The Parlor PI's discussion
NOV Book Discussion – MSW: "A FATAL FEAST" (Chapt. 6-10)
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Tina wrote: "OMG! Something happened but in next block of chapters. Oohh, nooo!"Let's not talk about it just yet. We'll cover that in our next discussion next week! :)
Don't tell me who got killed. I haven't got to that part yet!!
There's something shady about a few of the characters. I know they aren't ALL murderers but even so they can't be trusted it seems.
Nicole wrote: "There's something shady about a few of the characters. I know they aren't ALL murderers but even so they can't be trusted it seems."Which characters do you see as "shady"?
The new neighbors and Archie. They all seem to be hiding something or other.
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LovesMysteries wrote: "Tina wrote: "OMG! Something happened but in next block of chapters. Oohh, nooo!"
Let's not talk about it just yet. We'll cover that in our next discussion next week! :)
Don't tell me who got kill..."
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Nicole wrote: "The new neighbors and Archie. They all seem to be hiding something or other."
Jessica and George's relationship is interesting and though there are romantic sparks that one can't deny, I'm thinking that the decision to remain good acquaintances and to remain at their respective professions from their side of the globe -- in other words, to remain as they are, seems to be mainly Jessica's idea. On pg. 75 George says, "I've accepted the conclusion WE'VE come to . . . . " and then Jessica says, "Maybe one day George, I'LL see things differently but for now I just want to enjoy your company in the time you have here." I feel that she doesn't want to mess up a good thing. Friendship is one thing but to take that to a romantic relationship is totally different. This is a new kind of commitment. And it appears that Jessica fears that the sweet nature of their relationship would change. She likes things the way they are. I'm going to make another conjecture. Jessica just might not want to take that plunge into marriage again. And I'm assuming that if she and George decided to take their relationship to a different level, it would soon lead to marriage. But as I said, she might not want to take that jump into marriage. She was married before. I mentioned in the previous discussion about a MSW episode in which a woman claims that Jessica's husband Frank had a child with her and I assumed that this was written in the books as well but I was wrong because in the episode this woman lied about the whole thing and this little subplot was never in the books. If this whole thing with the child and Frank's affair WERE true and if it was in the books, I would assume that would be a big reason for her to not take too quickly to marriage. If all this was true, I would've thrown that conjecture out there, but alas, it isn't. But back to my thoughts as to why Jessica may not want to take her relationship with George to the next level. It could be because she's happy with her life – she lived so long by herself as a widow and though it was hard in the beginning, she got used to this new way of life. A romantic life with another, which would lead to possible marriage, would alter her writing career so to speak, specifically her writing schedule. If you're single you can write all day if you like and don't have to give attention to anyone. It's different when you're married because there has to be attention made to your spouse but I guess Jessica's writing schedule wouldn't have to be altered at all. George is an understanding man and he knows that this is Jessica's profession and what it consists of. So if Jessica had a tight deadline to submit a book and worked last minute, devoting hours upon hours to finishing it, George would understand that and leave her alone to do so.
I made a comment in the last discussion that we probably won't find any fingerprints found on those anonymous letters. Well, in a way I was kind of right. There is a fragment of a stray fingerprint on the paper but it wasn't enough to lift any traceable prints, enough to identify who that print belongs to -- it's unusable. But I'm surprised because the book was published in 2009 and our technology was so advanced at that time and still continues to be so today. With only a fragment of a fingerprint, that's not enough to identify a person, whether the person is on file or not? The print must have been very, very small.
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Tina wrote: "LM, usually it's the male who doesn't want to commit but as Jessica has been widowed for quite some time, she's probably very comfortable with her lifestyle. Getting married would probably cramp he..."I prefer being single myself. Like you said, when you're single, you can come in whenever you want, you can go to bed at whatever hour you like, if I want to write for the entire day I could do that -- but so many people are afraid of being alone and they jump into marriage and it ends disasterly. Better off being single and by yourself than being miserable along with someone else. But I think in the case of Jessica and George, they wouldn't be miserable together. As I said before George is an understanding man and he would be compassionate and willing to allow Jessica to have some time to herself and her writing if they decided to tie the knot.
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Couldn't agree with you more LM! Have a friend whose significant other is trying to pressure him into a marriage and although he doesn't want to, he is afraid of being alone if she leaves so he is wavering back and forth. Several of us have pointed out exactly what you said. Well put my friend!
The number one question that writers always get are "where do you get your ideas from?" Some writers give vague answers as if ideas just come out of nowhere but I don't agree. Ideas always come from somewhere whether it comes from events or anecdotes that occurred in your life, from other fellow writers, and even . . . . newspapers. As Jessica Fletcher said, "It's a shame more young people don't read a newspaper every day. News reports on television or the Internet only pick up the highlights. Newspapers cover such a wide range. I've generated some wonderful story ideas for my novels from the papers (pg. 80)." Do you agree or disagree?
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, enjoying their wonderful, appetizing feast! Sometime this weekend I'm going to post the Chapter 11-17 discussion. I'm still going to discuss the current chapters that we're discussing so feel free to add on to the discussion!
