warden trying to comfort the doctor after she gets asked some inquisitorial questions by their boss]] initially seems like a moment of kindness, but by the ending, is revealed to have been a nervous appeal to an accomplice not to crack under interrogation. In "Dear Deadly," the advice columnist's firmness in going to bat for her editor initially makes her seem like a BenevolentBoss, but it's later revealed that she's just a figurehead, and he's been writing the column for her since the beginning. |
| 193 | * RightBehindMe |
| 194 | * {{Retool}}: The eighth season began with Jessica moving to New York City to take up a temporary teaching position at a college. Creator/JMichaelStraczynski had taken over as head writer for the series alongside a new producer, so the decision was made to move away from Cabot Cove as a way to refresh the series. Episodes set in Cabot Cove were still produced, but not to the same extent as the first seven seasons. |
| 195 | * ScoundrelCode: Dennis Stanton is a GentlemanThief who, after going straight, became a recurring character. During his burgling years, he maintained his own strict code of conduct: never steal anything his victims couldn't afford to lose, never steal anything of sentimental value to the victim, and only steal items insured by a specific insurance company. The last one is for personal revenge, as the company in question refused to pay for a treatment that could have saved his wife's life. |
| 196 | * ScriptSwap: Done in one episode with an aging actor whose memory is so bad he has to rely on the teleprompter. While this looks like an EngineeredPublicConfession, it is actually a ploy on Jessica's part to trick the real killer into exposing themselves. |
| 197 | * SeriesContinuityError: In season 2, Joshua Peabody is described as a popular legendary war hero for the town of Cabot Cove, albeit one whose existence has never been officially confirmed and is described as a myth in-universe. In season 11, however, Peabody is presented as being as "Cabot Cove's most famous patriot" who did indeed exist and even has relatives that still live in town. |
| 198 | * SheepInSheepsClothing: The show relishes having unexpected or seemingly unblemished characters turn out to be the killers; but every now and then, there's someone with motive and opportunity who seems a little too good to be true but is in fact innocent and an ally. Examples include Cynthia Broussard in "Big Easy Murder," Clare in "The Bottom Line is Murder," Harcourt Fention in "The Committee," Mickey Shannon in "Murder at the Oasis," Arthur Constable in "It Runs in the Family," Peggy Evans in "Frozen Stiff," and Inspector Kyle in "Paint Me a Murder." |
| 199 | * StrictlyFormula: Mostly played straight, though it should be noted that this was [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] from time to time. Earlier seasons, strangely enough, played with the formula more than later ones. |
| 200 | * SummationGathering: Seen in a number of episodes where there are multiple suspects; Jessica gathers them all in one room to present her evidence and try to force a confession. |
| 201 | * SwissArmyWeapon: As noted elsewhere on the page, [[HeroOfAnotherStory Dennis Stanton]]'s umbrella. It has, among other things, a dart launcher in the tip, and the handle seems to have both a blade attachment and a lock pick. That's not including Stanton's own expertise with it as a weapon on its own. |
| 202 | * SympatheticAdulterer: By no means all of them, but a fair amount (especially spouses of victims, such as Emily Griffith from "A Killing in Cork," whose CorruptCorporateExecutive husband hasn't slept with her in years, or occasional victims of DomesticAbuse). One unusual example of a victim being this is Tommy Vonn from "Murder in Tempo," a rock star who cheats on his wife and bandmate, but ultimately comes off as a JerkWithAHeartOfGold who really does love the local girl he is romancing, and a recovering alcoholic who [[ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules refuses a lucrative bribe to cancel an environmental benefit concert]] and was trying to make things up to his wife (who was also fed up with their marriage) by planning to let her take over as lead singer in the band. |
| 203 | * SympatheticMurderer: |
| 204 | ** Frequently killing the AssholeVictim. Sometimes it's self-defense or accidental. A few notable examples: |
| 205 | *** In "Murder Takes The Bus", [[spoiler:the victim is a convicted bank robber freshly released from prison. During the robbery he had killed a teenage girl, and when her father confronts him he insults her, driving the father to strangle him to death. Jessica admits she feels bad for the killer, and suggests that he could make a good case for temporary insanity.]] |
| 206 | *** In "A Very Good Year For Murder", [[spoiler:the victim was a professional hitman. Jessica's friend had actually invited the hitman to his house as part of an admittedly foolish ThanatosGambit, but then the hitman's sloppy attempt at murder badly injures the man's son instead, prompting the old man to off the hitman himself, confess everything to Jessica, and then attempt suicide. It's especially notable in that Jessica herself says that she would refuse to testify about his confession, as she sees no need for him to go to jail (he's terminally ill).]] |
| 207 | ** Occasionally subverted, also, when the murderer loses the audience's sympathy by trying to frame someone else or trying to kill Jessica. A notable example happens in the very first episode, [[spoiler:when the killer murders his blackmailer. Jessica admits she might have felt sympathy for him except that he then killed a second, completely innocent person, just to throw her off his trail]]. |
| 208 | * TransAtlanticEquivalent: More than a few people have mentioned that Jessica Fletcher could be considered an American Miss Marple. This is especially hilarious because Angela Lansbury has played both roles. In fact, the opening of "The Murder of Sherlock Holmes" is practically a direct lift from the opening of ''The Mirror Crack'd'', the film in which Lansbury played Miss Marple. |
| 209 | * TruthInTelevision: Jessica's maiden name ([=MacGill=]) was taken from the real maiden name of Angela Lansbury's own mother, Moyna Macgill. |
| 210 | * VillainousBreakdown: Some of the murderers suffer from this. [[spoiler:Preston]] in "Death Stalks the Big Top" is possibly the most notable example. |
| 211 | * VitriolicBestBuds: Seth Hazlitt and Mort Metzger seem to drive each other absolutely crazy; nevertheless, they've always got each other's backs. |
| 212 | * WhamLine: It's impossible to count the number of killers who have Jessica alone and at their mercy, gloating on the murder and how as soon as she's dead, they're free and clear... and then Jessica calmly calls out, "[[EngineeredPublicConfession Did you get all that, Detective?]]" |
| 213 | * WhatTheHellHero: All of the NiceGuy characters get moments like this. In particular, Seth inexplicably takes an instant dislike to a new doctor at the hospital for seemingly no other reason than that the guy is much younger than him, frequently and unfairly accusing him of not caring about his patients, and holding him responsible for the death of one of ''his'' former patients, who appears to have died due to an error the young doctor made. Jessica, who suspects foul play, gently but firmly tells Seth that he's behaving wrongly, and that if the woman was in fact murdered, the other doctor certainly doesn't deserve to have his career and reputation ruined over someone else's misdeed. |
| 214 | * WholeEpisodeFlashback: There were several of these, as well as a number of HeroOfAnotherStory episodes, in the later seasons; they were crafted in order to give Lansbury a break from the grueling shooting schedule. |
| 215 | * WhoMurderedTheAsshole: Naturally, as with many MurderMystery stories, the victims in various episodes are quite often universally despised and shown abusing multiple characters before their death, to provide more possibilities for who might have done the deed. |
| 216 | * WhoWouldWantToWatchUs: In one episode, after solving a mystery that occurred at a mystery series production studio, the producer trails after Jessica and suggests making a weekly mystery series written by her, about her exploits. [[BitingTheHandHumor Jessica says it's the worst idea she's ever heard.]] |
| 217 | * WrongGenreSavvy: Sheriff Metzger. He's a perfectly competent lawman from New York who follows the general procedure that the most likely suspect is the one who did it (a process that in real life often holds true). Unfortunately, he's in a murder mystery series where it's always the ''least'' likely suspect who committed the crime. |
| 218 | ** A lot of the members of the police force that Jessie works with are the same if they aren't [[PoliceAreUseless completely useless]]. |
| 219 | * {{Yandere}}: A few murderers either murder the object of their obsession or people they assume are in the way to their "love". |
| 220 | * YouJustToldMe: Another way Jessica would identify the killer is the fact that they would accidentally let slip some minor detail only the killer would know. For instance, in the second episode, "Deadly Lady", four sisters are accused of murdering their father. [[spoiler: One sister's shoes are found at the scene. After she's cleared, suspicion turns to the others, one of whom says it couldn't be her because the two wore different sizes and she didn't wear pink. Jessica never mentions that the shoes were pink. The sister actually lampshades where she slips.]] |
| 221 | [[/folder]] |
| 222 | ---- |
| 223 | !!Specific episodes contain examples of: |
