Murder, She Wrote: Majoring In Murder [Paperback]

Jessica Fletcher (Author), Donald Bain (Author)

Book Description

Series: Murder She Wrote | Publication Date: April 1, 2003

Celebrity mystery writer Jessica Fletcher is riding out Schoolman College's first tornado in over sixty years. As a visiting professor, she is there to teach a creative writing class. But after two men choose to brave the tornado rather than take shelter and one of them is found dead-Jessica wonders if her darkest suspicions are strictly academic.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Signet; Murder, She Wrote. Edition edition (April 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451208323
• ISBN-13: 978-0451208323
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #89,376 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Mystery!, April 9, 2003

By 

S. J Wadell (St. Louis, Missouri United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Murder, She Wrote: Majoring In Murder (Paperback)

Jessica is catch in a tornado while teaching at a University and of course finds herself involved in murder. This mystery novel was interesting and so enjoyable that I read it in 2 days flat. With each Jessica Fletcher mystery novel, they seem to be getting better and better. Be sure to pick this one up. Mrs. Fletcher, keep up the good work!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jessica's teaching at a midwest college, April 3, 2006

By 

Dawn Dowdle "Mystery Lovers Corner reviewer" (Lynchburg, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Murder, She Wrote: Majoring In Murder (Paperback)

Jessica is teaching a semester course on writing mysteries at a small college in Indiana. Jessica is caught off guard when a tornado hits the college and almost doesn't make it to shelter in time. While many buildings have extensive damage, there are very few injuries. Until they discover the head of the English department dead in the rubble.

Everyone believes the storm killed him, but Jessica feels there is more to the story. She attempts to look into things but the police are determined it was natural causes and throw up roadblocks to stop her. She pushes so hard she ends up in jail. Thankfully the judge is a fan, and she doesn't have to stay long.

Jessica and a student who helps her retrieve the murder weapon from the rubble. Knowing the way the police feel about the death, she gets the Cabot Cove police department to help get the weapon to the lab.

Jessica presses on to uncover the truth. In the meantime she uncovers another mystery and solves it too.

I love this series and really enjoyed this one. The college setting really lent itself to this story. I normally don't like when Jessica is traveling as I miss the hometown characters. This time they make small appearances via phone and help with the investigation in small ways so that I didn't feel they were left out.

I highly recommend this book.

Check out www.mysteryloverscorner.com

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pecos Jessica Rides a Tornado, May 18, 2005

By 

Dennis Phillips "The Book Friar" (Bulls Gap, Tennessee USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Murder, She Wrote: Majoring In Murder (Paperback)

Jessica Fletcher, the famous mystery writer has agreed to spend a semester teaching a course about mystery writing at Schoolman College, a small Liberal Arts college in Indiana. Being from Maine, Jessica is not used to dealing with tornadoes and when one hits the campus she is almost caught out in it. Luckily for her, a man named Frank gets her to the shelter just in time and she sits there waiting out the storm with everyone else. There is extensive damage to several campus buildings but only a few injuries and everything seems to be under control until the body of the head of the English Department is found buried under some rubble.

At first everyone naturally assumes that it was the storm that killed the professor but something tells Jessica that there is more to this story than meets the eye. As is her custom, Jessica begins to snoop around but the college administration and the local police are determined not to acknowledge the possibility that this might be a murder and they work to thwart Jessica at every turn. The local police lieutenant even goes so far as to pressure the coroner into ignoring some suspicious findings during the autopsy. Jessica, who is used to getting her way, finally pushes the police too far and ends up in jail. Not for long though since the judge turns out to be a fan of hers. With a little help from a student who happens to be just as nosy as her, Jessica finds and retrieves the murder weapon but has to rely on the efforts of her police friends back in Cabot Cove to get it to a lab.

As evidence mounts, Jessica digs all the harder and finally, as is usual she solves the mystery, but not before uncovering another mystery which she solves in short order. The biggest problem with this book, and all of the books in this series that I have read, is that some of the evidence is withheld from the reader until the very end. Jessica of course has the evidence and with it she solves the mystery, but the reader is left trying to put together a puzzle with some of the pieces missing. There is also the problem of the missing Frank who is a major character in the early chapters but just disappears in the middle of the book never to return.

Despite the missing evidence, which is very frustrating, this was a good quality book. The college atmosphere and Jessica's lectures to her class were very enjoyable. It was kind of like taking a short seminar in mystery writing when the story turned to the classroom. Most of the characters were believable and interesting but I must admit that I missed the people back in Cabot Cove. Thankfully Mort and Seth made short appearances by phone so that neither Jessica nor I became too homesick. She does however turn down an offer to stay for another semester because she has decided that it is time to go home. I couldn't agree more.