Gin & Daggers
Book One- Murder, She Wrote Series
As I explained in a previous post, I was confused on what novel was Book One in the Murder, She Wrote mystery series. (My reason for this is documented in my review for Book 2). Gin & Daggers is the first book. Jessica is invited to a mystery writer’s conference in London, England. Before the conference, she visits Marjorie Ainsworth, who is considered the grand dame of mystery writers. Jessica is invited to her estate, along with a group of friends in the publishing world. In the middle of the night, after the dinner, she finds Marjorie dead in her bedroom with a knife sticking out of her chest.
Jessica is deemed the prime suspect (especially after she inherits some money from Marjorie’s will). This is how she meets her long-distance romantic interest, Inspector George Sutherland of Scotland Yard. He does not seem to take her seriously as a suspect because he takes her out to dinner numerous times. He also knows of her reputation in solving some cases in her hometown of Cabot Cove.
This was a really interesting case. There was a clever red herring/misdirection. There were questions if Marjorie was in fact the author of her recent novel Gin & Daggers. Jessica’s good friends, Seth and Mort, showed up in London to assist her. I also thought there was a nice theme throughout the conference portions of the novel pondering how literary mystery novels could be, or is it all just popular fiction? My own take is that I do believe they can be literary fiction.
The mystery was clever. It was nice to read how Jessica and George met. Expect him to show up in future novels. I highly recommend this novel.
Next novel in series: (I already reviewed Book 2) Rum & Razors (Book 3)