Hooked on Books discussion

Murder, She Wrote Challenge
Begins: April 1, 2023
Ends: April 1, 2025




Hello, Jessica Fletcher fan!!

This is an individual challenge where you will have until April 1, 2025 - yes, 2 years if needed - to complete up to 56 tasks, one for each of the books in the Murder, She Wrote series.

You will have 4 tasks to choose from for each book. You only need to complete one to move on to the next book in the series.

Each time you complete a task, you will post it here in YOUR OWN THREAD. Please copy the following example for your Completion Post.

Prompt #:
Book:
Author:
Date Read:
Pages:
Task:
How it Fits:

If you have any questions, please post them in the Q & A Thread.


Challenge Rules:
📘 Standard Rules Apply
📘I will create an individual thread for you prior to the start date.
📘Your first prompt will be posted on April 1, 2023.
📘Books must be completed after the task has been posted.

While you wait for the challenge to officially begin, here's a refresher on JB's background, according to the Book Series in Order website. 😀

Murder, She Wrote is a series of crime fiction and detective novels by Jessica Fletcher of Cabot Cove. She went to college at the Harrison College in Green Falls, New Hampshire, from where she graduated with a degree in journalism. After graduation, she decided to take up a job as a substitute English teacher. She interned at the Appleton Theater for a while and it was while she was working there that she met Frank Fletcher, a United States Air Force Captain that she went on to marry. They have no children of their own but they adopted Grady their nephew, who they raised as their own after his parents perished in an automobile accident. Following the death of her husband Frank, she wrote “The Corpse Danced At Midnight”, which her nephew found and showed to his girlfriend. She had it published by Coventry House who loved it so much that they published it, marking the start of Jessica’s career as an author. In the course of publishing, she would soon be drawn into the intrigues of a homicide that led her to quit Coventry House. During the intervening period, she published with other houses and did other things including serving in the US House of Representative for Maine. Seven years after the publication of the debut novel, she moved to New York where she went back to teaching Creative Writing and Criminology. While she has established herself as an internationally known sleuth, she still continues to publish novels.

The Murder, She Wrote series of novels by Jessica Fletcher was borne from a TV series by the same name that aired on the CBS Network between 1984 and 1996. Jessica Fletcher the author of the novels and lead character in the series was played by Angela Lansbury. The light-hearted series of novels are cozy mysteries set in Cabot Cove, where Jessica Fletcher the amateur sleuth goes about solving a range of homicides. Jessica is a widowed, childless and retired English teacher that became a successful writer of mystery novels. It all began with a small old Royal typewriter but over time and as she became more successful, she moved to a computer that runs on Windows 3.1. While she has amassed quite the fortune, she loves her small coastal community of Cabot Cove in Maine and never wants to leave. She has never let her success go to her head and has kept in touch with all her old friends that she has known since her teaching days. She counts among her friends multi-millionaires with private planes, as well as homeless people with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Nowadays she works as an amateur sleuth occupied in unraveling homicide cases in her small town. While she prefers to work as JB Fletcher both in her writing career and sleuthing work, she increasingly finds that her personal life and work often overlap.

During this challenge, you will have 6 "skips" available to use if you are unable to complete the tasks listed. Each badge below represents a skip. I will remove them as they are used up.

In order to skip a task, you will need to read any book in the Murder, She Wrote Series. Just list SKIP as the task in your completion post.

Available SKIPS

Book 1: Gin & Daggers




Jessica Fletcher is off to London to deliver the keynote address at a mystery writers convention. She's also looking forward to seeing her mentor, Marjorie Ainsworth, who will be hosting a party at her country estate to celebrate her latest book. Marjorie is the grand dame of mystery writing but she's in frail health.

The routine business trip for Jessica becomes murderous when she discovers Marjorie stabbed to death in her own bedroom.

Complete one of the following tasks:
a. Read a book set in London.
b. Read a book with a female MC.
c. Read a book where the MC is a writer.
d. Read the first book in a series.

Prompt #: 1
Book: Things We Hide from the Light
Author: Lucy Score
Date Read: May 25 - 27
Pages: 589
Task: Read a book with a female MC.
How it Fits: Female MC is Lina Solevita

Book 2: Manhattans & Murder




The "USA Today" bestselling "Murder, She Wrote" mystery series continues as Jessica Fletcher learns that Manhattan is murder at Christmastime...

Promoting her latest book brings bestselling mystery writer Jessica Fletcher to New York for Christmas. Her schedule includes book signings, restaurants, department stores...and murder?

It all begins with a sidewalk Santa staring at Jessica with fear and recognition. Behind the beard is Waldo Morse, former drug smuggler and the most notorious citizen of Cabot Cove, Maine. Jessica hasn't a clue as to how he ended up as a street corner Saint Nick, but she agrees to meet him at two o'clock the next day.

