Just in time for the holidays, Jon Land offers a Christmas treat for followers of the “Murder, She Wrote” series. Murder in Season (Berkley), the fifty-second story in the series, finds Jessica Fletcher finally returning to 698 Candlewood Lane after her long temporary residency at the Hill House Hotel.
The restoration of Jessica’s burned home is nearly complete but has stalled due to a faulty septic system. The septic repair crew digs up something much fouler than expected — two bodies. One is nothing more than bones, centuries old. The other is far fresher. Between them, the deceased are guarding an old wooden chest, and all three appear to have been moved to Jessica’s property during the construction work.
To worsen Jessica’s day, a tabloid TV anchor ambushes her while she, Sheriff Mort Metzger and Dr. Seth Hazlitt stand over the muddy grave. Tad Hollenbeck of Stalker declares he’s come to investigate the high per-capita murder rate of their sleepy little town. How fortunate that he and his crew have shown up just as the town’s latest victim and oldest victim are uncovered together.
Fortune has nothing to do with it. Hollenbeck is knee-deep in the muck surrounding Jessica’s septic system and this new case, as are several of Cabot Cove’s longtime residents. Documents in the chest have a sordid story to tell, casting light on the darker side of the town’s history. The founders of Cabot Cove made part of their fortunes through nefarious means, including the slave trade. Would their descendants kill to keep such a terrible secret quiet?
Murder in Season offers fun mystery fare with colonial con men, historic pirates, missing treasure, and Charles Dickens. What more could a reader want from a Christmas cozy? At the same time, Jon Land takes a hard and measured look through Jessica’s eyes at a tough topic — the sins of our forebearers. He handles this discussion deftly and in perfect tune with the story’s mood and pace. And thanks to a visit from Jessica’s grandnephew Frank, she finds not only a reckoning of the past but hope for the future.
It is a timely holiday message that — like Dickens’s famous Carol — examines roads both behind and ahead. Family and friends of cozy mystery lovers everywhere can’t go wrong in wrapping up Murder in Season for their loved ones.
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