List of Murder, She Wrote novels


This is a list of fictional novels either from or inspired by Murder, She Wrote.
During the series many novels that J.B. Fletcher wrote, were mentioned. Her first novel, The Corpse Danced at Midnight, was made into a film in one episode, and later in the series another was made into a theatre play. The novel A Killing at Hastings Rock also underwent development to become a virtual reality video game.
In keeping with the spirit of the TV show, a series of official original novels have been written and published by the New American Library. The co-author credited for all of the novels is the fictitious "Jessica Fletcher". The first novel, Gin and Daggers, authored by American ghostwriter Donald Bain, included several inaccuracies to the TV series including Jessica driving a car which she could not do as she never learned to drive. Due to fans pointing out the errors, the novel was republished in 2000 with most of the inaccuracies corrected.
The title The Stain on the Stairs had previously been used by Agatha Christie in The Murder at the Vicarage as the title of a supposed detective story.

Fictional novels

Novels that were written by the fictional character of Jessica Fletcher within the storyline of the series:
A number of episodes were the basis for a series of novels released in the mid 1980s by Avon Books. Each book, with the exception of The Murder of Sherlock Holmes, utilizes two episodes from the show as the basis for each story.
The following are novels inspired by the series, which are published by the New American Library. Donald Bain began writing the series in 1989 and continued authoring the books until his death in 2017. His wife, Renée Paley-Bain formally received a co-author credit for three of the books. His daughter, Laurie Bain Wilson, also collaborated on three of the Murder, She Wrote novels.
After Bain's death in 2017, author Jon Land was approached to take over the series. Bain had been working on the 47th book in the series A Date with Murder, along with his grandson Zachary Bain Shippee. Land agreed to pick up where Bain left off and continue the series in his absence along with Shippee acting as consultant. A Date with Murder is Bain's final Murder, She Wrote novel published posthumously, co-authored with Jon Land.