Murder, She Wrote

Former English teacher Jessica Fletcher travels to New York to celebrate the success of her debut novel, but when an unwanted guest is murdered at a costume party, she wishes shed stayed home.

Jessica heads to San Francisco for the wedding of her niece, Victoria Brandon, only to learn that Victoria is having second thoughts because she suspects that her fiancé, Howard, is having an affair. Although Jessica and Victoria are relieved to learn that Howard isnt cheating but rather dressing up as a woman to perform at a nightclub, the relief is short lived when Howard is arrested for murdering his boss, Al Drake, who had been refusing to pay him. The police are convinced that Drake was shot during Freddy Yorks act, which doesnt leave a lot of time, but Jessica is determined to prove Howards innocence.

While visiting her cousin at Langley Manor, a country estate in the South, a man dies during a fox-hunt under strange circumstances, and Jessica tries to find out what really happened.

Jessica helps a most unconventional neighbor who is accused of murdering his former partner with one of his inventions.

While attending a special ballet performance, Jessica helps solve the backstage murder of a young dancer by a defecting ballerina.

Jessica is assigned to fill the empty seat of a deceased congressman for a brief period of time and finds a great deal of political game-playing in Washington.

While in New Orleans, Jessica must solve the mysterious murder of a famous musician who died while performing onstage.

The life of a famous artist is threatened on what would be otherwise an idyllic Mediterranean island.

Jessica suddenly must learn all about football when she inherits an interest in a professional team.

Bus trips are not always as relaxing as they should be. In this case, one passenger had a one-way ticket.

An unpopular show-business personality discovers that elaborate security systems are no guarantee of safety.

Jessicas vacation at a Caribbean resort is not solely for pleasure, but to investigate a friends murder.

While filming a soap opera in which Mrs. Fletchers niece plays a part, a pretend victim is really dead.

When cousin Emmas life is threatened, she plays dead and Jessica is summoned to London as the heir to the estate.

While spending time at a lake, Jessica sees what appears to be a struggle and a woman falling from a boat into the lake.

Doing public service, Jessica becomes a hostage in a prison riot caused by anger in the handling of the doctors murder.

An archaeological dig at the site of Coronados City of Gold does not please everyone and a new corpse is dug up.

Its a bad day for the jurors when Jessica is the foreperson of the jury hearing the case of a man claiming self-defense in the death of an enraged husband.

After their car breaks down after dinner with the governor, Jessica and her friend Ames Caufield find themselves in a small southern town just in time for local bad boy Ed Bonner to be found dead, and young Matt Burns, the son of a former student of Ames, ends up accused of the murder. At the behest of Linda Bonner, the victims sister who happens to care deeply about the accused, Jessica takes a look into the murder, but hatred runs deep in this town and its pure luck (and Andy Crane) that leads Jessica and Ames to the right answer.

A red hot diary of a sex symbol is to be auctioned and some of the bidders are ready to shed blood.

Jessica and Grady head to the home of publisher Christopher Bundy, whose publishing company owns the rights to Jessicas first short story. Jessica is quite upset, as Bundys magazine is known for its racy pictures of young women. While there, Jessica is pleased to run into an old acquaintance, Chester Harrison, and when Harrison is accused of murdering Christopher Bundy, Jessica vows to prove his innocence but runs into trouble when the family isnt interested in having their own skeletons dragged out of the closet.

At the request of aunt Mildred, Jessica agrees to stop by New Orleans to check on cousin Cal while on her way to Houston. No sooner does Jessica get to New Orleans then she is tossed into a Mardi Gras party where the host ends up dead, and Cal is accused of the crime. While attempting to clear Cals name and reputation, Jessica delves into the world of cheating poker players, cheating girlfriends and vengefilled police officers while trying to convince a local lieutenant that Cal is not capable of murder.

Jessicas niece receives a gift from her grandfather---a man long thought dead---which leads Jessica (Angela Lansbury) to a circus beset by accidents and murder. Part 1 of two. Neil Fletcher: Jackie Cooper. Edgar Carmody: Martin Balsam. Brad Kaneally: Greg Evigan. Katie McCallum: Pamela Susan Shoop.

A retired policeman decides to re-examine an old case he never solved in which Seth was a strong suspect.

An adman handling the account of a fast-food chain is murdered and Jessica smells something funny.

A veteran reporter, who suffered a heart attack, says his best medicine would be the removal of his publisher who has turned a good paper into a yellow rag.

Jessica reluctantly agrees to do an interview for an old friend, Paula Roman, but is surprised when Kevin Keats, a journalist who had been doing a series of stories on an art dealer who was really a drug dealer, shows up to do the interview, complete with cameras and crew. After Kevin is presumed dead when a boat Amos chartered for him explodes, Cabot Cove explodes with press and paparazzi, and the citizens blame Jessica for all the problems it causes, demanding that she solve the mystery. Unfortunately, once Keats is revealed to be alive and well, the real question is who the true target was.

The headless horseman rides again, but his costume becomes more realistic.

The phone wires get crossed during a storm and Jessica cant convince anyone that what she heard was real.

A lying TV Consumer advocate is killed. Was it done by one of the clients whose products he maligned?

An artist is murdered and his prized painting is missing.

Grady Fletcher is in big trouble when his boss, a specialist in tax shelters, is found dead and he is the main suspect.

Thirty years ago, Sam Wilson was sent to prison for murdering his boss, Malcolm Jarvis. After finally being released, Sam goes home to his wife and now-grown son who is expecting his first child with his wife, Terry. At Georgia Jarvis request, Jessica looks into the crime, and through flashbacks, Sam remembers when Jarvis had offered him $10,000 to make his suicide look like murder. While Jessica believes that Sam is innocent, she doesnt believe it was suicide, and asks Sams son Rod, a police officer, to lend a hand.

Ooh la la! Jessica travels to gay Paris to spend some time with an old friend... and finds herself entangled in a case involving fashion, finance and murder.

Jessica goes to Quebec to testify at the trial of a friend who is accused of killing his wife and burning his house.

After the accidental death of a tycoon, his associates battle for position to succeed him.

When Deputy Martin becomes a widower by murder, the investigation turns up some surprising activity.

Hostility and other surprises await Jessica in a town where shes posing as her friend to investigate the rumoured murder of the friends sister.

Grady gets into a spot again when he is found with the body of woman known from college days and now had been dating a frat brother who was married.

Jessica is thrilled to be visiting her niece Carrie and her husband Leonard, an astronomer dreaming of seeing a long-lost comet, but when Carries ex-boyfriend Drake Eaton is murdered in the home shes been staying in, Jessica has to prove not only her niece but also her husband innocent of murder.

Jessica visits her old friend Eugene McClendon, who soon stands accused of the murder of an old friend, Jonathan Keeler. While helping clear Eugenes name, Jessica learns that her friend believes he is dying, and is surprised when he asks her to marry him so that she can look after his affairs once hes gone. Jessica agrees, but only so that they can expose Jonathans true killer.

The Gambini family gathers to celebrate the 75th birthday of the patriarch and a murder.

Somebody put the maitre d on ice. Jessica wonders if she has made a bad investment.

Two critics take opposite views of a play based on one of Jessicas novels, Mainly Murder. One is suspected of the murder of the other.

A colossal mix-up puts Jessica in jail as a suspect in a murder only she witnessed. British agent Hagarty returns.

The sisters used a new type of fertilizer to make their chrysanthemums best of show.

The coal miners daughter thinks the mine owner is responsible for her fathers death and someone takes action.

The airplane her late husband bailed out of in 1952 has finally been found -- with a body inside.

Gradys wedding seems doomed when someone does in the persnickety housekeeper.

A long missing heir turns up and trouble ensues.

A very attractive young witch appears in Cabot Cove making some residents wonder if she really died a century or so ago.

An old English professor is caught red-handed over a young girls body and insists he did it, but a young man later confesses. Whodunit?

A red hot novel, written by a former Fletcher student, seems to expose the small towns secrets and inspires murder. Julie Adams, Gloria DeHaven, Kathryn Grayson and Ruth Roman appear again as the local gossips.

In a strange case, Jessica bumps into an old friend who is supposed to be dead. His widow insists he is dead and Jessica hires Harry McGraw to investigate.

Eudora McVeigh, a rival mystery writer, arrives at Jessicas door with seemingly friendly intentions, but the discovery of a corpse and a web of deceit follows her to Cabot Cove leading Jessica to suspect the woman of ulterior and sinister motives.

