Donald Bain Books in Order

Presented as the uninhibited memoirs of two young airline stewardesses, this comic novel follows their glamorous, mischievous lives during the jet-age 1960s. Donald Bain originally wrote it under fictional bylines, blending workplace stories, romance, and broad humor.

Film star Veronica Lake recounts her rise in 1940s Hollywood and the painful reversals that followed. Written with Donald Bain, the memoir covers fame, troubled relationships, alcoholism, and the sharp divide between her screen image and private life.

When a Hollywood producer working on one of Jessica's novels is murdered, the case ties into a millionaire's disappearance at sea. Jessica follows the trail from publishing to show business, where money and image keep getting in the way of the truth.

At a costume party on her publisher's country estate, Jessica finds a guest dressed as Sherlock Holmes murdered. With suspects packed under one roof, her first case as a sleuth becomes a classic closed-circle puzzle.

Jessica's vacation turns busy fast, first with a killer lurking around Seattle academia, then with a deadly fox hunt in Kentucky. Two very different settings give her two chances to prove that polite people can still hide dangerous motives.

Jessica heads to London to visit a celebrated mystery writer, only to find the trip ruined by murder. In an elegant country-house setting, she must sort through literary rivalries, secrets, and a killer close at hand.

A Christmas book trip to New York takes a dark turn when Jessica spots Cabot Cove crook Waldo Morse working as a sidewalk Santa, then finds him dead. The city is festive, but the case quickly turns mean and complicated.

Jessica helps oversee a Cabot Cove mansion's conversion into an art colony, only to watch the creative dream turn deadly. As artists start dying under suspicious circumstances, she has to uncover who brought murder to the studio.

Jessica travels to San Francisco to promote her latest book and catch up with Inspector George Sutherland. Between the city's glamour and a sudden murder, what should have been a pleasant visit becomes another case.

Looking for sunshine in St. Thomas, Jessica checks into a beautiful island inn and senses trouble almost at once. When the owner turns up dead by the lagoon, paradise gives way to a sharp, dangerous investigation.

In Boston, Jessica helps an eccentric lawyer defend a tycoon accused of killing his brother. When the defendant's only alibi ends up dead, the trial becomes even more dangerous and Jessica may be next in the killer's sights.

In the Hamptons, Jessica indulges her quiet love of painting and joins a sketch class by the sea. Then a young model is found dead in the studio, drawing her into a case of art, money, and deception.

Jessica sets sail for London aboard the QE2 as one of several guest lecturers. When a fellow speaker is murdered at sea, the luxury voyage turns into a tight, time-sensitive mystery with nowhere for the killer to hide.

A British book tour leads Jessica and friends to Inspector George Sutherland's family castle in Scotland, where old legends still hang in the air. When a local killing echoes the ghost story haunting the estate, she cannot look away.

Jessica hopes for a peaceful Christmas in Cabot Cove, but the season is spoiled when the town's Santa is murdered. Holiday cheer gives way to old grudges, local suspicion, and another case that refuses to stay buried.

Jessica joins an American publishing group in Moscow and walks straight into intrigue far beyond books. After a Russian publisher is poisoned, she finds herself caught between politics, espionage, and people who do not want the truth exposed.

Jessica is thrilled when one of her novels is chosen for a Broadway adaptation, but backstage tensions soon turn lethal. As bodies start appearing offstage, she has to figure out who is willing to kill for a hit.

Visiting a friend's ranch, Jessica is drawn into the deaths of a vacationing couple and the messy business behind the land around them. With a local reporter at her side, she digs into greed, development, and murder out West.

Halloween in Cabot Cove grows stranger when a spiritual medium arrives and a self-proclaimed witch is found dead in a graveyard. Jessica follows the rumors, grudges, and staged scares to the very real killer.

A trip to Napa Valley for rest becomes work when an old Hollywood friend dies in what looks like suicide. Jessica starts asking questions and finds a vineyard full of enemies, resentments, and sour secrets.