| 224 | %%Note: When enough tropes are gathered and a recap page for the episode in question is made, please move the sections here to that page. |
| 225 | |
| 226 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 227 | |
| 228 | %%[[folder: Season One, episode 3: ''Birds of a Feather'']] |
| 229 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 230 | %% |
| 231 | |
| 232 | [[folder: Season One, episode 7: ''Hit, Run and Homicide'']] |
| 233 | |
| 234 | * MurderByRemoteControlVehicle: The murderer uses a remote controlled station wagon to run over a pedestrian. While bicycling about a wooded area, Jessica discovers the murder weapon and decides to take a closer look at the station wagon's inner workings. Once inside, however, she becomes trapped when someone in a van operates the remote control device to lock her inside, to activate the automobile's engine, and to steer her away at a dangerous speed, en route to an overhang above the rocky seacoast. |
| 235 | |
| 236 | [[/folder]] |
| 237 | %% |
| 238 | %%[[folder: Season One, episode 9: ''Death Takes a Curtain Call'']] |
| 239 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 240 | %% |
| 241 | %%[[folder: Season Two, episode 1: ''Widow, Weep for Me'']] |
| 242 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 243 | %% |
| 244 | %%[[folder: Season Two, episode 2: ''Joshua Peabody Died Here...Possibly'']] |
| 245 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 246 | %% |
| 247 | %%[[folder: Season Two, episode 3: ''Murder in the Afternoon'']] |
| 248 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 249 | %% |
| 250 | %%[[folder: Season Four, episode 10: ''Indian Giver'']] |
| 251 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 252 | %% |
| 253 | [[folder: Season Six, episode 3: ''The Grand Old Lady'']] |
| 254 | |
| 255 | * DolledUpInstallment: "The Grand Old Lady" was revised from an unproduced ''Series/ElleryQueen'' script, with Ellery replaced by {{expy}} Christy [=McGinn=]. |
| 256 | * FullyAbsorbedFinale: The "bookend episode" ''The Grand Old Lady'' was actually an unfilmed series finale script from a previously-produced and cut short ''Ellery Queen'' series, albeit with the characters [[SerialNumbersFiledOff slightly changed]] to dance around rights issues. Both series were produced by Levinson and Link, and they apparently [[http://legendsrevealed.com/entertainment/2013/05/23/was-the-last-episode-of-ellery-queen-aired-as-an-episode-of-murder-she-wrote-instead/ decided]] not to let a good script go to waste. |
| 257 | * KarmaHoudini: It's heavily implied that the killer won't even be charged; on the other hand, this is late 1945 and the victim was a former Nazi [[spoiler: whom the killer recognized because he was a former member of the French Resistance]]. |
| 258 | * WholeEpisodeFlashback: "The Grand Old Lady" has Jessica reminiscing about a legendary female mystery writer whom she admired (not played by Lansbury), who was involved with a real-life mystery on a cruise ship very shortly after the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo. [[spoiler: It turns out the mystery writer got the solution completely wrong -- though it was a fully logical and workable theory -- but no one ever told her because everyone involved had so much respect for her. The murder itself was hushed up because the VictimOfTheWeek was a former Nazi.]] |
| 259 | |
| 260 | [[/folder]] |
| 261 | |
| 262 | [[folder: Season Six, episode 4: ''The Error of Her Ways'']] |
| 263 | |
| 264 | * FakeStatic: At the start, a cop gets out of a conversation with the dispatcher by repeatedly thumbing the send button on his radio to make it seem like the signal is breaking up. |
| 265 | * LotsaPeopleTryToDunIt: The first VictimOfTheWeek was shot by his wife, who then fainted. The murderer -- having witnessed the shooting -- came in to help, and saw a BriefcaseFullOfMoney owned by the husband. Realizing the husband had been deceptive in off-screen dealings, the killer smothered him with a VorpalPillow. When the wife awoke, she discovered her husband dead and -- assuming she had killed him -- attempted to cover up the crime by making it look like a robbery gone wrong. The real murderer later killed the wife to make it look like she had committed suicide out of guilt, and to keep her from remembering the missing briefcase and realizing there was someone else there. |
| 266 | * VorpalPillow: Used to kill the VictimOfTheWeek (who had already been shot). |
| 267 | |
| 268 | [[/folder]] |
| 269 | |
| 270 | %%[[folder: Season Six, episode 5: ''Jack & Bill'']] |
| 271 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 272 | %% |
| 273 | %%[[folder: Season Six, episode 8: ''When the Fat Lady Sings'']] |
| 274 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 275 | %% |
| 276 | %%[[folder: Season Six, episode 10: ''Class Act'']] |
| 277 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 278 | %% |
| 279 | %%[[folder: Season Six, episode 12: ''Goodbye Charlie'']] |
| 280 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 281 | %% |
| 282 | %%[[folder: Season Six, episode 16: ''The Big Show of 1965'']] |
| 283 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 284 | %% |
| 285 | %%[[folder: Season Six, episode 18: ''O'Malley's Luck'']] |
| 286 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 287 | %% |
| 288 | [[folder: Season Six, episode 19: ''Always a Thief'']] |
| 289 | |
| 290 | * ColdCash: A thief hides a BriefcaseFullOfMoney in the deep freeze of the restaurant where the murder occurred. When Dennis Stanton catches him retrieving it, he makes the obligatory 'frozen assets' joke. |
| 291 | * GardeningVarietyWeapon: The first VictimOfTheWeek witnesses a would-be burglary and is stabbed with a gardening fork. |
| 292 | |
| 293 | [[/folder]] |
| 294 | |
| 295 | %%[[folder: Season Six, episode 21: ''The Szechuan Dragon'']] |
| 296 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 297 | %% |
| 298 | [[folder: Season Six, episode 22: ''The Sicilian Encounter'']] |
| 299 | |
| 300 | * BadHabits: [=MI6=] agent Michael Hagerty poses as a monsignor to infiltrate a Mafia wedding. |
| 301 | * MyOwnPrivateIDo: Michael Hagerty performs a private wedding ceremony for a couple so they can escape the attentions of an overly protective Mafia family. Of course, [[BadHabits Hagerty is only posing as a priest...]] |
| 302 | |
| 303 | [[/folder]] |
| 304 | |
| 305 | [[folder: Season Seven, episode 3: ''See You in Court, Baby'']] |
| 306 | |
| 307 | * AmoralAttorney: The VictimOfTheWeek is a ruthless divorce lawyer who persuades a woman to pursue a divorce she doesn't actually want. |
| 308 | * DivorceIsTemporary: The episode opens with an ex-husband stealing his beloved Ferrari off his ex-wife and deliberately wrecking it. The episode ends with his release from jail and the ex-wife coming to pick him up in a new Ferrari with a bow on its bonnet. |
| 309 | |
| 310 | [[/folder]] |
| 311 | |
| 312 | [[folder: Season Seven, episode 4: ''Hannigan's Wake'']] |
| 313 | |
| 314 | * DeathByFallingOver: The VictimOfTheWeek is killed when she is shoved backwards into a glass fronted cabinet during a struggle with her killer. |
| 315 | |
| 316 | [[/folder]] |
| 317 | |
| 318 | %%[[folder: Season Seven, episode 5: ''The Family Jewels'']] |
| 319 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 320 | %% |
| 321 | [[folder: Season Seven, episode 7: ''The Return of Preston Giles'']] |
| 322 | |
| 323 | * CaughtOnTape: The murderer accidentally records their confession on tape. |
| 324 | * IsThisThingStillOn: The murderer makes a confession to their second victim just before they kill them, not realizing that the victim had a tape recorder running on their desk as they had been recording comments on a manuscript when the killer entered the office. This results in the murderer's confession being CaughtOnTape. [[note]] This could have been taken from ''Please Murder Me'', a B movie that Angela did where [[spoiler:her victim does the same thing]]. [[/note]] |
| 325 | * RevealingInjury: Jessica realizes the VictimOfTheWeek is the same man who attacked her in her hotel room because of the scratch marks she left on his hand when he grabbed her. |
| 326 | |
| 327 | [[/folder]] |
| 328 | |
| 329 | [[folder: Season Seven, episode 8: ''The Great Twain Robbery'']] |
| 330 | |
| 331 | * BookSafe: The VictimOfTheWeek hides the stolen page from a manuscript within the pages of another book. |
| 332 | * DisguisedInDrag: The murderer sneaks up on what would be his next victim, only to discover it is a male police officer disguised in drag. |
| 333 | * DyingClue: After being shot, the VictimOfTheWeek crawls across the floor to pull a copy of ''Literature/TheScarletLetter'' off the bottom shelf of his bookcase. |
| 334 | |
| 335 | [[/folder]] |
| 336 | %% |
| 337 | %%[[folder: Season Seven, episode 10: ''Murder in F Sharp'']] |
| 338 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 339 | %% |
| 340 | [[folder: Season Seven, episode 10: ''Murder in F Sharp'']] |
| 341 | |
| 342 | * ItWorksBetterWithBullets: Dennis Stanton pulls this trick in "Murder in F Sharp". He comes up with a theory of how the murder could have been committed, but it hinges on proving the suspect could have fired a gun. Stanton pulls a BluffingTheMurderer moment by pretending to have more information than he has, and attempts to blackmail him. When the murderer pulls a gun and fires it, Stanton then reveals that he broke in the night before and switched the shells for blanks. |
| 343 | |
| 344 | [[/folder]] |
| 345 | |
| 346 | %% |
| 347 | %%[[folder: Season Seven, episode 17: ''The Prodigal Father'']] |
