Fatal Paradise

In Chicago, a man gets dumped by voicemail. Rather than letting it get to him, he calls a pal and asks him to recommend a private eye who won't ask a lot of questions. That private eye happens to be Jessica's old friend, Charlie Garrett - he locates his client's wife in Martinique, but he is soon accused of murdering her. However he is in luck as Jessica is in Martinique vacationing. The French police arrest Charlie but Jessica finds a stray bullet which gets him released. Jessica then witnesses him being beaten up by Farrow's goon in his room. Afterwards, Charlie takes Jessica to where he stashed the money but it is gone. Jessica recognizes the footprint and thinks there is more involved than it appears.

Charlie Garrett is sort of like a Harry McGraw and he makes a good team with Jessica. The location is good, the plot helps things along and it's an ok episode. Nothing too great, though.

Have always been quite fond of 'Murder She Wrote'. It is a fun and relaxing watch that makes you think as you try to unwind in the evening. If one wants more complex, twisty mysteries with lots of tension and suspense 'Murder She Wrote' may not be for you, but if you want something light-hearted and entertaining but still provide good mysteries 'Murder She Wrote' fits the bill just fine.

"Fatal Paradise" is one of the top middle episodes as far as Season 11 goes to me. It's not a perfect, nor great, episode, it's always fun and rarely dull, although it does take a little too much time to get going, but it's also not always the easiest to follow with a reasonably complicated scheme and a few parts are on the implausible side (like with the clues) that it's an amazement at Jessica comes to solve the crime in a reasonably surprising and neatly tied up denouement.

Angela Lansbury continues to excel in one of her most justifiably most fondly remembered roles and she shares a charming rapport with Wayne Rogers, who is able to show the most range here of his 'Murder She Wrote' appearances (one feels sorry for Charlie here). Anne Lockhart, Cassie Yates, Patricia Barry and Christopher Allport in particular give classy support.

Mystery-wise it engages and intrigues enough and wraps up well, although the execution is not perfect.

Production values as always are slick, stylish and suitably cosy with a suitably exotic location and beautiful fashions. The music has energy and has presence but also not making the mistake of over-scoring, while it is hard to forget or resist the theme tune. The writing is thoughtful and amiable as well as having an endearing cosiness.

In short, pretty good. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Jessica is on vacation in Martinique, where she bumps into Charlie Garrett, who's there on a case, he's hunting for a missing wife, and some missing money.

A very enjoyable mystery, always good to see Jessica on holiday, especially when it's murder. There's something a little Agatha Christie about this one, and that's a good thing.

I liked the unveiling of the murderer, definitely a little different, and somewhat unexpected.

This one does have a very authentic feel to it, I'm not sure where it was filmed, but it could easily have been set in The Caribbean.

I liked the character of Charlie Garrett, he's big and brash, he's full of bravado, but he's a little different to the other private eyes.

Loved Cassie Yates as Dorie, what a lovely actress, I may be wrong, but sure she was in A Caribbean Mystery.

I can't let this one go by without commenting, some of the clothes Jessica is wearing in this one, absolutely hideous, from a maternity outfit, to the spare room curtains, there are some great clothes on other people though.

7/10.

In "Fatal Paradise", Charlie Garrett (Wayne Rogers) makes yet another appearance as the dopey private eye on "Murder, She Wrote". In many ways, Charlie is a lot like the recurring character Harry McGraw....but even dumber and a bit more larcenous. But, he also was a likable rogue...and this episode is no exception.

Jessica is vacationing in Martinique when she sees Charlie. He's there ostensibly to find a rich man's wife, though there's OBVIOUSLY more to it than that and the actual plan is to use Charlie and possibly get him killed. Too bad no one told Charlie about this! Can Jessica manage to keep this bumbler out of trouble?

This is an interesting episode of the series, and like nearly every other episode set abroad, it was actually filmed in California. It also helps that Charlie, despite his many shortcomings, is a fun character. Well worth seeing.

Several "MSW" Season Eleven episodes begin with a pre-title Prologue, including this one, which starts in Chicago, Illinois, as Phillip Sparling (Michael Callan) conducts a telephone conversation from his office desk, regarding his missing wife, Dorie Sparling (Cassie Yates), plus the unauthorized withdrawal of his corporate funds, which also vanishes.

Phillip Sparling requests the services of a bumbling private detective who doesn't ask a lot of questions, to locate the missing Dorie, and so he hires the hapless Chicago-based P.I. Charlie Garrett (Wayne Rogers), before making a call to Washington, D.C., to hire Norma Willens (Anne Lockhart) to retrieve his missing $six million.

