A DEADLY JUDGEMENT

Here, under the charming fiction that Jessica Fletcher co-wrote the book with Donald Bain, another episode of "Murder, She Wrote" comes to the headphones. Jessica thrusts her overbearing nosiness into a murder trial in Boston, giving the writer(s) a chance to feature various items of local scenery. Naturally Jessica solves the whole thing while everyone else is groping in the dark. Beth Porter was obviously chosen because she sounds like Angela Lansbury. Porter's rendition, however, lacks the undercurrent of kindly good humor that Lansbury projects. She handles the other characters decently, always within the Lansbury framework. D.R.W. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 01]