At the New Orleans Jazz Festival, Jessica enjoys insider access until arts critic Wayne Copely is found dead beside a famous voodoo queen's grave. To solve it, she has to read the city as closely as she reads people.

In this candid memoir, Donald Bain recounts his life as a prolific author and ghostwriter. He traces the unusual assignments, hidden bylines, and hard-earned lessons behind a career that moved through publishing, television, and popular fiction.

Jessica travels to Provence expecting superb food and a slower pace, then lands in the middle of a culinary murder mystery. The setting is beautiful, but the appetites around her are not all harmless.

Donald Bain examines model Candy Jones's claims that she was subjected to hypnosis and used as a CIA courier. Drawing on accounts connected to her husband, radio host Long John Nebel, the book explores a deeply disputed story of identity and control.

Two years after witnessing a friend's Las Vegas wedding, Jessica returns to find the bride accused of murdering her high-rolling husband. Casino glamour, media attention, and a long list of grudges make the case anything but simple.

A scenic rail trip through British Columbia becomes far less relaxing when a traveler dies after sipping a Bloody Mary. With the suspects gathered in a luxurious dining car, Jessica has to solve the case before the journey ends.

Jessica takes a visiting professor role at a small college just as its first tornado in decades tears through town. When one man who ignored the warning turns up dead, campus drama and hidden motives come into focus.

In Washington, Jessica joins a senator's literacy push and expects receptions, speeches, and political small talk. Instead she finds a chief of staff dead, and her search leads from Virginia parlors to the FBI.

This true-crime account follows bootlegger Charlie Birger through southern Illinois during Prohibition. His feud with the Shelton brothers and his connection to Helen Holbrook fuel a violent gang war marked by ambition, betrayal, and disastrous miscalculation.

Jessica attends a funeral at a Florida retirement community and begins to suspect her friend's natural death was helped along. With a lively group of retirees aiding her, she looks past the sunshine for a killer.

Jessica travels to San Miguel de Allende with her publisher and friends for a little rest and sun. But when one of them is kidnapped for ransom, the trip becomes a tense race to find him alive.

Cabot Cove's first Lobster Festival should be good publicity for the town and a useful assignment for Jessica. Instead, her reporting pulls her into a knot of murder and harbor-town intrigue.

At a writers' conference in the Berkshires, Jessica agrees not to spoil a murder-mystery party hosted by friends. Then a young actor's staged death turns out to be real, and nobody knows where the script ends.

Donald Bain looks back on a working writer's life, from ghostwriting and television to bestsellers and mystery novels. The memoir shares the practical, sometimes strange stories behind a career spent creating books under many names.

While visiting friends in Arizona, Jessica watches their foster son shine on the baseball field, only to see his rival found dead the next day. With the young player marked as the obvious suspect, she digs into the team's darker side.

Jessica boards an inaugural flight from Boston to London at the invitation of a Cabot Cove entrepreneur. The trip should end with a reunion with George Sutherland, but murder at the airport brings turbulence instead.

A cruise to Alaska becomes serious when Jessica's friend's sister, chasing a family gold claim, vanishes from the ship. Following the missing woman's trail puts Jessica up against greed, old stories, and fresh danger.

Jessica inherits the chance at a million dollars, but only if she can solve a decades-old Savannah murder. Settling into a haunted old mansion, she finds that greed in the present may be as dangerous as the crime in the past.

Cabot Cove's Fourth of July celebration is bigger than ever thanks to an overbearing businessman bankrolling the festivities. When he winds up dead on fireworks night, Jessica faces a town full of suspects.

Jessica is already juggling writer's block, Thanksgiving dinner, and a visit from George Sutherland when she stumbles over a body in Cabot Cove. The holiday setting is warm, but the case is anything but cozy.

Grady talks Jessica into visiting New York and appearing in an advertising campaign he is helping produce. Then a hated executive is murdered on set, leaving Jessica to untangle ambition, nerves, and family loyalties.

When a gifted young singer from Cabot Cove is accused of murdering a country music publisher, Jessica heads to Nashville to help. Behind the bright lights and big dreams, she finds a harsher world than anyone back home expected.

