Customer Reviews

Murder, She Wrote: A Palette for Murder

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Jessica is going to visit her publisher and his wife in the beautiful Hamptons. While in the Hamptons Jessica decides to take art lessons. While she is skecting an artist the artist mysteriously drops dead. Jessica checks into the case, and finds out that the case is very similar to the death of an artist a year ago. The book is pretty good, and is full of suspense. A great book for a rainy day.

Whoa! In A Palette for Murder you get to see Jessica Fletcher at her finest! This is an amzing book that anyone would love, no matter what your preference in books. Why did a young girl who was modeling for an artist studio suddenly fall over dead? And could this death somehow be connected with the murder of a reporter and the death of a young artist? Only the amazing Jessica Fletcher can uncover the truth!

It seems that Jessica has a hobby we didn't know about and her pursuit of that hobby gets her into all kinds of trouble in this book. We find out early on in this book that Jessica likes to paint and she has decided to take a trip to the Hamptons, a favorite spot for artists, to take a painting class. Everything is fine until the young lady who is modeling for the budding artist's drops dead during a session. When the story hits the news, Seth Hazlitt calls from Cabot Cove just flabbergasted that Jessica has been painting pictures of naked men. The coroner rules it a heart attack but Jessica just can't believe that someone so young could die so suddenly. Of course this kind of death occurs all of the time and so the premise of the whole story is a little weak but not badly so.

Jessica starts to snoop around and when she learns that a young artist died under the same circumstances a few years before this death she really gets suspicious. She calls up her friend George Sutherland at Scotland Yard and has him check on poisons that would mimic a heart attack but that would be hard to detect. He calls her back with the notion that ricin might just be the culprit. Another weak point in this story is that Jessica just runs with the ricin theory without giving a second thought to the fact that other poisons might also fit the bill. This is partially covered by the fact that one of the players is a former East German intelligence officer who would have had access to ricin but I can't help but think that Miss Marple would have checked on the poison a little more closely. Ricin by the way comes from the Castor Oil Bean so I was right in telling my mother that she was going to kill me with that stuff.

In this book the bodies just keep piling up until there are four murder victims and Jessica is almost number five so the action is never dull. As you read along you keep wondering who is going to be next and at least one of the deaths comes as a total shock. There are also some interesting characters introduced in this book such as Frank the taxi driver and Mr. Scott the owner of the inn where Jessica is staying.

While this is a very enjoyable book, there are some flaws besides the ones mentioned above. First of all in some of these books and on TV she was J.B. Fletcher while this book and some of the others in this series refer to her as J.D. Fletcher. Mr. Bain needs to make up his mind! Another problem is that Mrs. Fletcher seems to have a problem with overweight people and takes every opportunity to make remarks about their weight. It is especially bad in this book when it comes to the former German spy but she also does it to her friends, including Seth. I've never thought of Jessica as that small minded. She also rails against smokers in this book, again due to the German character. She can rail all she wants to but Mr. Bain again needs to look toward consistency here since she never criticizes her pipe smoking Scottish friend.

Of course little points like this do not detract all that much from a well-written and interesting story and this is certainly one of those. It just bugs me no end when an author can't seem to keep his basic story straight from one book to the next. Nonetheless, as warm fuzzy mysteries go, this is another winner from the pin of Donald Bain.

''A Pallete For Murder'' is one of the best Murder She Wrotes yet! The tantalizing plot will make you want to finish the book in one sitting. This book is for all ages, and even if you don't like mysteries, you'll enjoy this book.

-L. JR.

I have collected all of the Murder She Wrote books to date and re-read them every so often. I find them very 'readable'. This one is no exception.

I believe I have all the Murder, She Wrote paperbacks with Donald Bain. They are every one enjoyable. This is not my favorite, but I'm glad I bought it. For all of us who commute by public transportation the Murder, She Wrote paperbacks are perfect.

When I picked this book up, I could not put it down. The murders are very well thought out. Although how the victims die at first might need a bit of imagination, it becomes more logical as you get further into the book. The best yet!!

Although the plot is entertaining, the author's incessant and shameless anti-smoking comments are downright annoying. No need for Surgeon General's warning here: Jessica says on page 283 that "smoking can be hazardous to your health" -- just in case we hadn't gotten the point in the first 282 pages! Fear not though, alcohol-consumption and over-eating also make the list of big no-no's!

Donald Bain can write about what he wants, but certainly not through the lovely character of JB Fletcher, who's never been small-minded or judgmental in the TV-show. In this book, however, she verges on being supremely obnoxious and high-maintenance. Fortunately, she's back to "her old self" in the author's other books. He obviously got a better understanding of the character after "A Palette for Murder" -- even correcting the incomprehensible mistake of calling Jessica "J.D." Fletcher in the beginning.

Last but not least, since the books are supposed to be written by a famous author who also teaches writing classes once in a while, may I suggest brushing up on irregular verbs? ("Until PROVED guilty" and "a LIGHTED cigarette" are two aberrations that come to mind.)

Entertaining read like all in the MSW series. Anyone else notice that Mrs. F is called J.D.Fletcher in this book?