| 348 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 349 | %% |
| 350 | %%[[folder: Season Seven, episode 19: ''Thursday's Child'']] |
| 351 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 352 | |
| 353 | %%[[folder: Season Eight, episode 6: ''Judge Not'']] |
| 354 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 355 | %% |
| 356 | [[folder: Season Eight, episode 7: ''Terminal Connection'']] |
| 357 | |
| 358 | * BloodyHandprint: The stepson of the VictimOfTheWeek discovers something is amiss when he finds a bloody handprint on the white wall of the beach house. He then follows a trail of handprints to find the body. |
| 359 | |
| 360 | [[/folder]] |
| 361 | |
| 362 | [[folder: Season Eight, episode 15: ''Tinker, Tailor, Liar, Thief'']] |
| 363 | |
| 364 | * ItWasHereISwear: Jessica finds a body in her hotel room. By the time the police arrive, the body has disappeared. She later finds the corpse in the service area of the hotel, only for it to disappear again before the police arrive. |
| 365 | * OfCorpseHesAlive: When attempting to cover up a murder, an MI-5 agent is forced to push the body out of a hotel window to make it look like he'd jumped. |
| 366 | * RoomDisservice: A thuggish LoanShark forces his way into Jessica's hotel room by posing as room service. |
| 367 | * TerrifyingPetStoreRat: A seedy alley is portrayed by the presence of a couple of sleek and well-groomed pet store rats. At least they are brown and not white. |
| 368 | |
| 369 | [[/folder]] |
| 370 | |
| 371 | [[folder: Season Eight, episode 19: ''Day of the Dead'']] |
| 372 | |
| 373 | * ItsAlwaysMardiGrasInNewOrleans: Jessica's visit to Mexico happens to coincide with ''Dia de los Muertos'' (and, of course, [[MysteryMagnet a murder]]). |
| 374 | |
| 375 | [[/folder]] |
| 376 | |
| 377 | [[folder: Season Eight, episode 20: ''Angel of Death'']] |
| 378 | |
| 379 | * AngryGuardDog: The neighbour owns an angry guard dog that barks at anyone who comes on his property. Its behaviour on the night of the murder provides Jessica with a vital clue; this may also be a ShoutOut to the Sherlock Holmes story ''The Adventure of Silver Blaze''. |
| 380 | * DeadArtistsAreBetter: When it is thought that a famous playwright has been murdered, his director remarks that his final, unpublished play will have a sellout season. |
| 381 | * {{Gaslighting}}: A playwright friend of Jessica's is being gaslighted to convince him that he is being haunted by the ghost of his dead wife. |
| 382 | * MedicationTampering: The playwright has his sedatives swapped for powerful anti-depressives as part of a {{Gaslighting}} scheme. |
| 383 | |
| 384 | [[/folder]] |
| 385 | |
| 386 | [[folder: Season Eight, episode 21: ''Badge of Honor'']] |
| 387 | |
| 388 | * InspectorJavert: An old friend of Seth's arrives in Cabot Cove. He is followed by a private eye named Jarvis who has been dogging him for years, convinced that he was responsible for a jewelry store robbery. |
| 389 | |
| 390 | [[/folder]] |
| 391 | |
| 392 | %%[[folder: Season Eight, episode 22: ''Murder on Madison Avenue'']] |
| 393 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 394 | %% |
| 395 | [[folder: Season Nine, episode 1: ''Murder in Milan'']] |
| 396 | |
| 397 | * LookBehindYou: Jessica distracts a pack of paparazzi by saying, "Isn't that Mel Gibson?" and pointing behind them. |
| 398 | * PoolScene: "Murder in Milan" features several gratuitous scenes set around the pool at the film festival, featuring a multitude of bikini-clad extras. |
| 399 | |
| 400 | [[/folder]] |
| 401 | |
| 402 | %%[[folder: Season Nine, episode 2: ''Family Secrets'']] |
| 403 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 404 | %% |
| 405 | [[folder: Season Nine, episode 5: ''The Dead File'']] |
| 406 | |
| 407 | * PublicSecretMessage: A cartoonist hides blackmail threats in a daily comic strip. |
| 408 | |
| 409 | [[/folder]] |
| 410 | |
| 411 | %%[[folder: Season Nine, episode 7: ''Sugar & Spice, Malice & Vice'']] |
| 412 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 413 | %% |
| 414 | %%[[folder: Season Nine, episode 12: ''Double Jeopardy'']] |
| 415 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 416 | |
| 417 | [[folder: Season Nine, episode 13: ''Dead Eye'']] |
| 418 | |
| 419 | * WhoShotJFK: Jessica gets involved in a murder centered around a set of photo negatives that prove the involvement of an organized crime figure in the Kennedy assassination. At the end of the episode, the negatives are lost in the harbour and the mob boss dies trying to escape the police, with the implication that someone might have tampered with his brakes. |
| 420 | |
| 421 | [[/folder]] |
| 422 | |
| 423 | %%[[folder: Season Nine, episode 17: ''The Big Kill'']] |
| 424 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 425 | %% |
| 426 | %%[[folder: Season Ten, episode 1: ''A Death in Hong Kong'']] |
| 427 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 428 | %% |
| 429 | %%[[folder: Season Ten, episode 2: ''For Whom the Ball Tolls'']] |
| 430 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 431 | %% |
| 432 | [[folder: Season Ten, episode 4: ''The Phantom Killer'']] |
| 433 | |
| 434 | * InventedIndividual: A struggling writer creates a fictitious agent to represent him. This lie keeps snowballing, and ends with the agent being accused of murder, at which point the writer is exposed and arrested. |
| 435 | |
| 436 | [[/folder]] |
| 437 | |
| 438 | [[folder: Season Ten, episode 6: ''Bloodlines'']] |
| 439 | |
| 440 | * WritingIndentationClue: Jessica does this to reveal what the VictimOfTheWeek had written down on the pad by the phone just before he was murdered. |
| 441 | |
| 442 | [[/folder]] |
| 443 | |
| 444 | %%[[folder: Season Ten, episode 7: ''A Killing in Cork'']] |
| 445 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 446 | %% |
| 447 | %%[[folder: Season Ten, episode 8: ''Love & Hate in Cabot Cove'']] |
| 448 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 449 | %% |
| 450 | %%[[folder: Season Ten, episode 10: ''Murder in White'']] |
| 451 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 452 | %% |
| 453 | %%[[folder: Season Ten, episode 11: ''Northern Explosion'']] |
| 454 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 455 | %% |
| 456 | %%[[folder: Season Ten, episode 12: ''Proof in the Pudding'']] |
| 457 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 458 | %% |
| 459 | %%[[folder: Season Ten, episode 13: ''Portrait of Death'']] |
| 460 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 461 | %% |
| 462 | %%[[folder: Season Ten, episode 14: ''Deadly Assets'']] |
| 463 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 464 | %% |
| 465 | %%[[folder: Season Ten, episode 16: ''Time to Die'']] |
| 466 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 467 | %% |
| 468 | %%[[folder: Season Ten, episode 17: ''The Dying Game'']] |
| 469 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 470 | %% |
| 471 | %%[[folder: Season Ten, episode 18: ''The Trouble with Seth'']] |
| 472 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 473 | %% |
| 474 | %%[[folder: Season Ten, episode 19: ''Roadkill'']] |
| 475 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 476 | %% |
| 477 | [[folder: Season Ten, episode 20: ''A Murderous Muse'']] |
| 478 | |
| 479 | * SongsInTheKeyOfLock: The killers set up a system which, when the VictimOfTheWeek plays a certain chord on the piano, unlocks the secretary behind him and fires the gun hidden within. |
| 480 | * WifeHusbandry: A legendary maestro has been guardian to a musical prodigy for 10 years. He announces his intention to marry her (despite her clear lack of interest) when she turns 18. This provides [[WhoMurderedTheAsshole one of the possible motives for his murder]] when he becomes the VictimOfTheWeek. |
| 481 | |
| 482 | [[/folder]] |
| 483 | |
| 484 | [[folder: Season Eleven, episode 1: ''A Nest of Vipers'']] |
| 485 | |
| 486 | * ThisBearWasFramed: The VictimOfTheWeek is injected with black mamba venom. The killer then unlocks the black mamba's cage so it will look like the victim was bitten by the escaped snake. |
| 487 | |
| 488 | [[/folder]] |
| 489 | |
| 490 | [[folder: Season Eleven, episode 2: ''Amsterdam Kill'']] |
| 491 | |
| 492 | * DisconnectedByDeath: The VictimOfTheWeek is in a phone booth talking to their police contact when the killer rams a car through the booth. |
| 493 | |
| 494 | [[/folder]] |
| 495 | |
| 496 | %%[[folder: Season Eleven, episode 4: ''Death in Hawaii'']] |
| 497 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 498 | %% |
| 499 | %%[[folder: Season Eleven, episode 5: ''Dear Deadly'']] |
| 500 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 501 | %% |
| 502 | [[folder: Season Eleven, episode 6: ''The Murder Channel'']] |
| 503 | |
| 504 | * BoundAndGagged: A friend of Jessica's accidentally stumbles on a plot of some thieves. The thieves kidnap and keep her bound and gagged in the back of their van as they commit the robbery. |
| 505 | * RearWindowWitness: A friend of Jessica's witnesses a murder on her television when a mislaid cable sends a video feed from the apartment downstairs to her set. |
| 506 | * StabTheScorpion: One of Jessica's friends has been kidnapped and is lying BoundAndGagged in the back of the kidnappers' van. One of the kidnappers advances menacingly, takes out a switchblade and flicks the blade out. She then uses the knife to cut the victim's bonds and release her. |
| 507 | |
| 508 | [[/folder]] |
| 509 | |
| 510 | %%[[folder: Season Eleven, episode 7: ''Fatal Paradise'']] |
| 511 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 512 | %% |
| 513 | %%[[folder: Season Eleven, episode 8: ''Crimson Harvest'']] |
