Murder in White by Mae Shaughnessy

Portrait of a Young Woman in White, circle of Jacques-Louis David
thanks to the National Gallery of Art* 

Title: Murder in White 

Author: Mae Shaughnessy 

Publisher: not known 

Source: TV series Murder She Wrote S10 E10 Murder in White 

Jessica Fletcher arrives in London where an adaptation of her book (presumably the book is called Murder in White) is due to open in the West End. Mae Shaughnessy is known for adapting books into plays, but she hasn’t tackled a mystery before, and something just isn’t right. 

Considering that Dame Angela Lansbury was British herself, it’s always irritating that any Murder She Wrote episodes allegedly set in London are actually set in a strange Sherlock Holmesian/Edwardian music hall version of London. Even British actors are encouraged to use a weird faux “Cockernee” accent which nobody has ever used except in Hollywoodland. So props to Jean Marsh, playing Jessica’s old friend, and an underused Ian Ogilvy as a drunken has been, for sounding like themselves. And not wearing hats like most of the walk-on actors are forced to. Because hello, we all wear hats in this country indoors and out, whatever the weather. No, we really don’t.

Anyway, Jessica whips out a biro and makes a few changes and presto changeo the play suddenly seems fine. We do discover that Murder in White has a murder in it. Surprise! And it seems that the murderer wears a white raincoat as part of their disguise. But then, well obviously, there’s an actual murder. And guess who borrowed the white mac from the wardrobe?

This episode of MSW features dear old Norman Lloyd. He is also in S2 E22 If the Frame Fits, where he is Lloyd Marcus, a publisher (I think) who has decided to write a book as a retirement project. He wants Jessica to tell him what she thinks, and apparently it’s pretty dreadful. He seems to have called his book The Terror of Tarry Town, which puts us off immediately. 

In the same episode, Jessica and Lloyd reminisce about an awful book called The Horror of Harrow House with lurid bloodstains on the door mat. Presumably that’s the cover design. Lloyd says don’t knock it, it sold half a million copies in paperback. Schlock, pure and simple, he says, but very effective. So I guess he’s a retired publisher, but I don’t think this is ever stated.

*Do you suppose this young woman actually wore that dress in public? It looks a bit scandalous to me. Although I wrote this post two years before you will see it, and these days celebrities don’t seem much bothered about wearing clothes.

Girl in a White Dress Resting on a Sofa by Alfred Émile Léopold Stevens 
thanks to en.most-famous-paintings.com