Murder, She Wrote: Fit for Murder by Jessica Fletcher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Fit for Murder is the 57th, and latest installment, in the long-running and beloved Cozy Mystery series, Murder, She Wrote.
If I am counting correctly, this is the 36th-book that I have read in the series. I absolutely adore Jessica Fletcher. These are my go-to, number one, comfort reads.
They’re nostalgic, relaxing and always entertaining. I just love MSW and its intrepid amateur sleuth.
This mystery is entirely set in Jessica’s hometown of Cabot Cove, Maine. As much as I love when Jessica travels, getting to learn about different places and being dazzled by new settings, I do always love a story set in Cabot Cove.
I enjoy the comfort of being with Jessica at home, surrounded by her very best friends, and often nosy neighbors. This installment was no exception to that.
This mystery involves a new-to-town fitness instructor, Martin Terranova, who causes quite the stir by paying a little too much attention to some of his older clientele.
One woman in particular, Bertha Mae Cormier, whose property abuts Terranova’s gym, appears to be of particular interest to the trainer, decades her junior.
When one-time Cabot Cove Gazette editor, Evelyn Phillips, points out the startlingly-unbalanced relationship to Jessica, she can’t help but agree.
The optics aren’t great, but what could Terranova stand to gain from a relationship with Bertha Mae?
Shortly after Terranova comes to Jessica’s attention, he is found dead in his weight room. Before you even say it, no, Jessica didn’t do it. We all know that, but someone did.
We go along with Jessica as she digs into Terranova’s past and tries to suss out the killer.
With Jessica’s friend Evelyn as the leading suspect, the clock is ticking. Jessica needs to get to the bottom of this and quickly, before Evelyn takes the fall.
This was a fun one. I love how in a tither the whole town got about this guy’s presence. It was like they had never seen a personal trainer before. People flocked to him, but were also highly suspicious of everything he did.
There were a lot of interactions amongst the townspeople during Jessica’s investigation and I really enjoyed that. Many of the characters, most actually, we’ve met before in previous installments, so it was fun seeing them again.
I also enjoyed Evelyn being back and she and Jessica working together. Evelyn is bullheaded and has a tendency to steamroll through anything in her path, but Jessica seems to be a calming force for her. That worked well here.
There was some drama included involving the town Budget Office, which I wasn’t expecting and frankly, I’m not sure why was included. The book was exciting enough just following the mystery surrounding Terranova’s murder.
With that being said though, that was really the only thing I felt was a little wonky. Overall, I have been so delighted with Terrie Farley Moran being at the helm of this series.
Since the passing of the series original author, Donald Bain, Farley Moran has done the best job of capturing the original tone and feel of the series. I am so happy this long-running series is still going strong and I will continue to pick them up for as long as they are published.
Thank you to the publisher, Berkley, for providing me with a copy to read and review.
Another great installment from Terrie Farley Moran. These books are the epitome of Cozy to me, and I’ll continue reading them until the end of time. Keep ’em coming!!!