| 514 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 515 | %% |
| 516 | %%[[folder: Season Eleven, episode 9: ''Murder by Twos'']] |
| 517 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 518 | %% |
| 519 | %%[[folder: Season Eleven, episode 10: ''Murder of the Month Club'']] |
| 520 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 521 | %% |
| 522 | %%[[folder: Season Eleven, episode 11: ''An Egg to Die For'']] |
| 523 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 524 | %% |
| 525 | %%[[folder: Season Eleven, episode 13: ''Death 'N Denial'']] |
| 526 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 527 | %% |
| 528 | %%[[folder: Season Eleven, episode 14: ''Murder in High 'C''']] |
| 529 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 530 | %% |
| 531 | %%[[folder: Season Eleven, episode 16: ''Flim Flam'']] |
| 532 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 533 | %% |
| 534 | %%[[folder: Season Eleven, episode 17: ''Murder A La Mode'']] |
| 535 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 536 | %% |
| 537 | %%[[folder: Season Eleven, episode 18: ''The Dream Team'']] |
| 538 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 539 | %% |
| 540 | %%[[folder: Season Eleven, episode 19: ''School for Murder'']] |
| 541 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 542 | %% |
| 543 | [[folder: Season Eleven, episode 20: ''Another Killing in Cork'']] |
| 544 | |
| 545 | * SteamNeverDies: In "Another Killing in Cork", Jessica is shown traveling through modern-day Ireland on a steam train. |
| 546 | |
| 547 | [[/folder]] |
| 548 | |
| 549 | %%[[folder: Season Twelve, episode 1: ''Nailed'']] |
| 550 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 551 | %% |
| 552 | [[folder: Season Twelve; episode 2: ''A Quaking in Aspen'']] |
| 553 | |
| 554 | * PhoneyCall: A woman who is having an affair pretends to be talking to her hairdresser when she is actually talking to her lover because her husband is in the room. |
| 555 | |
| 556 | [[/folder]] |
| 557 | |
| 558 | %%[[folder: Season Twelve, episode 3: ''The Secret of Gila Junction'']] |
| 559 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 560 | %% |
| 561 | [[folder: Season Twelve, episode 4: ''Big Easy Murder'']] |
| 562 | |
| 563 | * PursuedProtagonist: "Big Easy Murder" opens with the first VictimOfTheWeek being chased through the swamps outside New Orleans before being struck down with a machete. |
| 564 | * VoodooDoll: A voodoo doll is placed next to the VictimOfTheWeek to make his murder look like it was part of a series of underworld-related voodoo murders. |
| 565 | |
| 566 | [[/folder]] |
| 567 | |
| 568 | [[folder: Season Twelve, episode 5: ''Home Care'']] |
| 569 | |
| 570 | * DyingClue: Jessica's friend Maggie is able to identify her killer by pointing to a descriptive phrase in the book she's holding when she dies. |
| 571 | |
| 572 | [[/folder]] |
| 573 | |
| 574 | [[folder: Season Twelve, episode 6, 7: ''Nan's Ghost'']] |
| 575 | |
| 576 | * ScoobyDooHoax: The killer fakes a haunting around an old castle to keep the locals away while he searches for a lost treasure. |
| 577 | |
| 578 | [[/folder]] |
| 579 | |
| 580 | [[folder: Season Twelve, episode 8: ''Shooting in Rome'']] |
| 581 | |
| 582 | * VehicularSabotage: The killer tampers with the gearing on a stunt car to kill the stuntman driving it. |
| 583 | |
| 584 | [[/folder]] |
| 585 | |
| 586 | [[folder: Season Twelve, episode 9: ''Deadly Bidding'']] |
| 587 | |
| 588 | * AccidentalBid: Charlie Garret is bidding on a painting, but drops out when the bidding passes $100,000. However, when he attempts to signal Jessica, he actually bids $400,000 and wins the auction. |
| 589 | * AnachronisticClue: Jessica identifies a journal purportedly written by Creator/ArthurConanDoyle as forgery because it mentions a visit to Ellis Island in 1926. Ellis Island closed in 1924. |
| 590 | |
| 591 | [[/folder]] |
| 592 | |
| 593 | %%[[folder: Season Twelve, episode 11: ''Unwilling Witness'']] |
| 594 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 595 | %% |
| 596 | %%[[folder: Season Twelve, episode 12: ''Kendo Killing'']] |
| 597 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 598 | %% |
| 599 | %%[[folder: Season Twelve, episode 13: ''Death Goes Double Platinum'']] |
| 600 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 601 | |
| 602 | [[folder: Season Twelve, episode 14: ''Murder in Tempo'']] |
| 603 | |
| 604 | * HighVoltageDeath: The VictimOfTheWeek is the lead singer of a band who is electrocuted when someone tampers with his guitar. |
| 605 | |
| 606 | [[/folder]] |
| 607 | |
| 608 | %%[[folder: Season Twelve, episode 15: ''The Dark Side of the Door'']] |
| 609 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 610 | %% |
| 611 | [[folder: Season Twelve, episode 16: ''Murder Among Friends'']] |
| 612 | |
| 613 | * ShoutOut: "Murder Among Friends" features a ShowWithinAShow about [[Series/{{Friends}} six New Yorkers who spend an awful lot of time in a coffee shop]]. It's even mentioned that the female cast's salaries are equal to those of the male cast. |
| 614 | * TakeThat: As one of the show's final episodes, "Murder Among Friends", features a murder taking place among the cast and crew of a show, titled ''Buds,'' about six young people trying to make it in the big city. Sound familiar? The show got slotted against ''Series/{{Friends}}'' as part of a plan to kill it off. |
| 615 | |
| 616 | [[/folder]] |
| 617 | |
| 618 | %%[[folder: Season Twelve, episode 17: ''Something Foul in Flappieville'']] |
| 619 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 620 | %% |
| 621 | %%[[folder: Season Twelve, episode 19: ''Evidence of Malice'']] |
| 622 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 623 | %% |
| 624 | %%[[folder: Season Twelve, episode 21: ''Race to Death'']] |
| 625 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 626 | %% |
| 627 | %%[[folder: Season Twelve, episode 22: ''What You Don't Know Can Kill You'']] |
| 628 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 629 | |
| 630 | [[folder: Season Twelve, episode 23: ''Mrs. Parker's Revenge'']] |
| 631 | |
| 632 | * DesperateObjectCatch: A high-stakes SloMo example appears at the climax. |
| 633 | |
| 634 | [[/folder]] |
| 635 | |
| 636 | [[folder: Season Twelve, episode 24: ''Death by Demographics'']] |
| 637 | |
| 638 | * TakeThat: The final episode knocks on the reason for the show being death-slotted: its lack of appeal to the 18-39 demographic. The episode itself is about a radio station manager who fires every employee over a certain age and changes the station's classical music format to more contemporary hard rock. |
| 639 | |
| 640 | [[/folder]] |
| 641 | |
| 642 | %%[[folder: Movie 1 – ''South by Southwest'']] |
| 643 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 644 | %% |
| 645 | %%[[folder: Movie 2 – ''A Story to Die For'']] |
| 646 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 647 | %% |
| 648 | [[folder: Movie 3 – ''The Last Free Man'']] |
| 649 | |
| 650 | * IdenticalGrandson: Jessica is revealed to have had an IdenticalAncestor with similar talents -- a Southern matron in Civil War times with modern views on emancipation for slaves. |
| 651 | * KarmaHoudini: The villains in this movie -- the murderer and the people who help him cover it up, a trio of racist {{Jerkass}}es -- get off scot-free (except for being on the losing side of the Civil War) due to their influence and the lack of evidence. |
| 652 | * SouthernGentleman: Robert Mercer, the victim in the TV movie ''The Last Free Man'' (a WholeEpisodeFlashback to the beginning of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar) is a SharpDressedMan, impeccably civil to even those he disagrees with, and an opponent of the war on both moral and practical grounds, with the final act also revealing that [[spoiler:he was an UndergroundRailroad conductor]]. His father in-law Charles Hobbes is a more negative version: he stops the whipping of a slave, but only because it's making a scene, while showing signs of vicious racism and ruthlessness when there's fewer people around. In the main series, Seth's southern cousin Buford dresses and talks the part, and is a bit smarmy but not terribly flawed as far as victims on this show go. |
| 653 | * UndergroundRailroad: The TV Movie ''The Last Free Man'' has both [[spoiler: murder victim Robert Mercer and the slave of Jessica's ancestor]] involved in this. |
| 654 | |
| 655 | [[/folder]] |
| 656 | |
| 657 | [[folder: Movie 4 – ''The Celtic Riddle'']] |
| 658 | |
| 659 | * PetTheDog: The villain murders several people [[spoiler:(including his own aunt)]] with little to no remorse; but [[EvenEvilHasStandards he draws the line at killing his pregnant half-sister and her boyfriend]] when they arrive at the spot [[spoiler: where the treasure is]], instead forging a note to send them on a wild goose chase, many miles away, while he finishes [[spoiler: taking out the treasure]]. |
| 660 | |
| 661 | [[/folder]] |
| 662 | |
| 663 | ---- |
| 664 | !!The ExpandedUniverse novels provide examples of: |
| 665 | |
| 666 | [[folder:A-K]] |
| 667 | * ActorAllusion: In book 5 (''Martinis and Mayhem''), while delivering a lecture to a high school class on public relations, Jessica is asked who she'd like to play her in a film version of her book. After suggesting Vivian Leigh or Jean Fontaine, Jessica adds "Of course, I'd be pleased if Angela Lansbury played me in a film version of my book." |
| 668 | * AdaptationNameChange: Adele Metzger, wife of Sheriff Mort Metzger, is known as ''Maureen'' Metzger in this series, as noted when she makes her first named appearance in book 8 (''The Highland Fling Murders''). |