Jessicas old friend, Michael Hagarty, persuades her to play a part in his scheme to free a fellow agent from captivity.

When a famous mystery writer dies, Jessica recalls a 1947 case that the writer was personally involved in.

A former athlete cares for a friends dog and, after his friend is murdered, finds the dog is a target.

A voodoo curse of death caused by the marriage of a plantation heir to the wrong person, sets off a string of events in Jamaica.

A wealthy lumberman invites Jessica to his island retreat to discover which of his relatives is trying to kill him.

The town gets a shock when bachelor Mayor Sam is confronted on the speakers platform by a young woman claiming he is the father of her five children. Julie Adams, Gloria De Haven, Kathryn Grayson and Ruth Roman return as gossips Eve, Phyllis, Idal and Loretta.

A single mother is accused of killing the landlord that is always harassing her.

Jessicas niece, who is a real estate broker, arrives at the mansion and finds a body instead of a buyer.

The producer of a police drama investigates the murder of a programmer who differed with her.

Insurance investigator Dennis Stanton, who uses his skills as an ex-thief to solve crimes, returns to investigate a theft and two murders.

Grady and his pregnant wife are tending Jessicas house in her absence when an old seaman is killed in her front room.

Jessica is blamed for the death of an escapee who was wrongly convicted.

Jessica introduces this story of a lawyer with many enemies who is the victim and Dennis who must investigate.

A wealthy womans passion for jewellery, not always hers, and her involvement with the chauffeur might be connected

This time it is the company controller that seems to have been the victim of the previously convicted publisher.

Jimmy Dean plays a country-music star whos the victim in this story.

In Boston, Jessica and Seth are captured by the angry son of one of Seths patients who didnt survive.

An influential father cuts no ice with Sheriff Metzger.

The owner of Ednas Pies near St. Louis, is accused of skimping on her IRS payments. She in turn blames her ex-husband who, consequently, is found murdered.

A bank robber, long thought dead, returns to see his daughter and face the wrath of the townspeople.

A woman turns up claiming that Jessicas late husband was the father of her child and he is in deep trouble involving fraud in his construction company and murder.

The owner of a diner is accused of using too much spice in the food, when someone finds arsenic.

Jessica heads off to New York to begin teaching and has difficulty finding an apartment. She finally gets one that she likes, only to learn that a murder recently took place in the apartment complex and that someone desperately wants something that is inside her apartment. Shes relieved when Seth comes to New York to check up on her, and enlists his help in cracking the case.

After Jane Dawson informs Jessica of her plans to write an unauthorized biography on her good friend Ellen Lombard, Ellens husband Arthur comes under suspicion when Janes sister and husband find her dead body electrocuted after a T.V. was dropped in her hot tub, and Arthur is seen leaving the house.

Teaching a computer class seems tame, but not when Jessica is one of the students.

Evidence points to the battered wife of a powerful businessman as his killer, but Jessica establishes that there is a long list of suspects who wished him dead.

The governing committee of an exclusive mens club commissions Jessica to identify a rogue members killer--who likely serves on the committee.

When a beautiful ballerina dies during her preniere performance in a new ballet, Jessica is convinced it is murder.

The Bates House of the movie, Psycho, is to be the setting of Jessicas book in the film made at Universal Studios.

No one wants to believe that Jessica found a body in her hotel suite in London and they dont want her to believe it, either.

All of Jessicas intuitive and deductive skills are called into play when she sets out to clear a university colleague of a murder charge.

The theft of a priceless artifact from Mexico City museum leads Jessica into a labyrinth of clues, where murder is the fact behind the Mask of Montezuma.

Jessica intervenes when a long-lost Army buddy of her friend Seth is accused of murder.

During the Milan Film Festival, famous fim producer Catherine Wayne is murdered.

Jessica is mistaken for someone else and kidnapped at the airport. When the woman she is mistaken for is killed, Jessica finds the murderer.

Jessica is appalled when, upon returning to New York City, she finds herself caricatured as a fox in a politically satirical comic strip with libelous dialogue.

Agent Michael Hagarty is arrested for the murder of his estranged daughters crooked fiancee.

The return of a Gulf War veteran and his reunion with his fiancée is marred by his big secret.

