Jessica Fletcher (born Jessica Beatrice MacGill; known as J.B. Fletcher when writing) is a famous murder-mystery novelist who often found herself an unwilling participant in homicide investigations. Her detective skill eventually became well known to the point where she would be called in to consult on cases from the Cabot Cove Sheriff's Department, Scotland Yard, the FBI, and MI6.
Early life[]
Jessica was born and raised in Cabot Cove. She studied at Harrison College in Green Falls, New Hampshire to become a journalist, and after completing her education Jessica worked as a high school English teacher for 17 years and as a substitute English teacher. She eventually met Frank Fletcher while interning at the Appleton Theatre. Frank was a Captain in the United States Air Force and they fell in love at first sight and married. Frank and Jessica had no children; however, they raised their young nephew Grady Fletcher after his parents were killed in a car accident. The two were married until Frank became very ill and passed away, leaving Jessica widowed.
Career as a Mystery Novelist[]
Jess sitting in a committee at the House of Representatives.
Following Frank's death, Jessica took to writing a manuscript entitled "The Corpse Danced At Midnight". Her nephew Grady discovered this manuscript and showed it to his girlfriend, Kit Donovan, who subsequently saw that the publishing house for which she worked, Coventry House Publishing, had it published. Thus, Jessica's career as a novelist had begun. However, her time with this publishing house would be short-lived. At the end of a homicide investigation in which Jessica took part, Preston Giles, the owner of the publishing house, was arrested for murder. Following this, Jessica went on to publish several more novels with different publishers. It was during the course of promoting these books, or visiting friends and family, that she would frequently be drawn into the center of investigations, one of which even led to her filling in as Maine's Representative to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Seven years after her first novel was published, Jessica moved to New York where she took up teaching once again. Her classes tended to be a mix between Criminology and Creative Writing. Jessica still continued to release novels and travel back to her hometown as well as other destinations, solving a great many murders along the way and establishing herself internationally as a renowned amateur sleuth.
Published Novels[]
- Please see Novels for the real-world novels credited to Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain.
- The Corpse Danced at Midnight
- Dirge for a Dead Dachshund
- A Faded Rose Beside Her
- Murder on the Amazon
- Lover's Revenge
- The Umbrella Murders
- Murder at the Inn
- Murder at the Digs
- Murder in a Minor Key
- The Stain on the Stairs
- The Mystery of the Mutilated Minion
- The Belgrade Murders
- Sanitarium of Death
- Calvin Canterbury's Revenge
- Murder at the Asylum
- Murder Comes to Maine
- Good-bye, Charlie
- The Corpse That Wasn't There
- Ashes, Ashes, Fall Down Dead
- The Messengers of Midnight
- The Poison in My Heart
- All the Murderers
- Murder at the Ridge Top
- The Corpse at Vespers
- The Triple Crown Murders
- The Crypt of Death
- A Killing at Hastings Rock
- The Uncaught
- Murder in White
- The Killer Called Collect
- Stone Cold Dead on Wall Street
- Endangered
- The Launch Pad Murders
- Runway to Murder
- The Venomous Valentine
- A Case of a Half of Murder
- Yours Truly, Damian Sinclair
- The Dead Man Sang
- The Corpse Swam by Moonlight
- Mrs Parkers Revenge
- Murder at Midnight
Relationships[]
Jessica had a great number of friends and family, the most notable being:
- Sheriff Amos Tupper, Cabot Cove's sheriff at the start of the series. Tupper later retires and goes to live with his sister.
- Dr. Seth Hazlitt, the local doctor of Cabot Cove and one of Jessica's best friends.
- Sheriff Mort Metzger, a former NYPD officer who takes Tupper's place as sheriff in the mistaken belief that he would be living in a more peaceful place.
- Grady Fletcher, Jessica's not-so-lucky favorite nephew who - through no fault of his own - always seems to get in trouble with the law. After many romantic disasters, he gets married later in the series to Donna Mayberry.
- Harry McGraw, an old-school private investigator who becomes friends with Jessica.
- Michael Hagarty, a British MI6 agent of Irish origin who would appear when Jessica least expected him to drag her into a dangerous case. There is a somewhat romantic history to the pair.
- Dennis Stanton, a former jewel thief turned insurance claims investigator who always solves his cases using unusual methods and sends a copy of the story to his friend Jessica afterwards. As with Hagarty, there is a slight romantic history.
- Charlie Garrett, a disreputable private investigator who usually gets into trouble and needs Jessica's help.
Appearances[]
Murder, She Wrote[]
TV Movies[]
| Murder, She Wrote: TV Movies | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| South by Southwest | A Story to Die For | The Last Free Man | The Celtic Riddle |
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Jessica appears in the most episodes of the series, only missing out in the season four episode "It Runs in the Family", where her cousin Emma takes the reins. Despite this, she still appears on the back of a book that Emma has.