| 669 | * TheAlcoholic: Book 10 (''Murder in Moscow'') features a functioning variety with Jessica's new Russian publisher, Vladislav Staritova. He spends most of his time drinking vodka, but aside from a little slurred speech at times, is hardly ever inebriated by it. |
| 670 | * TheAlibi: A plot point in the solution to book 11 (''A Little Yuletide Murder''). Jake Walthers has his brother-in-law Dennis say that Jake and Dennis were working together on repairing a fence at the time of the murder; Dennis later says this was a lie that he was intimidated into making, and that he and his sister Mary were really the ones working together. [[spoiler: It comes out in the end that the first story ''was'' true, and that Mary is the one who shot Rory Brent.]] |
| 671 | * AlliterativeName: Book 6 (''A Deadly Judgement'') features Jessica's lawyer friend '''M'''alcolm '''M'''[=cLoon=] and Judge '''W'''alter '''W'''ilson. |
| 672 | * AnonymousBenefactor: A toned-down version is used in book 7 (''A Palette For Murder''), where police Chief Cramer tells Jessica at one point that there's an influential person pressing behind the scenes for him to cooperate with her and her theories. After the mystery is solved, they're revealed to be [[spoiler: her publisher, Vaughn Buckley, who knew he couldn't stop her from poking around and so decided to help out in his own way by encouraging the cops to accept her aid]]. |
| 673 | * AssholeVictim: |
| 674 | ** [[spoiler: Turns out to be the case in book 11 (''A Little Yuletide Murder''), where murder victim Rory Brent is ultimately revealed to have acted as a LoanShark towards the Walthers (and had previously been involved in a group that did the same to other farmers) and was on the verge of claiming their farm when he was murdered. He also arranged for Jill Walther to go to a business that he expected would arrange for her to have an abortion (she didn't) of his own grandchild.]] |
| 675 | ** Harry Schrumm in book 13 (''Knock 'Em Dead''). He apparently had a habit of siphoning money from productions and "ruining careers", including that of the star of his last film. |
| 676 | * BackhandedCompliment: In book 1 (''Gin and Daggers''), Marjorie leaves her British literary agent a sum of money while also including a footnote that she suspects that he's stolen from her as well (something the man denies) but appreciates that he's done so with more "discretion" than his American colleagues (all she leaves them is an assurance that she won't ask her estate to prosecute them for their provable embezzlement) and has also shown her some nice friendship. |
| 677 | * BenevolentConspiracy: Discussed in book 10 (''Murder in Moscow''). While Jessica's talking with President Singleton, he mentions that the conspiracy in a book she wrote, which a small town police chief gets involved in, is very similar to one ''he'' knows of which a small town police chief got involved in; Jessica assures him that it's pure coincidence and that the only lawman she knows well (Mort Metzger, though she doesn't identify him by name), if he's involved in any conspiracy at all, is in one "to make sure he keeps getting invited to our Chamber of Commerce dinners." Singleton laughs and says that sounds like a positive conspiracy to him. |
| 678 | * BlackSheep: Book 12 (''Murder at the Powderhorn Ranch'') has William "Willy" Morrison, considered the "loser" and "family disappointment" to his family, who are always putting him down or telling him not to do or say anything. Jessica even mentally refers to him by the trope name after spending some time talking to him, and feels sorry for him after learning how his family treats him. |
| 679 | * BribeBackfire: In book 9 (''Murder on the'' [=QE2=]), Mort mentions on the phone to Jessica that he'd had to stop a speeding tourist earlier, and that the tourist had said that being a small-town cop, Mort probably doesn't get paid much... then tried to bribe him with a twenty-dollar bill. Mort not only arrested him, he added attempted bribery to the man's existing charges of speeding and reckless endangerment. Jessica very much approves. |
| 680 | * CannotTellFictionFromReality: In book 13 (''Knock 'Em Dead''), the serial killer (who's been murdering people who work on Broadway) turns out to have this problem. [[spoiler:As Henry Hayes says, "She's incapable of divorcing fact from fiction, acting from real actions." It's one of the factors in her being declared certifiably insane and sent to a mental hospital for the rest of her life.]] |
| 681 | * ChalkOutline: Variant in book 14 (''Trick or Treachery''), where the body of Matilda Swift is found in a graveyard and one of the deputies outlines the body with spray paint instead of chalk. |
| 682 | * ChocolateBaby: Not so much a ''baby'', but in book 12 (''Murder at the Powderhorn Ranch''), Jessica notes the physical similarities between teenage Pauline Morrison and one of the other guests at the ranch. It eventually comes out that he's her biological father, one of the two men her mother Veronica was cheating on her husband with. |
| 683 | * ChristmasCreep: Discussed briefly in book 11 (''A Little Yuletide Murder''), as Jessica hears a radio announcement that there's only twenty-three shopping days before Christmas, and thinks to herself that "Christmas seemed to start earlier and earlier each year". She also notes that she doesn't like the trend, but doesn't dwell on it because there's nothing she can do about it. |
| 684 | * ClearTheirName: Book 11 (''A Little Yuletide Murder'') revolves around Jessica trying, successfully, to clear the name of Jake Walther, an enemy of the murdered man and the obvious suspect. |
| 685 | * CoaxThemOutOfTheCloset: In book 5 (''Martinis and Mayhem'') of the ExpandedUniverse novel series, Norman Lana is the boyfriend of the late Brett Pearl, and is revealed to have tried repeatedly to get Brett to come out to his very religious family. Norman ultimately took it a step further, threatening to call Brett's parents and [[ForcedOutOfTheCloset inform them of Brett's sexuality]], with fatal results -- Brett, unable to cope with what he thought would be their response, chose to [[DrivenToSuicide throw himself off the Golden Gate Bridge]] rather than be outed. |
| 686 | * ContinuityNod: |
| 687 | ** Late in book 10 (''Murder in Moscow''), Jessica recalls how she met George Sutherland in book 1 (''Gin and Daggers''), and visited his home in book 8 (''The Highland Fling Murders''). |
| 688 | ** Early on in book 11 (''A Little Yuletide Murder''), Jessica is reminded of the events of book 8 (''The Highland Fling Murders'') and how she talked down the man who held two of her friends hostage, which Mary Walther feels makes her the best person to talk sense into Mary's husband Jake when he's unwilling to speak to the police in his own defense after being accused of murder. |
| 689 | * CourtroomEpisode: Book 6 (''A Deadly Judgement'') revolves around Jessica serving as a jury consultant, working for the plaintiff's defense. [[spoiler:She drops out after realizing that he'd committed a ''different'' murder and exposing his crime to the judge.]] |
| 690 | * CrosscastRole: In book 11 (''A Little Yuletide Murder''), part of the plot involves Jessica being convinced to act as Santa Claus during Cabot Cove's annual Christmas festival and read stories to the children alongside Seth Hazlitt (who's also dressed as Santa). |
| 691 | * CutAndPasteNote: In book 11 (''A Little Yuletide Murder''), after coming home to find an intruder in her house, Jessica speaks to the police, then goes looking around to find if anything's been stolen. There isn't, but as she's on her way out, she finds one of these notes, saying "Butt out, if you know what's good for you." [[spoiler: It turns out Robert Brent was just trying to protect Jill Walther and her secret -- that she'd given birth to and then given up his daughter.]] |
| 692 | * ADeadlyAffair: Book 14 (''Trick or Treachery'') discusses the history of Cabot Cove, including how town founder Winfred Cabot took up with a woman other than his wife Hepzibah, and was beheaded by her with an ax in retaliation. |
| 693 | * DeathGlare: In book 14 (''Trick or Treachery''), during the children's annual Halloween pageant, Matilda Swift shoots one of these at paranormal investigator Lucas Tremaine. He gives her one right back in return. |
| 694 | * DefectorFromCommieLand: The whole plot of book 10 (''Murder in Moscow'') revolves around Jessica being used as a messenger and a means to allow a Russian defector to, for her own safety, escape Moscow and travel to America. |
| 695 | * DirtyCop: [[spoiler:Detective Alphonse Rizzi in book 2 (''Manhattans and Murder''), who's perfectly willing to let an innocent man die as a cover for one of his associates.]] |
| 696 | * DisinheritedChild: A variant in book 6 (''A Deadly Judgement''). The late James Brannigan had established a trust for his children, but included a clause stating that if his younger son William were ever to be charged with a crime involving "moral turpitude", James' older brother Jack could dissolve the trust and receive all the money himself. It's also claimed that William murdered Jack to prevent this, which is why he's on trial now. [[spoiler:While it's proven that the rape charge was a setup on Jack's part, William still gets charged with murder after SayingTooMuch and unwittingly revealing he'd killed someone other than Jack.]] |
