Despite the strenuous denial of Donald Bain, 1935-, q.v., the strong belief persists that he has ghost-written all the titles below…. Most of these books are (in all likelihood) the Margaret Truman books, of which Al Hubin says, again in the Revised Crime Fiction IV: His bibliography also pointedly omits 24 books he wrote under another’s name but which he can not contractually reveal. If anyone can come up with a series I’m simply not thinking of - and, no, I don’t consider the Perry Mason paperbacks with photos of Raymond Burr on the back cover true TV tie-ins, or should I? - let me know.Īs for the author, Donald Bain, he has his own website (and photo), and by following the link, you can find a complete list of all of the books he admits that he has written, and not all of them have been crime fiction, by any means.

There are 35 Murder, She Wrote books, or there will be soon. In the field of gothics, and books that are actually included in Al Hubin’s Crime Fiction IV, there are the Dark Shadows books, of which there 32 (at a quick, rough count). Otherwise in the field of science fiction, there is Star Trek, and we do not want to even begin to go there. To set some parameters, let’s restrict this question to detective novels. What other series of TV tie-ins has consisted of more books than this one with Mrs. It’s quite a track record, and it certainly goes a long way in explaining the ubiquitousness I mentioned above. The first Murder, She Wrote novel came out in 1985, and there’s at least one that’s scheduled for 2009, a span of years that’s even longer than when the TV program was on the air. The TV show itself, the one starring Angela Lansbury, was on the air for twelve seasons, from 1984 to 1996, with four made-for-TV movies appearing after that, the last one in 2003.

… and now that your eyes are back,some historical perspective may be in order. Take a look at the other end of this review… The first question that occurs to me as I sit down to write this review, and it hadn’t occurred to me before now, except in a nebulous sort of way, is just how many of these “Jessica Fletcher” books are there? They’ve seemed sort of generic and ubiquitous at the same time, and I never stopped to get them listed and enumerated. JESSICA FLETCHER & DONALD BAIN – Murder She Wrote: A Palette for Murder.

The Craghold Crypt by Edwina Noone