Murder Most Trivial by Jessica Fletcher and Barbara Early

Item: Murder Most Trivial
Rating: 5
Author: karenbaron

Posted May 19, 2026 by karenbaron in Mystery, Review, Series / 0 Comments

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Murder Most Trivial

by Jessica Fletcher, Barbara Early

Series: Murder She Wrote Mystery #63
Series Rating:

Published by Berkley Books on May 12, 2026
Setting: Cabot Cove, Maine; Los Angeles, California
Genres: Cozy Mystery
Pages: 315
Format: Hardcover, Kindle
Source: NetGalley
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Get Your Copy at: Amazon
Also in this series: Murder, She Wrote: Killing in a Koi Pond, Murder, She Wrote: Debonair in Death, Murder, She Wrote: Death on the Emerald Isle, Murder, She Wrote: Fit for Murder, Murder Backstage, A Killer Christmas, Snowy with a Chance of Murder, A Body in Boston, The Body in the Trees

The newest delightful entry in the USA Today bestselling Murder, She Wrote series, featuring mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher.

Jessica Fletcher and friends Seth Hazlitt and Maureen and Mort Metzger team up for pub trivia and crush the competition, then are stunned to learn that the prize is a chance to appear in a five-day trivia tournament filming in LA.

No one expects life-or-death stakes! But on day one of the tournament, a crew member is murdered. Who would benefit from derailing the show? Jessica has to come up with the ultimate answer.

In a metafictional twist, the investigation takes Jessica and the gang to the filming locations of their favorite mystery shows, where they discuss how Columbo, Monk, or Jim Rockford might go about solving the case.

Murder Most Trivial by Jessica Fletcher and Barbara Early has Jessica, Seth, Mort, and Maureen go to California for a pub trivia game show.

Will Jessica and her friends get through the first day of the competition? Who wanted one of the crew members dead?

There is a new pub in the town of Cabot Cove, and Jessica and her friends just had to try it out. While they were there, they got talked into doing trivia night. The four of them won, and the prize was an opportunity to go to California to be on this game show. Jessica, Seth, Mort, and Maureen are all excited and nervous to be doing this game show. Ms. Early did a fantastic job of getting Jessica, Seth, Mort, and Maureen off the East Coast and over to the West Coast for this mystery. I like how even though they were busy with the game show and trying to solve the mystery, they still had time to sightsee.

The Mystery

Jessica and the other contestants finished filming for the first day when everyone noticed that one of the crew members was deceased. This mystery is one big doozy for Jessica and her friends. I loved seeing Mort try to enjoy his vacation, but he also wanted to help solve the mystery. Mort now knows how Jessica feels about him keeping her out of some of his cases. I had a hard time keeping away from the red herrings in this one.

Five Stars

My rating for Murder Most Trivial by Jessica Fletcher and Barbara Early is five stars. I recommend this book and the entire series to anyone who loves the TV show Murder, She Wrote. Granted, if you don’t have time to read all the books, which I understand, then starting from this one isn’t a problem. I love that all of these books can be read as standalones.

The Book Series

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Murder Most Trivial by Jessica Fletcher and Barbara Early.

Until the next time,

Happy Reading!

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About Barbara Early

Barbara Early earned an engineering degree, but after four years of doing nothing but math, developed a sudden allergy to the subject and decided to choose another occupation.

Before she settled on murdering fictional people, she was a secretary, a schoolteacher, a pastor’s wife, and an amateur puppeteer. She lives in Western New York State (Go Bills!), where she enjoys cooking, crafts, classic movies and campy seventies television, board games, and spending time with her granddaughters.

Before teaming up with Jessica Fletcher, she previously wrote the Vintage Toyshop Mystery series and the Bridal Bouquet Shop Mysteries (as Beverly Allen).

Reading this book contributed to these challenges: