Murder, They Wrote II

Murder, They Wrote #2

by Elizabeth Foxwell, Martin H. Greenberg (Editor), Deborah Adams (Contributor)

From contemporary crimes to historical whodunits, here are classic and charming mysteries in the grand tradition of the television show, Murder, She Wrote. Contributors include Anne Perry, Margaret Maron, Susan Dunlap, and 14 other top authors.

The Cadaver waltzed at noon / Deborah Adams --
Both feet / Teri Holbrook --
The Stupid pet trick / Margaret Maron --
A Lady should avoid murder / Ann Granger --
The Ghost who died dancing / Margaret Lawrence --
Daughter of compassion / Veronica Black --
Murder, she did / Gillian Roberts --
The Uncrowned King of Ireland; or, a most toad-spotted traitor / P.M. Carlson --
Up the garden path / Joyce Christmas --
The Miser of Michely Hall / Jeanne M. Dams --
Tipping the scales / Leslie O'Kane --
Ghost busted / Susan Rogers Cooper --
Brodie and the regrettable incident of the French ambassador / Anne Perry --
Beauty is only skin deep / Gallagher Gray --
In memory of Jack / Elizabeth Daniels Squire --
A Surfeit of deadlines / Susna Dunlap

Genres: Short Stories, Anthologies, Mystery

342 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1998

Reviews

[EuroHackie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dear Lord, this collection is dire. Out of the 16 stories, I only liked 3 ("Beauty is Only Skin Deep" by Gallagher Gray is the clear winner; the others I enjoyed were "The Stupid Pet Trick" by Margaret Maron and "Up the Garden Path" by Joyce Christmas), and of those 3, I only really liked one enough to look up more of the author's work. The other stories are outright stupid, or full of awful, homicidal narrators, including one who takes gleeful joy in killing her JB Fletcher character over and over again in her books. (WTF??)

I skipped the ~big draw~ story by Anne Perry because yeah, no. An actual murderer who moved to another country and remade her life into a successful author is not someone I care to support.

There's a third volume in this series (More Murder, They Wrote) and I'm both curious and dreading to find out if the quality continues going downhill.

[The Mystery Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Murder They Wrote II, edited by Elizabeth Foxwell and Martin H. Greenberg, is a solid anthology featuring 17 different stories from a mix of talented authors, including Anne Perry, Margaret Maron, and Susan Dunlap. It is the perfect addition to any Murder, She Wrote book collector's shelf.

Like the other books in this three-part series, this volume delivers a great range of whodunits. The mysteries span different settings and time periods, moving from contemporary crimes to intriguing historical puzzles. It is wonderful to get a taste of so many different voices in crime fiction all in one place.

While the book was originally published back in 1998, it’s a timeless kind of mystery collection, and the quality of the contributors makes it well worth tracking down a used copy. It's a perfect book to keep on your nightstand to read a story or two at a time.

★★★★☆

#MurderTheyWroteII #Anthology #MysteryReview #Bookstagram #CozyMystery #Whodunnit #ShortStories #MurderSheWrote #MSW #JessicaFletcher #BookCollector

[Sophie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like any anthology, a mix of better stories and worse ones. The real trouble for me is that of the sixteen stories, six don't really qualify as mysteries, as either the murder confesses immediately, the murder is prevented (in one case thanks to intuition rather than any actual clues), or the murder does not take place until the end. And the other ten aren't very satisfying either from a mystery-solving standpoint. I realize that at 15-20 pages (only the Anne Perry story is longer, at 40, and I couldn't actually get through it) there isn't much room for plotting, but too many of them rely upon things suddenly clicking into place for the sleuth, often thanks to a clue that fortuitously turns up at the climax. I'm by no means a stickler for mysteries being played fair, but reading story after story with such thin plots grew a bit old.

The stories I actively enjoyed were "The Stupid Pet Trick" by Margaret Maron, "The Ghost Who Died Dancing" by Margaret Lawrence, and to a lesser extent "Up the Garden Path" by Joyce Christmas, and even they have their flaws: they all rely on that last-minute clue, or the detective suddenly intuiting the murderer's identity for no clear reason. Still, they were fun.

Deborah Adams' "The Cadaver Danced at Noon" and Gillian Roberts' "Murder, She Did" are notable for directly tying in to MSW. Adams' story is a roman à clef in which Jessica B. Fletcher becomes Jennifer B. Fischer, Grady becomes Brady, and so on, and which proposes that Jessica/Jennifer is not the real author of her books. (The title is an MSW reference too: on the show, Jessica's first book is called The Corpse Danced at Midnight.) Roberts' concerns another mystery writer named Jessica who is jealous of Jessica Fletcher's success. Both are cute, but neither is compelling.

In summary: eh. There are much better mystery anthologies. This is an okay, quick read, but not one I feel a desire to come back to.