The personal manager of a resting actor dies just as his client returns to the stage.

Are the disappearance of a private eye in 1963 and the Kennedy assassination of the same year connected?

Was a Beverly Hills florist killed because he was supplying more than flowers for gossip magazine editors?

The town is concerned when a local fisherman dies, but concern turns to confusion when a second body is discovered aboard a fishing boat. Both men died from carbon monoxide poisoning, but seem to have no connection until the fishermans daughter receives her fathers logbook and nautical charts in the mail.

A delivery boy says he was only a witness when he is found kneeling beside the victim.

Jessicas computer tech becomes an inadvertent target when she dates an undercover cop, whom she has just met.

A trader working on a merger dies at a Chinese banquet in Hong Kong.

A new Victorian house owner is killed in the manner befitting a vampire -- a wooden stake in his chest.

Jessica is fascinated by a demo of a VR game based on her book, but, while playing it, she thinks she sees a real murder.

An American nephew, out to get the family business, gets a different kind and the Irish widows son is suspected.

A man thinks he should get royalties from a book based on his case, written by Jessica.

In Canada, a land war breaks out between Native Americans and a mining company.

A piece of sculpture does double duty as a murder weapon.

Jessica is shocked to learn that her editor has taken a flying leap from his high-rise office.

An old established store has closed for the last time and its accountant wont have to find another job.

A truck hijacker comes to the end of the road.

It is no sleight of hand when the crooked carnival magician is murdered.

When Jessica spends some time at a zoo researching her latest novel, she soon gets drawn into a case of murder when the body of Mark Atwater, the fiancé of one of the zoo workers, is found murdered (death by snake venom), and another employee is charged with his murder. In the course of her investigation, she soon learns that a number of people had a motive to want Mark dead.

The discovery of an old document may make Cabot Cove rewrite its history.

While Jessica prepares her book for serialization of her book in a newspaper, real trouble is brewing in the newsroom.

Private investigator Charlie Garrett is in luck when Jessica is in Martinique vacationing at the same time he is accused of murdering the woman hes been trying to locate for a client.

A Cabot Cove resident is killed in Jessicas garage.

A book fair in Miami becomes Jessicas backdrop when she teams with a Russian detective to solve an art theft and murder.

A dear friends involvement with the theft of a priceless Egyptian relic and a murder birng Jessica to the rescue.

When a brilliant scientist fakes his own death and is then murdered, Jessica sets the record strait when the wrong man is arrested.

Parisian slave-labor sweatshops provide the setting for the crimes, and the pretentious world of fashion is where Jessica solves them.

It seems that there is more than schoolboy pranks going on between a Cabot Cove prep school and its rival.

A domineering father forces a teenager to play beyond her desire and she suffers emotional problems.

Gossip is rampant in a stylish Fifth Avenue beauty salon where an expert hair-dresser is involved in several intrigues.

People in a sleepy Arizona town, are threatened by a truck- stop bandit and suspicious treasure hunters.

A nurse under a cloud comes to Cabot Cove. One of her patients is Jessicas best friend Maggie.

Jessica is trapped in the rat-infested dungeon of an ancient Irish castle, but uses her ingenuity to get rescued and find the treasure and a murderer.

Jessica agrees to go to New York to bid on a manuscript purportedly by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and while there, she gets mixed up in the murder of a local forger who had been involved in the theft of a priceless Degas painting two years earlier when she tries to help Charlie Garrett out of a jam.

Jessica is called to testify before a grand jury after a victims last phone call was traced to her number.

The members of an up-and-coming Latin instrumental band get an offer they cant refuse just when they are getting noticed by a more reputable company.

The victim of a childhood kidnapping sees more in the manuscript she is editing than coincidence would suggest.

The puppets are dancing to a different tune, much to the dismay of the young designer.

Deputy Andy bought a house with numerous defects from the victim and emerges as the chief suspect.

Jessica is the honorary commodore of the Worlds Cup Race, featuring Kyle Kimballs Buccaneer and Ned Larkins Free Spirit. There is much ill-will and Ned is injured, too much to skipper his craft. His daughter replaces him and then Kyle is killed. This is no way to run a regatta!

Jessica somehow gets tangled in a situation involving a deadly virus and an arms deal.