| 697 | * DoesNotDrive: Jessica, per the TV series. It becomes a plot point in book 4 (''Brandy and Bullets''), when Jessica agrees to be hypnotized on stage at a club, but the hypnotist makes the mistake of trying to have her picture herself driving down a beach. She instantly recognizes something's off and has a panic attack in her trance, losing control of the car, until the hypnotist snaps her out of it (luckily, Seth was there to inform the hypnotist of the mistake). |
| 698 | * DonutMessWithACop: Referenced for laughs in book 14 (''Trick or Treachery''), when Jessica makes plans to meet with Mort Metzger and asks if he wants her to pick up doughnuts on the way. Mort jokingly responds with "Sure thing. Doughnuts are one of the basic food groups in law enforcement.", eliciting a laugh from Jessica. |
| 699 | * DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Brett Pearl, the only person to die during the events of book 5 (''Martinis and Mayhem''), had a fight with his boyfriend, who wanted Brett to come out to his parents. The subsequent breakup and Brett's fear of how his family would react to his sexuality led to his throwing himself off the Golden Gate Bridge.]] |
| 700 | * DrivesLikeCrazy: |
| 701 | ** In book 2 (''Manhattans and Murder''), Jessica thinks to herself at one point that "Every taxi driver I'd had since arriving in New York drove as though he (in one case a she) was competing in the Indy 500." Subverted with the driver she's with at that point, who's driving slowly and carefully... just when Jessica needs to be somewhere in a hurry. |
| 702 | ** In book 10 (''Murder in Moscow''), when Jessica and her publisher ''finally'' set out to the meeting with Alexandra Kozhina, they get taken there by a taxi driver who, in Jessica's words, "drove like a madman, cutting off cars and trucks and large red buses, one hand on the wheel, the other firmly pressed against the horn button." The person who seizes Jessica, locks her in the back seat of another car and drives off with her shortly after isn't much better, and nor are the drivers of the next few cabs she ends up in. |
| 703 | * EmbarrassingFirstName: In book 7 (''A Palette For Murder''), Jessica becomes acquainted with police Chief Cramer in the Hamptons. When she finally asks about his first name (having never gotten it before), he reluctantly admits that his first name is "Hopeful", "Hope" for short to his friends. As he confirms, his parents were optimists. |
| 704 | * EtherealWhiteDress: |
| 705 | ** In book 8 (''The Highland Fling Murders''), Jessica is visiting the ancestral castle (and part-time hotel) of her friend George Sutherland in Scotland. During her first night, she spots a strange woman all in white (except for some bloodstains), who appears to be a ghost and whispers a short phrase to her -- "Gie a heize", archaic Gaelic for "lend a hand" as George guesses when he hears the expression later. [[spoiler: It turns out to be a setup -- the ghost's a fake, along with everything else apparently supernatural going on.]] |
| 706 | ** In book 14 (''Trick or Treachery''), Jessica wears one of these as part of her costume when she dresses up as the ghost of Hepzibah Cabot for the annual Halloween party. Actress Sophia Pavlou agrees to wear one as well when Jessica hires her to pose as Hepzibah's ghost, [[spoiler:and the real ghost wears one as well when she turns up during the event that Sophia missed out on]]. |
| 707 | * EveryManHasHisPrice: In book 13 (''Knock 'Em Dead''), while investigating the murder of Harry Schrumm, Jessica learns that the theater's doorman was bribed with two hundred dollars to leave his post for a few hours, during which time Schrumm was killed. |
| 708 | * EvilMatriarch: Used in book 5 (''Martinis and Mayhem''). The birth mother is such a monster that her daughter prefers her much nicer [[GoodStepmother stepmother]]. [[spoiler:This is part of why the birth mother subsequently framed the stepmother for murdering their husband.]] |
| 709 | * FakingTheDead: |
| 710 | ** In [[spoiler:book 1 (''Gin and Daggers''), the second "victim" fakes their own death in order to get publicity for the books they're having "posthumously" published.]] |
| 711 | ** In [[spoiler:book 2 (''Manhattans and Murder''), the "victim" was being targeted by drug runners after he'd turned state's evidence against some associates of theirs, and decided to disappear, getting another man to fill in for him as a sidewalk Santa Claus and consequently be murdered in his place.]] |
| 712 | ** In [[spoiler:book 4 (''Brandy and Bullets''), the third "victim" is actually working with the government to shut down a group of people who are performing hypnosis experiments on their patients, and fakes his death to get away from them and deliver the evidence to his allies.]] |
| 713 | * FictionalBoardGame: It's mentioned in the first two books that Morton Metzger has been developing a murder mystery board game (though its title isn't said) for some time; book 2 (''Manhattans and Murder'') has him finally send it off to Parker Brothers and get a letter back saying they're interested, while book 4 (''Brandy and Bullets'') mentions he's revising the rules again, at their request. Book 9 (''Murder on the'' [=QE2=]) reveals that it's apparently been shelved, but he's written a play based on its setting instead. Book 11 (''A Little Yuletide Murder'') ultimately reveals that the deal with Parker Brothers fell through "over certain changes requested by the company that Mort refused to make". |
| 714 | * ForcedOutOfTheCloset: [[spoiler:Attempted in book 5 (''Martinis and Mayhem''). Unable to cope with the idea of being out of the closet and what he thinks will be his very religious family's response, Brett Pearl chooses to commit suicide rather than be exposed.]] |
| 715 | * FrameUp: In book 12 (''Murder at the Powderhorn Ranch''), the killers specifically use tools from the stables to throw suspicion on the horse wranglers (and got another person to plant a wood rasp, identical to the first murder weapon, in a spot where it would be found as part of this). |
| 716 | * FramingTheGuiltyParty: In book 13 (''Knock 'Em Dead''), the investigators come to realize that the murder of Harry Schrumm was a set-up to make it look like the Broadway killer, who'd already murdered four times by the time Schrumm's body was discovered, was responsible. |
| 717 | * GoodCopBadCop: In book 13 (''Knock 'Em Dead''), Jessica watches Detective Henry Hayes and his partner, Tony Vasile, in action and comes to the conclusion that they're using this technique. |
| 718 | * GovernmentConspiracy: [[spoiler:Book 4 (''Brandy and Bullets'') revolves around the CIA secretly backing an institute that experiments with hypnosis and seeing how effective it is at turning more creative people into their unwitting agents. Naturally, they officially deny all involvement when it's exposed, and put the blame entirely on the doctors running the place.]] |
| 719 | * {{Greed}}: The killer's motive in book 14 (''Trick or Treachery''). When Tony Scott invented a formula that would fireproof clothing, his partner planned to cheat him out of it and any money it would earn. When he sold them a phony version instead (being justifiably paranoid that they were planning to cheat him), they found out and murdered him (and later Matilda Swift when they realized she was investigating the crime). |
| 720 | * GuiltyUntilSomeoneElseIsGuilty: In book 11 (''A Little Yuletide Murder''), this is why Jake Walther has locked himself in his house -- he firmly believes that the town has already convicted him in their own minds and won't believe he's innocent under any circumstances, so there's no point in defending himself. This belief is only reinforced after he's taken into custody. |
| 721 | * HaggisIsHorrible: In book 8 (''The Highland Fling Murders''), one chapter ends shortly after Jessica is told that they're serving haggis for dinner. She reluctantly admits to her host George Sutherland that "I'm afraid ''I'' might not like it." Fortunately, George just laughs it off and says that he knows of its negative reputation. He then says that they serve it once a week for those adventurous enough, but he always tells the chef to have plenty of plain roasted chicken on hand just in case. |
| 722 | * HalloweenEpisode: Book 14 (''Trick or Treachery''), which takes place in late October and revolves around the Halloween season. |
| 723 | * HeroicBSOD: In book 8 (''The Highland Fling Murders''), side-character Alicia Richardson suffers from this after a troubling and traumatic experience in London, where she and her husband Jed are taken hostage while touring the Tower of London by a man who threatens to kill them unless he gets what he wants -- an hour's time speaking to Parliament, whom he wants to have words with because they ruined his family's name in 1725 (having charged one Catherine Hayes with the murder and dismemberment of her husband) and continue to do so to this day. Over a week later, even though the man was caught and subdued by the police, Alicia continues to think she's seeing the man's orange eyes wherever she's going. Jessica also experiences a lesser version after managing to rescue the Richardsons, due to the culprit having shot at her at the last minute. |
| 724 | * HopelessWithTech: Joked about in book 11 (''A Little Yuletide Murder'') when Jessica walks in on lawyer Joe Turco, who's trying without much success to program his new fax machine. And he claims he's even worse when it comes to programming [=VCR=]s. |
| 725 | * INeedToGoIronMyDog: |
| 726 | ** In book 8 (''The Highland Fling Murders''), Jessica excuses herself from an uncomfortable conversation about witches with "Excuse me, Doctor. I have to tell--something to--someone--over there." |
