Bestselling mystery author Jessica Fletcher and her friend, Dr. Seth Hazlitt, head to Colorado to visit friends of theirs who have started up a ranch where vacationers come to hike, raft, fish and horseback ride. An idyllic setting, at least until one of the guests turns up dead...

The book is based on the series Murder, She Wrote and is basically like an episode of the show in novel form, except told in first person by Jessica. And I have to say, the voice grated on me from the start. It didn't sound like how I imagined she would write -- it sounded like a man trying to write as a late-middle-aged woman, whereas I expected her to sound more like my grandma, since she and actress Angela Lansbury are within a few years of each other in age. Also, it is irritating when first-person narrators say they broke into a grin or describe other actions that are better observed by third-person narrators.

Besides that, the dialogue was very stilted in places. "You must have studied a fair bit about forensics while writing your novels," says the sheriff. "Yes, it's a necessity as a crime novelist," Jessica replies. Please! And call me a curmudgeon, but all of their laughing and joking got on my nerves. If you have to use the verb "he laughed" as your dialogue tag, then your dialogue isn't funny enough on its own.

Finally, this book's take on the "gather all the suspects together to reveal whodunnit" scene was ridiculous. I doubt people would stand for it in reality.

So did I like anything about this book? The planes. Jessica starts taking flying lessons and so there are a few good descriptions of flights and aircraft mechanics. I also discovered that all of the Murder She Wrote novels have some sort of skull image hidden in the cover picture. I laughed for about ten minutes straight once I figured that out. SO CHEESY.

To be read only by those with an extremely high tolerance for cozy mysteries or those looking for very fast reads. (Even with the painful writing and dialogue, I finished it in two days' worth of bus reading.) ( )

jessica fletcher while on vacation at a friends ranch in colorado, helps to solve the murders of two guests ( )