Our fellow tea lover, Jessica Fletcher

When "Murder, She Wrote" with Angela Lansbury first came out in the eighties, I was in college and more interested in keeping up with Madonna and getting MTV installed in the dorms. As an adult, however, I have become quite the fan, and the DVDs of old episodes are my guilty pleasure for weekend viewing. When I learned that a series of cozy mysteries had been written by "Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain," I decided to try one, but frankly, I was skeptical. It would be very hard to capture that gracious character's wit and charm in a book, I thought. Over the weekend, I finished reading "A Slaying in Savannah," book number 30 of 43 in the series, and to my delight, it was wonderful! I could truly "hear" Jessica Fletcher saying that dialogue, and it didn't hurt that I decided to dive into the series with a book set in Savannah, a city with which I'm already familiar.

Something else I did not expect was all the tea references, as it became clear Jessica prefers tea and not coffee. Here are a few of the lines I noted:

• "'I was just making myself a cup of tea,''' I said, turning back to the stove. I removed the tea bag from my cup and threw it away. I resisted offering the Grogans any tea. It would mean a long conversation and I was feeling tired again."

• "Mrs. Goodall walked in a few moments later with a tray holding the ice pack, a cup of tea, and two cookies cut in the shape of a shamrock and sprinkled with green sugar."

• "The waiter delivered a pot of tea and a slice of Lady Baltimore cake, 'compliments of the baker.' 'He’s experimenting with a new recipe,' he said, placing the white cake with fluffy icing on the table."

I'm so happy that I have more of these books to look forward to. Are any of you fans of "Murder, She Wrote"?