The Murder of Twelve by Jessica Fletcher
Jessica Fletcher returns in the popular Murder She Wrote series with a mystery new and old fans of the series will adore. In the fiftieth installment, Jon Land wowed readers with a story reminiscent of a TV anniversary episode. Now, in The Murder of Twelve (Berkley) number fifty-one, he creates an Agatha Christie-style who-done-it with the charm and suspense of Murder on the Orient Express or And Then There Were None.
“Gonna be a killer for sure, Jessica.” What a classic opening line for a cozy mystery. Seth Hazlitt, Jessica’s long-time physician friend, smells a blizzard coming. And his nose is spot on. As the air cools and the sky darkens, Jessica, Seth and Sheriff Mort Metzger examine a dead body at an abandoned factory on the outskirts of Cabot Cove. What looks like a suicide quickly proves to be murder — a dead private eye from Boston — hinting at more foul deeds ahead.
While Jessica and Mort dig into the detective’s life and death, the storm blows in, and so do twelve out-of-towners gathering for a wedding. They’ve booked the Hill House hotel, Jessica’s temporary home while she waits for her house to be rebuilt. The bride and groom are missing in the storm. The family members are snowed in at the hotel. And Jessica is trapped in the middle of it all. Worse, an unseen vandal is slowly defacing the hotel’s ancient grandfather clock. Each time a number is crossed off, someone dies.
Agatha Christie mysteries are known for their colorful casts, and Jon Land meets that standard well in The Murder of Twelve. Each wedding guest has a story that comes out in a well-paced fashion through dialogue and action. This includes the bride and groom, who are missing. The reader feels their presence, even though they are absent. The more the stories come out, the more motives we find, and it’s up to Jessica to unravel all the threads.
With vibrant characters, snappy dialogue, and an invisible killer toying with the blizzard’s captives by ticking off his victories on a grandfather clock, The Murder of Twelve is a great way to cool off while the summer heats up. Also, this installment seems tailormade for the theaters. If ever there was a time for an on-screen revival of the series, it’s now.
