Wednesday, the 20th of October, and time for Shelf Control once again! Shelf Control is a weekly feature hosted by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies, and celebrates the books waiting to be read on your TBR piles/mountains. To participate, all you do is pick a book from your TBR pile, and write a post about it–what its about, why you want to read it, when you got it, and such. If you participate, don’t forget to link back to Lisa’s page, and do also leave your links in the comments below as I’d love to check out your picks as well!
Today, my pick is the first of a three-book series based on the 1980s cosy mystery TV series Murder, She Wrote, The Murder of Sherlock Holmes by British author, James Anderson. Murder, She Wrote ran from 1984 to 1996 and was based around a widowed English teacher, Jessica Fletcher (played by Angela Lansbury) who becomes a successful writer of mystery novels after her nephew Grady reads the manuscript of her first novel and gets it published. Based in Cabot Cove, Maine, Jessica gets involved in and solves various mysteries, both at home and at times also when travelling to different places.
James Anderson who has written three books in the Murder, She Wrote series, is also the writer, among others of a humorous Golden Age Mystery series featuring Inspector Wilkins.
The Murder of Sherlock Holmes is based on the first episode of the TV series. In this one, Jessica Fletcher’s publisher throws a fancy dress ball to celebrate the success of her novel. At the ball however, ‘Sherlock Holmes’ is murdered, and the police find a room full of suspects, all in flamboyant disguise at the time the crime occurred. Jessica already has her ideas as to the mystery but the police do not take kindly to her meddling…
I used to enjoy watching the Murder, She Wrote TV series a lot, which were pleasant cosies with a likeable main character and fun mysteries. Unlike the only other set of mysteries I’ve started to read based on a TV series I enjoyed (the Nikki Heat books by ‘Richard Castle’; shelf control here; and review here), this set of books is based on the episodes of the series rather than books the main character is said to have written. My mom had picked up the first two of the books long ago, and though I’ve been meaning to read them too, I still haven’t gotten down to it
Have you watched the TV series or read any of the books? How did you find it/them? Do you like the idea of book series based on TV shows? Looking forward to your thoughts and recommendations!
Book Cover and info from Goodreads; author info from Wikipedia
Lisa’s pick this week is A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker, a dystopian sci-fi novel which seems set in a future that eerily shares elements with what we are going through now.
Literary Potpourri 
I haven’t read any by this author but I read one written by Donald Bain who I think wrote a lot of them. I enjoyed it, though not as much as the TV series. Jessica in the book seemed rather less nice somehow, and it’s her niceness and the whole Cabot Cove thing that makes the TV series so cosy. Not to mention the wonderful Angela Lansbury’s performance, of course! I’ll be interested to hear what you think of this author’s interpretation.
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Let’s see when I get to it. But I am interested in the books having loved the series, but as you say, it was probably Angela Landbury’s portrayal of Jessica that made her so likeable
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I used to love watching Murder She Wrote!
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Me too, Wendy 🙂 I also liked the film version where she goes to Ireland
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