By the Time You Read This I'll Be Gone (Murder, She Wrote #1)

I am a huge fan of Murder, She Wrote. I grew up on it, and it was one of my favorite television shows. It's still one of my favorites. I read the Murder, She Wrote novel series, as well. Murder, She Wrote is what started my love of cozy mysteries.

That being said, when my best friend sent me a snapshot of this book (which she later gifted me for Christmas), and I read the description, it certainly seemed interesting. From reading the description, and perhaps letting my imagination run away with me a bit, I imagined a whole new generation of "Fletcher" for readers to enjoy (not that I would ever want to part with Jessica, but more is admissible). I imagined that we'd return to Cabot Cove (as we knew and loved it) and we'd see cozy mysteries in this series.

I'm not sure I can say that we got much of what I imagined.

Let me begin by saying that this book isn't bad, as long as you understand that it has very little to do with Murder, She Wrote.

Here's the truth - the Cabot Cove that you see here is nothing like the Cabot Cove of Murder, She Wrote and, in fact, I can't even imagine that the passing years would make change it so that it would be this way. You do meet Jessica, but she's a flat character. You only know she's Jessica because of her name, and her appearances are cameos, at best. The whole vibe here isn't cozy murder mystery. It's definitely mystery, but it wasn't cozy mystery for me.

I enjoyed the book, but I did not enjoy it as much as I wanted to enjoy it. I think that if I had read it, without the title of Murder, She Wrote and without the attempt to connect to the nostalgia of the show, I would have enjoyed it more. I'm not really sure, though, if I'll read any others in the series.