- Title: Murder She Wrote – Lovers and Other Killers
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Today’s Throwback Tuesday takes us on the hunt for a killer with murder-mystery novelist J.B. Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) who invariably finds herself in the middle of homicide investigations. “Lovers and Other Killers” offers multiple red herrings in the murder of two women with romantic ties to Jessica’s old friend (Peter Graves), her new secretary (Andrew Stevens), and another professor (Andrew Prine) at the school where Jessica is guest lecturing. Of the three, David Tolliver (Stevens) is the most interesting of the lot given his skill, intelligence, and genuine (if off-putting) interest in Jessica. The ending offers plenty of foreshadowing that we might likely see the character again. Although Stevens did return to the show for one more episode five years later, it was as a different character.
There are a few notable points about the episode other than the intriguing character of David Tolliver. Jessica is physically attacked in the episode, pushed down a flight of stairs after being led for a second time into a dangerous encounter in the dead of night. Some have also remarked on the opening credits which are slightly different from the rest of the series. The sequence of our protagonist firing a gun in front of a class also feels a bit odd, although her later prodding of the same group in order to sneakily probe the murder and alibi of one of those in attendance feels much more within the show’s wheelhouse. As for the true murderer, and the reason for the crime, hints are dropped early on although it takes our mystery writer a little while to put the pieces together.