Jessica finally gets her long-awaited voyage on the Queen Mary 2, only to find herself shadowed by a stolen diamond and a murder. Once the ship is at sea, the chase for both jewel and killer becomes inescapable.

A young skater's hopes of competing in pairs are ruined by a string of suspicious accidents at the rink. When one member of the trio ends up dead, Jessica looks beneath the polished surface for jealousy and sabotage.

An Italian art theft leaves Jessica shaken, and months later the aftermath reaches Cabot Cove when an old friend's son begs for help. To solve his mother's murder, she may have to trace the crime all the way back to Italy.

Jessica joins the board of Cabot Cove's women's shelter and soon meets a badly abused woman who refuses to press charges. Days later the case turns to murder, and the town's respectable surface starts to crack.

When psychiatrist Mark Sedgwick is killed, Mackenzie Smith defends a patient who quickly becomes a suspect. The case twists into a CIA mind control program and a programmed assassin willing to kill anyone in the way.

Vacationing in Bermuda, Jessica hears rumors of killings that echo Jack the Ripper. She dismisses the talk until a young woman is found dead on the beach and the pattern starts to look frighteningly real.

Hollywood comes to Cabot Cove to film one of Jessica's older novels, reopening a notorious local murder. When the actress playing the victim is shot for real, Jessica has to separate old scandal from a brand-new crime.

A Florida book trip reunites Jessica with Seth Hazlitt and draws them into a dangerous medical case. When a physician working on a potentially huge Alzheimer's treatment dies in a staged accident, business and espionage collide.

On Maui to lecture about community help in police work, Jessica teams up with retired detective Mike Kane after a fellow speaker is found dead below a cliff. The case soon turns on local activism, land, and betrayal.

Jessica and George Sutherland spend New Year's at an English castle where a lady's maid is found dead before the ball. Then a second death by poison turns aristocratic manners into a full house of suspects.

Bored engineer Carlton Smythe meets a mysterious woman in Buenos Aires and decides to fund a new life with an audacious scheme. Selling advance knowledge of a massive power outage draws him into a criminal world he cannot control.

State Department security investigator Robert Brixton loses his daughter in a cafe bombing and refuses to let the case go. His search uncovers embassy killings, political protection, and a violent cabal hiding behind public respectability.

Congressional intern Laura Bennett disappears after getting too close to a charismatic congressman with a polished family-values image. When she turns up dead in the Congressional Cemetery, Robert Brixton starts pulling at the lies around her.

Jessica's favorite local restaurant is threatened when a famous chef opens next door and sparks a nasty feud. After the celebrity cook is stabbed, Jessica sets out to clear the obvious suspect and find the real killer.

Eve Simpson is trying to sell one of Cabot Cove's oldest houses, but the place is falling apart and rumored to be haunted. When the owner dies after predicting his own end, Jessica suspects something more solid than a ghost.

Robert Brixton stumbles into a pharmaceutical case where a promising new painkiller has made somebody desperate enough to kill. Corporate greed, medical stakes, and Washington influence turn the search for truth into a dangerous chase.

Jessica heads to New York during fashion week to support a Cabot Cove designer's big debut. A model's sudden death on the runway, and another soon after, show how lethal the glamour business can be.

A fly-fishing contest should be a relaxing outing for Jessica and Maureen Metzger, until their guide's violent past resurfaces. When an escaped convict, a murdered lawyer, and Maureen's disappearance collide, Cabot Cove is thrown into crisis.

Robert Brixton investigates a fraudulent charity and a brutal power struggle with ties to Nigeria, while a British security officer hunts answers about his son's death. The story pushes the series beyond Washington into international intrigue.

An old case from Jessica Fletcher's past refuses to stay buried. Returning to the years when Frank was alive and Grady was still young, Jessica must untangle how an earlier murder still casts a shadow.

A nineteenth-century comedy in five acts, set around the opening of the legal session in Edinburgh. The play uses social maneuvering, romantic complications, and period humor to bring together a lively cast of characters.