The Maine Mutiny is a book in “Murder, She Wrote” series. This book series is adapted from a TV series with the same name.
“Murder, She Wrote” is one of the longest running TV series. It ran on CBS network from 1984 to 1996. It follows a retired English teacher turned bestselling murder mystery writer Jessica Fletcher as she solves one after another murder.
The actress Angela Lansbury became a household name playing Jessica Fletcher.
This show is American counterpart of British cozy murder mysteries. Although I have always wanted to watch the whole series, unfortunately have watched only few episodes. A chance encounter of few “Murder She Wrote” series books in used book stalls got me hooked to these books as my comfort read.
The characteristics of the series, which make it my comfort read:
1. Jessica lives in the proverbial idyllic seaside town Cabot Cove in Maine, where everyone knows everyone else or at least everyone knows Jessica. There is this comfortable interaction among people who know each other since forever.
Keeping a secret in Cabot Cove was like trying to slam a revolving door.
2. Jessica is fond of good life like good food, shopping, travelling, pretty cloths, spa, luxurious hotel rooms etc. It is always nice to experience those in second hand.
3. She is apparently always on diet when she is living her life off book so on book she can indulge delicious food.
4. She goes on long solitary walks, she fishes, she enjoys art and music, and patronises artists. Oh and she makes the best iced tea in the whole world! I wish to taste it some day in some dimension.
5. Jessica is a widow. She has a happy marriage full of love. But it is not like she lives in the past. I don’t know about the series but book Jessica has quite a few gentleman friends/admirers and she lives a full life. It is nice to read an older female character not being reduced to a caricature of “aunty-kind” – slightly crazy but benevolent.
6. Some books of genre series are so badly written that instead of giving comfort they have some kind of jarring impact on mind. But the books of Murder, She Wrote series are reasonably well written.
In 1989 the first book of this book series, adapted from the hit TV series, was published. The name of the book is “Gin and Daggers”.
“Gin and Daggers” and subsequent books in the series are supposed to be written by Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain. Jessica Fletcher supposed to have written her adventures in solving murders but as we know she really does not exist. Her name on the books is nothing more than a brand name. Donald Bain is the real writer.
BASIC PLOT OF THE MAINE MUTINY
Generally murders in Jessica’s universe don’t happen much in her cozy Cabot Cove. In this book murder visits Jessica’s own backyard.
It is summer and Cabot Covet is gearing up lobster festival. It seems lobsters are a big part of the town’s economy. The festival can do wonders for the whole town’s finances. Apart from lobsters there are many activities planned for the festival days. Jessica is of course actively involved. She can sense the lobstermen are not too happy with their situation. Things hit up and finally lead to murder.
MY TWO PENNIES
The books in the series are in no way authentic so far as the real life police procedures go or the real life goes. I read the books at those points in my life when I want something light and comfort to read. With my daughter’s boards preparation on, I picked up The Maine Mutiny to treat myself while taking break from prepping with her.
But unfortunately, instead of giving comfort the book gave me anxiety with a large part of the book dealing with Jessica being injured and marooned in a fishing boat. I was not in a situation where I would like to read “one person’s struggle against providence”. Moreover, if I were in that situation I would have read Life of Pi (I am only joking, I would never ever read Life of Pi again).
Writing style wise this book is worse compared to other books in the series.
The book had serious editing issues like many of the other books in the series. The books go on and on unnecessarily in most part while the important developments have to be crammed in the last few pages. Mostly these “unnecessary” parts are about food, drink, fine dining, shopping, sightseeing et al. I sort of enjoyed reading these parts as comfort read.
Unfortunately, in The Maine Mutiny, there is no such comfort read elements. The main plot is thinner than as Deepika’s waist. And the non-plot parts include a lot of technical issues about lobster catching and then some more on the hardship of the lobster catchers, and of course a huge chunk is on Jessica being marooned in the boat. I am as much interested about lobsters or any issues involving lobsters as I am interested about buccal fat removal. I know both lobsters and buccal fat removal are must-do’s of the season but they don’t exist in my radar.
The plot about the murder is bogus, as in non-intelligent. I did not find the murderer reveal to be at all satisfying. The book is totally forgettable. When I say that I mean I hope the book would be forgettable because I don’t want any part of the book in any piece of my brain.
Character construction and plot development all are terrible and many times don’t make any sense.
For instance, Jessica is a little too much invested in this festival. I mean almost pining on it. Just why? She has no stake in it socially, politically, or economically. Emotionally also it does not make any sense as she has shifted to the town pretty late in her life. Only explanation is she is filling up her emotional hole inside. Now that has just given the book series a dark turn!
To back my point, she lives alone who keeps on saying every other person is her friend. Whereas we don’t meet any of these “friends” second time. The only recurring characters are – Mort Metzger (town sheriff), Seth Hazlitt (the general medical practitioner of the town and seems to be a little sweet on Jessica), and Mara (diner owner). And I don’t remember her hanging out with Mara socially on one-to-one basis ever.
Forget about these “friends”, what happened to her famous iced tea! In couple of books she claims her iced tea is famous among her friends so makes them regularly in huge batches. And in this book no mention of those tea. She has suddenly stopped making it. Why Jessica, why?
And finally, I have to say “I read the book so that you don’t have to”.
Musings 