I Only Read Murder

December 11, 2023
This uneven series launch from brothers Ian and Will Ferguson (How to Be Canadian) introduces Miranda Abbott, a self-absorbed actor whose star has faded in middle age. Fifteen years earlier, Miranda headlined a top-rated TV series as crime-solving cleric Pastor Fran; these days, she’s struggling to land an appearance on the reality show The Real Has-Beens of Beverly Hills. After her long-suffering agent drops her when she refuses to play a grandmother in a fiber supplement commercial, Miranda receives a postcard with a cryptic message from Edgar, the husband she left many years ago to pursue her acting career. She interprets the note as a summons to join him in the sleepy town of Happy Rock, Ore., though when she arrives, she realizes Edgar wrote to request a divorce, not a rekindling. Making the best of things, Miranda decides to stay in Happy Rock and try out for the local community theater company’s upcoming show. Then one of the cast members dies, and Miranda, certain that she was the intended victim, steps in to help solve the case. Miranda, while occasionally funny, grows grating over the course of a full novel, and the Fergusons take too long to set the mystery in motion. This series has potential, but the opening entry misses the mark.

January 1, 2024
Miranda Abbott doesn't consider herself a has-been, though it's been a while since her last hit as a crime-solving, karate-chopping priest on Pastor Fran Investigates. When she receives a postcard summoning her to Happy Rock, Oregon--a place she hasn't been for 15 years--she boards the bus (can't afford plane fare) and heads up. Soon she finds herself auditioning for the Happy Rock Amalgamated & Consolidated Little Theater Society's production of Death is the Dickens, though she loses the starring role to a local realtor, Annette Baillie, whose prima donna tendencies rival Miranda's. Then, on opening night, Annette is murdered, and Miranda is sure she was the intended target. Channeling her Pastor Fran skills, and with the help of an eccentric cast of townspeople, she investigates. The brothers Ferguson pull out all the comedic stops, taking on Hollywood elitism, community theater, and small-town quirkiness in a fast-paced, lighthearted murder mystery. It takes a while for the murder to be committed, but readers will enjoy following the hilariously inept Miranda as she tries to solve the crime in this promising series starter.

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