Written by ‘Jessica Fletcher’ & Donald Bain
SUMMARY:
Published in 2004 by Signet (a Penguin Group imprint), this original 260-page paperback is written by Donald Bain in mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher’s first-person POV.
Dr. Seth Hazlitt, Sheriff Mort Metzger, and Mort’s wife, Maureen, accompany Jessica to a retiree community: Foreverglades, Florida, to attend a former Cabot Cove resident’s funeral. Chance curiosity leads Jessica & Seth to conclude an unnecessary diet pill triggered their friend Portia Shelby’s fatal heart attack. Considering Portia’s demise conveniently benefits a local developer’s plans, Jessica wonders if someone intended to kill her friend. Clues take the Cabot Cove sleuth even further south to Key West in search of a possible culprit.
REVIEW:
Befitting its South Florida locales, author Donald Bain’s text enjoys a breezy style. For instance, a generous sprinkling of visual details, especially sights and sounds from Key West, help keep readers awake during dull stretches. In that sense, the book’s vivid Key West sequences come off like a travelogue.
Another welcome touch is that Bain mostly refrains from the TV series’ propensity for guest characters incessantly fawning over Jessica’s celebrity. Perhaps Dying to Retire’s other asset is a guest cast sporting some interesting quirks (i.e. a retiree convinced he’s tailing a mob hitman; Seth’s medical school buddy-turned-Key West hippie — it’s easy to visualize someone like actor Bernie Kopell in this role, etc.). However, at least one suspect is an unimaginative genre caricature, so Bain might have tried a bit harder in terms of pitching a shred of ambiguity.
The more significant issue is there’s too little mystery to solve, as the book could have been condensed by a good twenty to thirty pages. For that matter, aside from Jessica’s brief encounter with an alligator, Dying to Retire skimps on even mild suspense. Even the central crime’s cause of death seems too implausible the way Bain presents it.
A recurring gag re: who has the ‘original, authentic’ key lime pie recipe is more tiresome than cute in contributing to Jessica’s adventure. What’s more evident is that Jessica’s unremarkable suspect list doesn’t merit one genuine surprise during the climax. In Bain’s favor, however, the novel delivers a tidy epilogue.
As a leisurely beach or bedtime read, Dying to Retire is okay, but it’s not as entertaining as a vintage TV series episode.
ADDITIONAL FEATURES:
There’s an six-page preview of the next book in this series: 2004’s Murder, She Wrote: A Vote for Murder.
BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 5 Stars