| 727 | ** Downplayed in book 11 (''A Little Yuletide Murder''). At one point, in order to get away from a group of reporters who want to talk to her about the murder of Rory Brent, Jessica says she has to leave because she has an appointment. When Seth follows after her and asks where she's going, she claims she has to see the dentist. Seth isn't buying it because she just went a day or so before; she responds with "I feel a sudden toothache about to come on." |
| 728 | * INeverSaidItWasPoison: How a culprit is caught in book 6 (''A Deadly Judgement''). [[spoiler:William Brannigan says he thinks the same person killed his brother Jack and his girlfriend Cynthia, because both were killed by a single stab to the heart. However, the details of Cynthia's murder were kept out of the news, meaning William could have only known how she died if he did it.]] |
| 729 | * ImprovisedWeapon: In book 12 (''Murder at the Powderhorn Ranch''), the first victim -- Paul Molloy -- is stabbed to death with a wood rasp. The second, his wife Geraldine, is killed with another tool -- a hammer specifically designed for shoeing horses. |
| 730 | * TheInfiltration: In book 7 (''A Palette For Murder''), Jessica learns after the killer is caught that one of the other people she suspected of being involved was actually a civilian who'd infiltrated the forgery ring. [[spoiler: They turn out to be Waldine "Waldo" Peckham, who'd helped Jessica with part of the case before.]] |
| 731 | * InheritanceMurder: |
| 732 | ** Discussed in book 1 (''Gin and Daggers'') as a motive for Marjorie Ainsworth's murder; Jessica, who found the body, was named in her will, and someone tells her that this makes her a main suspect. Naturally, she didn't do it and didn't even ''know'' she was in the will until that particular conversation -- upon learning that she's an heir, she immediately voices her intention to donate her share to charity (and repeats this at the will-reading). |
| 733 | ** A variant in book 6 (''A Deadly Judgement''). The late James Brannigan had established a trust for his children, but included a clause stating that if his younger son William were ever to be charged with a crime involving "moral turpitude", James' older brother Jack could dissolve the trust and receive all the money himself. When William is charged with Jack's murder, the defense claims that Jack had threatened to dissolve the trust after William supposedly raped a woman, and William murdered him to protect his inheritance. [[spoiler:He didn't do ''either'' of these things, as it turns out -- Jack was framing William so he could claim the money for himself, and one of his co-conspirators murdered him when he reneged on a promise to share it with them.]] |
| 734 | * ItsForABook: In book 14 (''Trick or Treachery''), at one point, Jessica calls the local fire department's chief to ask for information about the fire that Anthony Scott died in a year before, claiming she's doing research for a new book involving arson as a plot point and needs his technical expertise. |
| 735 | * TheJoyOfFirstFlight: Book 12 (''Murder at the Powderhorn Ranch'') kicks off with Jessica taking her first flying lesson from Jed Richardson in his Cesna. After landing, she describes it to Seth Hazlitt as "Wonderful" and "A special feeling, so free, so liberating." |
| 736 | * KeepTheReward: Played with -- Jessica sometimes receives money for things other than her writing, and tends to immediately donate it to a charitable cause. |
| 737 | ** In book 1 (''Gin and Daggers''), she inherits a decent sum from a friend and promptly donates it to a study center that her friend has established. |
| 738 | ** In book 4 (''Brandy and Bullets''), she's paid for holding a writing seminar and again promptly donates her payment to the local hospital. |
| 739 | [[/folder]] |
| 740 | |
| 741 | [[folder:L-Z]] |
| 742 | * LamePunReaction: Book 12 (''Murder at the Powderhorn Ranch'') has Jim Cook regularly making bad jokes, most of which tend to elicit groans from his audience. |
| 743 | * LongLostRelative: In book 14 (''Trick or Treachery''), Jessica discovers that the recently deceased Matilda Swift is actually the sister of Tony Scott, whom she'd only recently reunited with when he died. His son, her nephew Jeremy, doesn't learn they're related until sometime after Matilda's murder. |
| 744 | * MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: Book 7 (''A Palette For Murder'') features multiple deaths, at least two of which were this -- the victim died from a heart attack triggered by ricin, a poison that's usually only detected if the coroner is specifically looking for it, but the coroner (who isn't involved in the killings) writes them off as a normal heart attack until they're convinced to do another autopsy on one victim (and lab analysis on their cigarettes), confirming the cause. |
| 745 | * MasterForger: The plot of book 7 (''A Palette For Murder'') revolves around an art forgery ring, who've focused on creating new paintings supposedly from a now-deceased artist. |
| 746 | * MetaphorIsMyMiddleName: In book 7 (''A Palette For Murder''), during a talk between Jessica and art dealer Maurice St. James, he says that "My middle name is discretion, Mrs. Fletcher." |
| 747 | * MiscarriageOfJustice: Book 5 (''Martinis and Mayhem'') revolves around Jessica meeting a woman who's in prison for her husband's murder. Jessica comes to believe she's innocent, [[spoiler:and has proven it by the end, with the real killers and their accomplice being arrested]]. |
| 748 | * MurderSuicide: In book 14 (''Trick or Treachery''), while discussing the history of Cabot Cove, it's explained that the town's founder, Winfred Cabot, was beheaded by his wife, who then threw his head and herself into the ocean. |
| 749 | * MysteriousNote: |
| 750 | ** In the opening chapter of book 3 (''Rum and Razors''), Jessica's been getting strange notes, all consisting of a single line -- "GLOTCOYB", each time followed by varying punctuation (none on the first, a question mark on the second, a comma on the third, a period on the fourth and three exclamation points on the fifth). Shortly after finishing her latest manuscript, she sees a group of people outside her home, holding a banner with the same word. It turns out to be her friends Dr. Seth Hazlitt and Sheriff Morton Metzger, plus some other locals, who reveal "GLOTCOYB" is actually [[FunWithAcronyms an acronym]] for "Good luck on the completion of your book". Jessica is both irked and relieved, since the pranks had actually been making her rather nervous, to the point where she answered the door that day with a fire poker in hand to ward off any potential threats. |
| 751 | ** In book 13 (''Knock 'Em Dead''), the play's director Cyrus Walpole gets a threatening letter saying "You're next", handed to him by the theater's security guard after an unknown person gave it to him, which he takes as an ImpliedDeathThreat. Linda Amstead later admits she's received a similar threatening letter. |
| 752 | * OperationJealousy: In book 14 (''Trick or Treachery''), while discussing the history of Cabot Cove, it's said that Winfred Cabot is supposed to have told his wife Hephzibah that he was cheating on her in an effort to make her jealous. It got him killed by her instead. |
| 753 | * OutOfFocus: After appearing (even if it's just a brief mention) in every previous book in the series, Sheriff Mort Metzger isn't so much as ''name-dropped'' in book 12 (''Murder at the Powderhorn Ranch''), even during the scenes set in Cabot Cove. |
| 754 | * ParanormalInvestigation: In book 14 (''Trick or Treachery''), it's revealed that a man named Lucas Tremaine has moved to Cabot Cove and opened a paranormal investigation business that also helps people get in touch with their dead relatives. Seth Hazlitt thinks it's all a load of hooey, and Jessica later proves that at least some of the supernatural effects around town are because he faked them. |
| 755 | * PoisonedWeapons: Book 10 (''Murder in Moscow'') features one late in the book when someone, heavily implied to be a Russian agent, brushes a modified umbrella against Alexandra Kozhina (who's recently defected from their side) to poison her. Fortunately, she survives the attempt, though it's touch-and-go for a while. |
| 756 | * PostRobberyTrauma: In book 12 (''Murder at the Powderhorn Ranch''), after Paul Molloy is found dead and Jessica has to tell his wife, Geraldine has a slight panic attack and runs back inside, hiding in the bedroom and then comes out of the cabin with a revolver (she later claims it's because she heard someone in the cabin; she did, but it was just Jessica, who'd gone inside because she was worried about the other woman). She later explains to the local sheriff's department that it was her husband's, who had it because of this trope -- he'd been attacked a year or so back and bought it for protection. [[spoiler:It's never confirmed if this was true or not after it comes out that she's a government agent and their "marriage" is just a cover story.]] |
| 757 | * PungeonMaster: In book 12 (''Murder at the Powderhorn Ranch''), Jim Cook is notorious for his groan-worthy jokes. |
| 758 | * RealAfterAll: In the final chapter of book 14 (''Trick or Treachery''), [[spoiler:Jessica gets a call from Sophia Pavlou, whom she'd asked to appear as the ghost of Hepzibah Cabot... and learns Sophia never made it out to the event due to having broken her ankle. Yet the ghost still showed up, causing a stunned Jessica and Seth to realize it was the real deal who came to help them.]] |
| 759 | * ReCut: Book 1 (''Gin and Daggers'') was originally released in 1989, but there were several inaccuracies compared to the TV series, including a scene of Jessica driving a car (in the actual series, she [[DoesNotDrive never learned to drive]], relying on her bicycle, public transportation or rides from friends). A re-edited version was released in 2000 to fix the majority of these errors. |