Anyone have a relative like Maureen who wants to contribute to the holiday meal but isn't a great cook? I actually like her idea of Turducken but maybe not for Thanksgiving. My mother in law is one of those cooks who wants to try new things and they always fall flat! On Christmas eve she concocts some strange dishes so I end up bringing my own food LOL
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Tina wrote: "Yeah, me. I'm not a great cook but I'd never try something new for an important event. I'd stick to my tried and true dishes which are pretty good. But as for cooking, I use to be a fan but then fo..."Speaking of cooking what did you have for Thanksgiving?
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We went to or favorite restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner. The restaurant is located in "America's oldest operating Inn". It's been open since the 1700s and is very cozy! The food is always yummy including butternut squash soup, salads, turkey, fresh cranberry sauce, roasted sweet potatoes, stuffing, mac and cheese, and sinful desserts! My favorite was the bourbon apple bread pudding. Now, I have a few weeks (to lose the weight I gained) before Christmas feasts!
Tina wrote: "The traditional fare, LM: turkey, sweet and mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry, Bruss. sprouts, coleslaw, whipped cream with pumpkin pie. LOL How about you? What did you and yours have for Thanksgiv..."I didn't have the traditional this year. I didn't feel like doing any of the cooking -- I'll wait until Christmas for all that. This year I had a big pot of homemade chili, some cornbread and had lots of apple and cherry pie. Yum, Yum!
Going to post the discussion to Chapter 11-17 later today. I wanted to add how I love the way Chapt. 10 ends, when Jessica realizes that she forgot Seth's knife. Great scene and moment of tension.....and foreshadowing for what is to possibly come
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Apple and cherry pie! Yum, indeed! :-) It's whatever works or what we enjoy, LM and for being thankful for all the good things we have!
Your planned Christmas menu sounds great!
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Sounds good, LM. Yeah, I liked that scene.
It was a festive book. Finished it a few days ago. I liked it!
I apologize if the book discussion for A Final Feast isn't over exactly near the end of this month. After the discussion that I'm going to post in a little bit, we're going to discuss the last remaining chapters so we should be done by early December.
Anyone going to read more MSW books? Reading this one reminded me how fun they are so I'm hoping to pick some upfrom the library over the next few months.
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The ghost or pseudo writers do a great job. Formulaic stories but well written. Scarce weighing down with needless details or strung out sentences. They do have their grammatical, sentence structure acts together.
Nicole wrote: "Anyone going to read more MSW books? Reading this one reminded me how fun they are so I'm hoping to pick some up from the library over the next few months."I think I'm going to continue reading the series, but I hope that I don't have to wait long for a murder to occur like I did in A Fatal Feast, which I will discuss in the next block of chapters of our discussion. I'm going to check my library and see what other MSW books they have.
Tina wrote: "I'll read more, Nicole, but probably more in New Years. I read a few MSW in the past and some that stuck out for me were Fatal Feast (forget titles of next two), there was one that took place aboard a train and one where they were snowed in at a mansion or similar. "Speaking of the story that took place at a mansion, was this where Jessica and George Sutherland met? I remember Jessica described that moment in A Fatal Feast, at the time when she was visiting her writing friend at her mansion. I don't remember whether she mentioned there being snowed or if she was snowed in. It could possibly be another MSW book.
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LM, I think this is the one. They hold a murder mystery dinner or play besides the snow. I like themes like this; probably one of the reasons I liked the story so. A Question of Murder (Murder, She Wrote #25)
Jessica met George in the very first MSW book, Gin and Daggers!
Nicole wrote: "Jessica met George in the very first MSW book, Gin and Daggers!"Okay, so this is the book (in which Jessica and George first meet) that Jessica refers to in A Fatal Feast. This isn't the "snowed-in" mystery that Tina mentioned. Gin & Daggers and A Question Of Murder, are pretty similar since Jessica attends a writer's conference and they also have a similar theme, with slight differences of course.
*Jessica Fletcher has received more anonymous letters, this time the letters completely spell out "GLOTCOY" -- we still don't know who's behind it (a man or a woman?) and what these letters mean. We get the state crime lab results of any possible fingerprints on the letters but there are not any that are traceable.
*Scotland Yard Inspector George Sutherland finally arrives in Cabot Cove to enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with Jessica and her other guests. And as we can see some of the romantic sparks between the two are obviously there ..... but I'll talk more about that in later posts
*We still don't have any more information about Archie Franklin -- why is he retiring in Cabot Cove? Why a small seaport town and why THIS one in particular? Why does he not retire in Monte Carlo at his villa? Why did he sell his villa? Or am I looking into him a little too much? Maybe there's nothing about him to suspect.
*So far we still have Jessica's Thanksgiving dinner, the Thanksgiving pageant, and the feeding of the unfortunate locals at the senior center to read about, not to mention her finishing the rest of her mystery novel.
We'll discuss this and more but this is just a little overview of what has happened thus far
Next week during the Thanksgiving Weekend we'll discuss Chapters 11-17.
Let's start discussing!