Season 5 finds Murder, She Wrote__APOS__s intrepid Jessica Fletcher in fine sleuthing form, and venturing farther afield from Cabot Cove--a good thing, since at the rate the murders have been happening, that town would be nearly cleaned out. Some of the best episodes take place in more exotic locales like New York (dead man on the street, wearing just one shoe), Montana (a publishing convention gone horribly wrong) and West Virginia (two whistle-blowers at a coal company found gruesomely murdered). Angela Lansbury sparkles with determination and bonhomie, hitting her stride and then some. Jessica__APOS__s own life backstory is even filled out tantalizingly, especially in the episode __QUOTE__The Last Flight of the Dixie Damsel,__QUOTE__ in which an investigation is launched into a mysterious cargo plane that is linked, she learns to her horror, to her late husband. The series__APOS__ other delight is watching for cameos by stars of a certain age, and this season doesn__APOS__t disappoint, with appearances by Roddy McDowall, Shelley Fabares, and Dinah Shore--but also some up-and-comers like Megan Mullally (proof positive that the Will __AMPERSAND__ Grace whine was a put-on) and future satirist Bill Maher.