| 760 | * RevealingCoverUp: In book 14 (''Trick or Treachery''), Matilda Swift comes to town a few months before the plot starts in order to investigate Tony Swift's murder. Her own murder results in Jessica getting involved and uncovering the truth. |
| 761 | * RevisitingTheColdCase: Mentioned in passing in book 12 (''Murder at the Powderhorn Ranch'') -- Jim Cook notes to Jessica that the local sheriff's department recently solved an old case involving a murder from seventeen years ago, in which the killer was already doing twenty years for armed robbery by the time they were identified ''as'' the killer. |
| 762 | * RightHandVersusLeftHand: Book 10 (''Murder in Moscow'') features a variant in which the climax explains that two years prior, Alexandra Kozhina, part of a Communist conspiracy to overthrow the current Russian government, had been recruited by an American government organization. Jessica gets caught up in things when it turns out ''another'' organization, also part of the American government, doesn't know about the first group having recruited Alexandra and tries to use Jessica as a messenger to recruit Alexandra themselves. |
| 763 | * ScoobyDooHoax: |
| 764 | ** [[spoiler: The events of book 8 (''The Highland Fling Murders'') turn out to involve this, with Evan Lochbuie, Constable Horace [=McKay=], Malcolm James and, to some extent, his girlfriend Fiona -- though she was only used to record a taped message, and didn't know what was really going on -- all working to inspire fear in the locals and drive George Sutherland out of his castle so a group of investors could buy it.]] |
| 765 | ** During the climax of book 14 (''Trick or Treachery''), Jessica arranges for an actress to show up dressed as the ghost of Hepzibah Cabot as part of her plan to expose Tony Scott's killer. |
| 766 | * ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: In book 12 (''Murder at the Powderhorn Ranch''), Evelyn Morrison takes extreme offense to being questioned over the murder of Paul Molloy and tries to convince the Cooks to speak to the sheriff's department and have him leave her family out of the whole thing, believing her family's yearly visits to the Powderhorn Ranch (and therefore financial support of it) entitle her to special treatment. The Cooks, however, decline to do so. [[spoiler:Their decision turns out to be justified when it turns out Evelyn's daughter-in-law Veronica is one of the two killers.]] |
| 767 | * ScrewThisImOuttaHere: In book 13 (''Knock 'Em Dead''), after an apparent sighting of the ghost of Marcus Drummond (for whom Drummond Theater, where the play is being staged, is named), Pamela South (who was hired to replace Jenny Forrest) declares that she's quitting and runs out of the theater. [[spoiler:She's eventually persuaded to return after Jenny, who took back her role, is exposed as a killer.]] |
| 768 | * SerialKiller: In book 13 (''Knock 'Em Dead''), one has been targeting people who work on Broadway, having taken out four people and posing them in ways similar to characters in the plays they're in. Most people come to believe Harry Schrumm is the killer's fifth victim. [[spoiler:He's not -- but Roy Richardson, who's murdered during the preview showing, ''is'', with said killer turning out to be Jenny Forrest, one of the actors in the play.]] |
| 769 | * SlashedThroat: How the victim dies in book 3 (''Rum and Razors''). It's noted that a victim died this way in one of Jessica's recent books as well. |
| 770 | * SpitefulWill: Used in book 1 (''Gin and Daggers''), where murder victim Marjorie Ainsworth uses her will to insult several of her heirs, including leaving a massive debt to her sister and brother-in-law (apparently he'd spent a great deal of her money at certain establishments and now she wants him to pay the bills they sent her with his own funds), and claiming that several of her associates involved in publishing her works in both Britain and the U.S. had been stealing a portion of her royalties. It's subverted for her niece (and primary caretaker) and Jessica Fletcher, who both receive compliments and large sums from her. |
| 771 | * SuicideNotMurder: |
| 772 | ** In book 4 (''Brandy and Bullets''), after a patient at the Worrel Institute commits suicide via gunshot, a second one nearly overdoses on pills; luckily, she's rushed to the hospital, gets her stomach pumped, and survives the experience. It turns out this really ''was'' a genuine attempted suicide, rather than [[spoiler:being caused by the Institute's experiments in hypnosis like the first victim and a later attempted victim]]. |
| 773 | ** In [[spoiler:book 5 (''Martinis and Mayhem''), Brett Pearl jumps to his death off the Golden Gate Bridge the same day that Jessica was nearly pushed to her death. By the end of the book, it's been confirmed that he'd done so on purpose and the book's villains had nothing to do with it.]] |
| 774 | * TakeMeInstead: In book 8 (''The Highland Fling Murders''), when Alicia and Jed Richardson have been taken hostage by a man at the Tower of London, Jessica offers herself in their place, pointing out that she's a writer and can tell the man's story if he agrees. He winds up letting the Richardsons go, and only tries to shoot at them at the last minute, right after Jessica's gotten both them and herself to safety. |
| 775 | * TakingTheHeat: The climax of book 11 (''A Little Yuletide Murder'') reveals that Jake Walther has been trying to take the blame for Rory Brent's murder when it's actually [[spoiler: Jake's wife Mary who did it]]. In the end though, the true culprit is exposed. |
| 776 | * TeenPregnancy: [[spoiler: This is part of the motive for murder in book 11 (''A Little Yuletide Murder''), where Jill Walthers is revealed to have gotten pregnant by Robert Brent during her senior year of high school. Despite his father trying to force her into getting an abortion, she instead covered up the pregnancy, gave birth and had her daughter adopted.]] |
| 777 | * ThemeNaming: The first five books all follow the same naming scheme -- "(alcoholic drink) and (other word)". Jessica actually discusses this in ''Gin and Daggers'', the first book of the series. It's later re-used for book 24 (''Margaritas and Murder''). |
| 778 | * TimeSkip: In book 12 (''Murder at the Powderhorn Ranch''), the last two pages of the final chapter jump ahead to a year later, when Jessica, Seth and some friends return to Powderhorn Ranch for another vacation -- this time without any murders or other untoward happenings. It also confirms that the book's killers were found guilty and sent to prison. |
| 779 | * {{Tuckerization}}: InUniverse in book 13 (''Knock 'Em Dead''), where Jessica's new book ''Knock 'Em Dead'' includes a character named Waldine, whom Jessica's narration notes is named for her friend Waldine Peckham. |
| 780 | * TwoDunIt: [[spoiler:Three, as it turns out, in book 13 (''Knock 'Em Dead''). Jill Factor, one of the financial backers for the play, killed Harry Schrumm because he was siphoning money she and her husband desperately needed from the production, while her husband Arnold bribed the doorman Vic Righetti and later killed and robbed him. The serial killer who's been targeting people who work on Broadway, meanwhile, is revealed as Jenny Forrest, one of the play's actors.]] |
| 781 | * UndercoverAsLovers: In book 12 (''Murder at the Powderhorn Ranch''), [[spoiler:Paul Molloy arrives at the Powderhorn Ranch with his wife Geraldine. It eventually comes out that they're faking it as a cover story -- she's actually a government agent, while he was investigated for international arms dealing, but was let off because he agreed to help expose others who were in the same business. Unfortunately, this gets them both killed by an actual arms dealer and her associates.]] |
| 782 | * UndercoverCopReveal: The climax of book 12 (''Murder at the Powderhorn Ranch'') reveals that [[spoiler:the second murder victim, Geraldine Jankowski, was actually an undercover government agent who'd come to the ranch to capture an international arms dealer]]. |
| 783 | * VacationEpisode: |
| 784 | ** Book 3 (''Rum and Razors'') revolves around Jessica, having just finished her latest manuscript, taking a trip to the island of St. Thomas near Florida. |
| 785 | ** Book 7 (''A Palette For Murder'') revolves around Jessica, after finishing a manuscript, visiting the Hamptons in Long Island. After solving the mystery, she spends the last few days of her trip in isolation on Montauk for some much-needed rest and relaxation. |
| 786 | ** Book 12 (''Murder at the Powderhorn Ranch'') involves Jessica and Seth going to visit their friends Jim and Bonnie Cook on their ranch in Colorado after a sudden invitation. |
| 787 | * VerbalTic: Book 14 (''Trick or Treachery'') has Artie Sack, a local gardener for hire, who tends to say all or part of his sentences twice. |
| 788 | * WeaponForIntimidation: In book 13 (''Knock 'Em Dead''), Jenny Forrest -- a member of the cast who's recently been fired -- is threatening casting director Linda Amstead with what appears to be a real knife. When Jessica tries to talk her down, Jenny turns on her and stabs her in the chest... only for the knife to be revealed as a prop with a retractable blade, a fact which Jenny knew all along but Jessica didn't until that very moment. |
| 789 | [[/folder]] |
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FollowingContext Series / MurderSheWrote
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