Oh. I do enjoy these books, partly because in bygone days I enjoyed the TV series, but the books are fun in their own right, too.  The spin-off books by various authors (and Jessica Fletcher, of course) started in about 1989 which was about half-way through the popular decade-long series.  The Murder of Twelve is book #51 in the spin-off series and was originally published in 2020.

The Murder of Twelve
 by Jessica Fletcher / Jon Land 
2020 / 
Read by Laural Merlington 8h 3m
Rating – A for the fun / cozy who-done-it

And after I’d got a start on reading it – maybe to Chapter 4? It felt familiar – but I’d read several books in which a group is stranded at a motel in a blizzard with a murderer on the loose.but I thought I’d probably seen it on TV years ago! Just in case, I checked my blog and OMG – I’d read it AND written a little review! – lol!

That was back in October of 2022! I read so many books I can’t remember what I’ve read much less plot details.  That’s why I keep a blog but it would help if I’d check – lol. But there are no spoilers in my reviews so I just kept reading. LOL! It was a fun 2nd read – a good decision – https://mybecky.blog/2022/10/01/the-murder-of-twelve-by-jessica-fletcher-and-jon-land/

Jessica is out of pocket while her home in Cabot Cove, Maine is being repaired.  She’s staying at a very nice motel in the area when a serious snowstorm hits. A small wedding is scheduled to take place in one the event rooms and Jessica and her friend Seth, come across an empty car on the highway as they take Jessica to the motel.  

At the hotel Jessica meets a few of the guests as they arrive for the weekend. They’re only chatting while they wait for the bride and groom to show up . Jessica is invited to dinner even though the bridal couple still have not appeared. As dinner gets started one of the guests, shortly after taking a few sips of her drink, falls over onto the table. As it turns out there has been an attempt on her life.

So what we have here is a group of people gathered for a wedding, but trapped by a snowstorm and there’s a killer involved.

The narration is great. The plot is skillfully developed with suspense being skillfully built. The characters are true to their appearances in prior books of the series.