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 she'd stayed home.

After a terrible storm, Stephen Earl's four daughters tell Sheriff Tupper that their father died while they were out on the boat. Jessica is only midly intrigued; she finds Ralph, the older gentleman who has offered to work for food, much more intriguing, especially since it is obvious he comes from money. The womens' stories about what happened on the boat change constantly, but once Ralph is found dead and later found to be Stephen Earl, Jessica has to help Amos wage through the inconsistencies in the four Earl daughters storylines to determine who killed their father and why.

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 isn't 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 York's act, which doesn't leave a lot of time, but Jessica is determined to prove Howard's innocence.

Jessica's first book, The Corpse Danced at Midnight, is being made into a major Hollywood motion picture, backed by producer Jerry Lydecker. Jessica is furious to see how her book is being butchered by Lydecker and his crew. She heads out to Hollywood to confront Lydecker, but things take a turn when Lydecker is found dead on stage. Jessica ends up being the prime suspect in the murder, but luckily the officer in charge of the investigation believes she's too smart to be the killer and sets her up to find the real murderer.

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.

While in Seattle lecturing at the university, Jessica is convinced that the young man she hired as her secretary is not a killer.

Jessica's vacation at a Caribbean resort is not solely for pleasure, but to investigate a friend's murder.

Plans to build a new hotel in Cabot Cove are put on hold when diggers discover an old skeleton that had been buried deeply that many of the townspeople believe to be the remains of Joshua Peabody. Not everyone is thus inclined though, and many people believe it's just a random dead body. But when Jessica and Amos head back to the dig site, they find there's another body there! Jessica not only has to find out who killed Wheatley, she has to help an old friend when his past comes back to haunt him.

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

When Jessica is offered an honorary degree from Crenshaw University, she has no idea she's about to become embroiled in a murder. After the boyfriend of (in)famous writer Daphne Clover is found murdered, Jessica agrees to assist the chief of police, who has never had a murder case before, find out who the killer is. She soon has more on her plate than she bargained for when first Daphne's mother confesses, then Daphne herself confesses. Jessica realises the two women are simply trying to protect each other, and begins to look at the faculty at the university.

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

Jessica decides to pay a visit to her long-time friend Francesca, only to learn that Francesca, who is now married to a much younger man, is convinced that she is being haunted by the ghost of her first husband, Ross. When her new husband, Scott, turns up dead, the investigation reveals that he had been poisoned, and suspicion turns to Francesca. Jessica, however, is determined to prove that her friend did not commit the crime, and begins looking into the mysterious re-appearances of her dead husband.

Jessica's 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.

Conclusion. Despite her brother-in-law's confession, Jessica refuses to believe he killed the circus foreman. Neil Fletcher: Jackie Cooper. Preston Bartholomew: Alex Cord. 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.

Attending a concert in Washington, D.C., Jessica gets involved with two East German defectors and a murder.

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

While diving for sunken treasure near Cabot Cove, a young woman is murdered.

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.

A walk down memory lane is anything but pleasant for Jessica when she re-examines a 20 year-old case involving her close friends and former students.

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

A terminally ill nun seems to have committed suicide which would be an unacceptable sin.

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

Cousin Emma in London has a new problem when someone serves her lover poisoned herring.

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

A senatorial hopeful is murdered and his wife's necklace stolen.

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

A blizzard interrupts a skiing vacation and traps everyone, including a killer.

The coal miner's daughter thinks the mine owner is responsible for her father's death and someone takes action.

A Fletcher novel is the entree to a legendary actress who is a hermit refusing to meet anyone. The occasion is the theft of a famous tiara.

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

A parishioner's confession to a priest is confidential and nothing will make him break his oath.

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

When the wife of a developer is accused of killing her husband and commits suicide, it leaves the whereabouts of his embezzled millions a mystery.

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

An unsent letter turns up in an old bureau bought at a rummage sale the same day arson occurs in a furniture store. Are these events connected?

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

A young reporter is persuaded to help a typist alter the evidence and move her husband's body.

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

A journalist died before finishing his book trying to show a man was unjustly convicted of murder 16 years ago. Jessica is asked to use his notes to finish his book.

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

Eve is appalled to find the body of a friend of the local gym owner in her bedroom, but at a loss to explain it.

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. She's relieved when Seth comes to New York to check up on her, and enlists his help in cracking the case.

Former policeman Wallace Evans, now a professor, challenges Jessica to a race to solve a series of muggings on campus, and the muggings soon escalate to murder.

After Jane Dawson informs Jessica of her plans to write an unauthorized biography on her good friend Ellen Lombard, Ellen's husband Arthur comes under suspicion when Jane's 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.

When his younger brother Wayne, the family's black sheep, becomes chief suspect in the murder of his employer, Sherrif Metzger relies on Jessica to help him keep his perspective about the case.

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

The death of a rhythm and blues legend and subsequent murder of his bass player reopen the 20-year-old unsolved murder of the musician's wife.

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

Jessica's former student, a reporter, returns to Cabot Cove with new evidence on a 30-year-old scandal involving two of the founding families.

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

While they are visitors at an estate in Ireland, Jessica and friend Seas are convinced that their host's demise is not from natural causes.

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.

The legend of a stage coach robber's hidden treasure leads to the murder of an old mining town entrepreneur.

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

One of the partners trying to raze a Brownstone where Hemmingway once wrote is erased--permanently.

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

A media tycoon may have been killed by a literary agent who seems as substantial as smoke.

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.

A racehorse trainer is murdered as he is on his way to expose a racing fraud and there is some friction concerning his daughter's permission to ride in the race.

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.

While on a visit to Amsterdam, Jessica meets up with fellow novelist and old friend Nigel Allison. When Allison goes missing, Colin Biddle, who claims to be Allison's publishing liaison, try to convince her that nothing is wrong. Jessica soon realises that both Nigel and Colin are secret agents, and despite Colin's request for her to stay out of it, Jessica investigates Allison's disappearance and soon convinces a previously reluctant inspector that there is something terribly wrong. At the same time, Philip and Lydia de Kooning are trying to make a deal in diamonds, and when Philip turns up dead after Jessica gets a note supposedly from him, Jessica is the prime suspect in his murder.

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

Poor Jessica can't take a vacation without finding mystery or murder. In this case, it is an election campaign gone bad.

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

In a friend's apartment, Jessica and her friends are amused by and then puzzled by the strange drama unfolding on TV.

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

In Aspen, Colo, Jessica's friend, Laney, seems to be the best suspect in the murder of her husband, Grant Boswell.

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

Jessica travels to New Orleans to research a new novel, but gets caught up in a series of voodoo killings.

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

A spooky story set in an old Irish castle where legend has it that there is a ghost and a hidden treasure.