by Olivia Viyella
Ollie the Librarian over here. You may have heard of my crime-detecting shenanigans in A Golden Triangle along with my sister, Mo, and our new bestie Betty, haven’t you? In that case, you may have remembered us asking: How do older detectives do it? Miss Marple, Father Brown, no spring chicken, the good father, our very own Jessica Fletcher. Seniors being all forgetful and all that.
Where was I going with this? Oh, right. Closer to home, how did the estimable Jessica Fletcher, retired English teacher—shout out to teachers everywhere—fellow seaside resident, and a colleague in the crime writing business do it? Beats. Me. Dude, as my young colleague Shaggy is wont to say.
Maybe the sea air at Cabot Cove, Maine—Crime Capital of the U.S.A.—is particularly healthy. A preserver of cognitive abilities, perhaps. All I know for certain is there wasn’t a criminal that escaped her clutches. It got so that the intro of “Murder, She Wrote” would start, with Mrs. Fletcher typing away at her heart’s content and scoundrels as far away as Canada would scamper away. And then she would emerge from the dock, fishing tackle in hand, and miscreants would seek more agreeable shores. Maybe the Florida Keys, where I am told, crime and hijinks proliferate. Although our own Naples—that’s FL, not Italy, unfortunately—has its own share of lowlifes.
In short, the woman was an example to all amateur sleuths of “uncertain birthdays,” as Mo would have it. Down to earth; friendly, but never foolish; talkative, but always with a purpose; best gal pal to Seth, the not-really-a-curmudgeon resident physician; content with her moment in life; a fond wife, if widowed when we first meet her; a mother from the heart, as she raised her orphaned nephew, Gary Fletcher.
What else remains to be said? Why, yes, wise beyond measure. I leave you with her own words, seemingly repeated at the conclusion of every other case: “There are three things you can never have enough of in life, Lieutenant: chocolate, friends and the theater.” Amen to that, sister in crime, amen!
ABOUT OLIVIA
A former academic, Olivia Viyella has been a reader of mysteries and a teller of tales, some of them true, ever since childhood. She is the mother of two strong, take-no-prisoners daughters, a lucky wife, a fond sister, and the sort of friend you’d call when rope and shovels are necessary.