Jessica shows up with her camera, but in no time at all Santa is dead. While the police are strangely slow on their feet, and the dead man's wife uncommonly fast on the run, Jessica decides to do what she does best: strategically snoop around and graciously outwit the pros on both sides of the law.

Complete one of the following tasks:
a. Read a book set in New York City.
b. Read a book with an alliterative title where the first letter of each word is the same.
c. Read a book where someone dresses up in any kind of costume.
d. Read a book with a skull on the cover.

Prompt #: 2
Book: Magenta Mine
Author: Janet Elizabeth Henderson
Date Read: May 31 - June 1
Pages: 200
Task: Read a book with alliterative title where the first letter of each word is the same
How it Fits: Magenta Mine both start with M.

Book 3: Rum & Razors




Jessica is on vacation in St. Thomas in the Caribbean when she discovers the corpse of hotel owner Walter Marschalk. The island police suspect a hot-tempered ex-employee, but cool-headed Jessica sets out to discover who's the real serpent in Eden.

The water's lovely; the scenery's gorgeous, but trouble is waiting for Jessica in paradise.

Complete one of the following tasks:
a. Read a book where the MC lives on or vacations at a beach.
b. Read a book published in the 1990s.
c. Read a book with one single person on the cover.
d. Read a book where the author's first and last initial are found in CARIBBEAN.

Prompt #3
Book: The Lieutenant
Author: Melissa Adams
Date Read: 6/16
Pages: 316
Task: Read a book with one single person on the cover.
How it Fits:

Book 4: Brandy & Bullets




Jessica Fletcher must catch an artistic killer in this mystery in the "USA Today" bestselling "Murder, She Wrote" series.

Cabot Cove in Maine has a cozy country luncheonette, but not much high culture. Mystery author Jessica Fletcher is the only writer in town, but the renovation of the local Worrell mansion into an art colony may bring scores of artistic people to C.C. No one, however, expected a creative killer.

The posh retreat offers struggling artists a European spa, psychiatry, and even hypnotism. But soon the retreat begins to look like a health hazard. In quick succession, a suicide attempt and a brutal murder arouse the sheriff's attention--and Jessica's. When an old friend mysteriously disappears, Jessica fears a twisted genius is at work writing a scenario for murder-- and putting Jessica's own life in peril.

Complete one of the following tasks:
a. Read a book set in a small town {your interpretation}.
b. Read a book with a character who is an artist.
c. Read a book where the MC visits a spa.
d. Read a book with a 4 in the page count.

Prompt #4:
Book: Welcome to Moonlight Harbor
Author: Sheila Roberts
Date Finished: July 4
Pages: 385
Task: Read a boo set in a small town.
Qualification: Moonlight Harbor is a small beach town.

Book 5: Martinis & Mayhem




Cabot Cove, Maine's most famous mystery author, Jessica Fletcher, is excited about promoting her new book in glamourous San Francisco. She can't wait for drinks and dinner on Fisherman's Wharf, a ride on a cable car, and a rendezvous with her visiting Scottish policeman friend, George Sutherland.

But Jess doesn't know that solving a murder may soon be penciled into her agenda.

Complete one of the following tasks:
a. Read a book set in California.
b. Read a book that has a character in law enforcement.
c. Read a book where the MC has an alcoholic drink.
d. Read a book where the MC's first initial is found in JESSICA.

Prompt #4:
Book: Bittersweet
Author: Carrie Aarons
Date Finished: September 24
Pages: 247
Task: Read a book where the MC's first initial is found in Jessica.
Qualification: Main female character is named Cassandra Mauer.

Book 5: Martinis & Mayhem




Cabot Cove, Maine's most famous mystery author, Jessica Fletcher, is excited about promoting her new book in glamourous San Francisco. She can't wait for drinks and dinner on Fisherman's Wharf, a ride on a cable car, and a rendezvous with her visiting Scottish policeman friend, George Sutherland.

But Jess doesn't know that solving a murder may soon be penciled into her agenda.

Complete one of the following tasks:
a. Read a book set in California.
b. Read a book that has a character in law enforcement.
c. Read a book where the MC has an alcoholic drink.
d. Read a book where the MC's first initial is found in JESSICA.

Thanks to a question asked by Truitt_T, I'm making a change to the rules through the end of this month. We will go back to the regular rules on January 1st.


"The challenge rules say: 📘Books must be completed after the task has been posted.


HOWEVER, since it's Christmastime, I will allow all participants to use any books read in the month of December 2023 for any task I post as of today. This will be allowed through the end of this month - December 31st in your timezone. So if you read a book a week ago and it works for a task today, or next week, etc., you may use it."


Merry Christmas 🤶🏻