Murder She Wrote Recaps: S2E14: Keep the Home Fries Burning

Breakfast fever infects Cabot Cove, as all the residents begin eating at a touristy, colonial-themed new restaurant at the edge of town. But a different kind of fever strikes those who try the place's strawberry jam: poison fever. Jessica tries to solve the case, but is stymied at every turn by a state health inspector who claims her methods are unscientific.

Murder She Wrote Recaps: S1E13: Murder to a Jazz Beat

Thanks to a uncharacteristic scheduling snafu, Jessica has come to New Orleans two whole days before any of her calendared promotional events. Luckily, she finds herself in the care of industrious cabbie Lafayette (guest star Garrett Morris), who knows literally everyone and everything in town.

Case in point: he brings her to a lengthy French Quarter performance of on-the-cusp-of-stardom jazz musician Ben Coleman, whose subsequent death in the middle of a set is the ultimate improvisational performance. In fact, everybody in the room lets him lie there on the floor for a few seconds, just in case he was simply doing something jazzy.

Jess immediately identifies the subtle, telltale signs of an obscure South American poison, and suspects that Ben’s clarinet was the delivery mechanism. The police disagree, but Jessica keeps pushing the issue—the smoking gun, she claims, is that the clarinet’s reed didn’t have any stains on it even though Ben had just taken a swig of coffee before playing, as many musicians do—until a bandmate breaks down with a tearful cemetery monologue.