Charlie Garrett trails Dorie Sparling from Miami, Florida, down into the Caribbean island of Barbados, and up into the French island of Martinique, at which the balance of the action of this episode transpires, in the section near Fort-de-France and Trinity Bay, upon which Dorie Sparling spends her time on a private yacht, owned by fellow Chicago native Graham Farrow (Stephen Meadows), and accompanied by Wendall (uncredited actor), who acts as a bodyguard of sorts.

Nearby stands Hotel Deux Perroquets, which translates to "Two Parakeets," or, perhaps, implies a haven for love-birds. But love may be difficult to realize around this neck of the woods, even though some guests or staff members may dream of achieving a mutual infatuation.

Maurice Delagre (Christopher Allport) and Lauren Delagre (Cynthia Harris) own and operate Hotel Deux Perroquets, along with their disrespectful young adult son, Jeff Delagre (Rodney Eastman), who back-talks both parents.

While Lauren takes his insults on the chin, she asks Jeff to respect his father, who's going through a difficult time with a lack of funds to oversee building repairs, as well as his mounting addiction to gambling, which drains the remainder of the family's finances.

Collette (Marie-Alise Recasner) serves as an efficient hotel desk clerk, as she spends her free time embarking in college correspondence courses in an attempt to accomplish a secure future should Maurice and Lauren lose their hotel. Jeff takes a liking to Collette and invites her to dances when local musicians play inside the ballroom, and so she manages a dance or two with Jeff, while suggesting that he respect his parents, but not in as many words.

Melanie Venable (Patricia Barry) and her aspiring writer son, Hilton Venable (Andrew Hill Newman), whom she addresses as Hilton Augustus Venable when flustered over his eye for women who remain beneath their social status (or at least until she has a chance to have them properly investigated) arrive from Richmond, Virginia. Melanie instantly distrusts Norma Willens, to whom Hilton takes an unrequited fancy, to Melanie's disdain.

Lauren Delagre, Melanie Venable, and Charlie Garrett each delights in the arrival of Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury), Lauren because now she has nearby her dear old friend from Cabot Cove, Melanie because now she may ask Jessica to read one of Hilton's Short Stories, and Charlie because now he plans to entwine Jessica into his search for Dorie Sparling.

Lauren reminisces that it is, indeed, her dear old friend Jessica who had introduced her to Maurice when he served as a French Attaché to the United Nations. (This series generally follows a continuity in tune with actual chronological time tables. In 1994, it would have been ten years since J.B. has first published and ventured from Cabot Cove. But, considering that Lauren and Maurice's biological son, Jeff, would have aged several years beyond ten, this disclosure indicates that Jessica hadn't been as provincial as implied at the onset of the series.)

Anyway, before Jessica and Charlie discover each other at Hotel Deux Perroquets, Dorie entertains Jessica and Lauren on the yacht, when Graham and Wendall board to meet them. Afterwards, when Dorie cleans the bar, she discovers the attaché containing the $6 million beneath the floorboards (and reacts in surprise, indicating that she's not the one to have embezzled the cash).

Maurice, meanwhile, gambles away half of the hotel ownership, which Graham Farrow wins in a Poker round with Police Captain (Maurice Roëves) and an unidentified fourth player, as Sergeant Courbet (Marc Gomes) enters the hotel to report an incident to his Police Captain, while Graham gloats over his half-ownership.

Charlie finally meets Dorie when she arrives at the hotel, and she accepts an invitation for cocktails after Charlie informs her that he's also from Chicago, and they realize that they've attended the same schools. But Wendall breaks up the reunion, forcedly ordering Charlie that Dorie is "off limits."

When Charlie finally meets Jessica, he convinces her to detain Graham at the hotel, while he attempts to rescue Dorie from the yacht. But back on ground, at Trinity Bay Inlet, Charlie discovers the attaché containing the cash, along with a body slain by a semi-automatic rifle, as Charlie shoots at the fleeing perpetrator.

Charlie hides the attaché beneath the wooden floorboards of a porch, before he is picked up by Police Captain and Sergeant Courbet for questioning, what with his smoking pistol and all, after the killer's bullet had exited the body.

Jessica, maintaining Charlie's innocence, strolls along Trinity Bay Inlet with Lauren, leading Lauren directly to the tree which nestles Charlie's defense bullet and removes it from the bark to prove her point.

Jessica also has her hands full in protecting Charlie from Wendall's fists, as the $six million changes hands again without Charlie's knowledge, while other suspects attempt to leave the beauty of Martinique and its "Fatal Paradise."

This episode represents the second of two "MSW" guest roles each for Patricia Barry and Cynthia Harris, the third of three for Christopher Allport, the fourth of four each for Michael Callan, and also for Anne Lockhart and Cassie Yates (who play sisters their first time around), as well as the third of five "MSW's" for Wayne Rogers in his role as P.I. Charlie Garrett.