When Jessica spends some time at a zoo researching her latest novel, she soon gets drawn into a case of murder when the body of Mark Atwater, the fiancé of one of the zoo workers, is found murdered (death by snake venom), and another employee is charged with his murder. In the course of her investigation, she soon learns that a number of people had a motive to want Mark dead.

While on a visit to Amsterdam, Jessica meets up with fellow novelist and old friend Nigel Allison. When Allison goes missing, Colin Biddle, who claims to be Allison's publishing liaison, try to convince her that nothing is wrong. Jessica soon realises that both Nigel and Colin are secret agents, and despite Colin's request for her to stay out of it, Jessica investigates Allison's disappearance and soon convinces a previously reluctant inspector that there is something terribly wrong. At the same time, Philip and Lydia de Kooning are trying to make a deal in diamonds, and when Philip turns up dead after Jessica gets a note supposedly from him, Jessica is the prime suspect in his murder.

The discovery of an old document may make Cabot Cove rewrite its history.

Poor Jessica can't take a vacation without finding mystery or murder. In this case, it is an election campaign gone bad.

While Jessica prepares her book for serialization of her book in a newspaper, real trouble is brewing in the newsroom.

In a friend's apartment, Jessica and her friends are amused by and then puzzled by the strange drama unfolding on TV.

Private investigator Charlie Garrett is in luck when Jessica is in Martinique vacationing at the same time he is accused of murdering the woman he's been trying to locate for a client.

Jessica investigates two brutal murders at a struggling winery in Sonoma Valley.

A Cabot Cove resident is killed in Jessica's garage.

Murder, plagiarisim, and blackmail stalk those around Jessica on her promotional book tour.

A book fair in Miami becomes Jessica's backdrop when she teams with a Russian detective to solve an art theft and murder.

Jessica helps Seth solve family problems when his rich southern cousin is murdered.

A dear friend's involvement with the theft of a priceless Egyptian relic and a murder birng Jessica to the rescue.

When a brilliant scientist fakes his own death and is then murdered, Jessica sets the record strait when the wrong man is arrested.

Jessica sets out to prove that the death of a young movie buff is murder.

Parisian slave-labor sweatshops provide the setting for the crimes, and the pretentious world of fashion is where Jessica solves them.

The townspeople are concerned about a massive development on their shore and it is further complicated for Jessica since the firm employs her nephew, Grady.

It seems that there is more than schoolboy pranks going on between a Cabot Cove prep school and its rival.

While Jessica is enjoying her stay at a fishing lodge in Ireland, she finds out the owner is beset by a consortium that wants to buy his land for a strip mine.

A domineering father forces a teenager to play beyond her desire and she suffers emotional problems.