TONIGHT ON MURDER SHE WROTE, Viktor and Petra join mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) and her nephew Grady (Michael Horton) as they visit a very deluxe New York City hotel, filled with brandied chocolates, Freudian nonsense, and vases with vermouth.

The Montaigne is run with an iron floral blouse by Janet Leigh's Cornelia, who never met a ruffle she didn't love. Her recent marriage to young, unscrupulous boytoy Garrett (John Callahan), who went to school with Grady and the former cheerleader-turned-shrewd businesswoman Sandra Clemens (Jennifer Holmes), and their reunion are tested by matriarchal tension and interrupted by murder.

Jessica is on the case to determine who did what to whom, why, and how to get the police inspector (Monte Markham) to actually do his job. Grady is soon the prime suspect, and makes a series of terrible choices to further his likelihood of going to prison. Naturally, we can't let that happen. But maybe it would teach him a few things.

Charlotte Rae, as Garrett's mother, is chewing all of the scenery, as Robert Desiderio and Macon McCalman further assist and obfuscate the truth behind the murder. We're ready for turndown service, with DOOM WITH A VIEW.

TONIGHT ON MURDER, SHE WROTE, we address uncomfortable race relations in idyllic Cabot Cove, Maine.

When a war bonnet'd First Nations man on horseback throws a spear at the Mayor (Richard Paul), the townspeople are irked. It turns out the theatrical equestrian is Algonquin George Longbow (Bernard White, who, uh, isn't), and he has a claim on the town, which further instigates worry, rage, and indignation.

It's all a particularly complex episode, INDIAN GIVER, which features domestic violence, hate crimes, and our intrepid mystery writer Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) trying to stand between the slur-spewing yahoos and an early primetime discussion of reparations.

The cast includes Theodore Bikel, Gary Lockwood, Charles Siebert, and Tom Bosley, and a lot of very very white New Englanders.

Don't hold your breath for a whole lot of "oh this aged well," but Petra and Viktor steer the way as best they can as this civil unrest leads to a particularly bold murder scene, and an awkward happy ending.

TONIGHT ON MURDER, SHE WROTE, there's TROUBLE IN EDEN—Eden naturally being a charming hotel in idyllic suburban Oregon that also happens to serve gentlemen with the companionship of ladies for a short while. Yes, this cozy mystery enters the brothel life where the lingerie is questionable, the rooms are quaintly tacky, and the floorboards contain the blackmailed secrets of powerful men!

Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) is undercover as friend Mary Rose (Joan Canfield) to discover the true circumstances of the madam's sudden death and subsequent coverup. Oh, and Mary Rose is the madam's sister and the new inheritor. Allied with a cutie lawyer (Tom Fitzsimmons), a nervous housekeeper (Betty Garrett), and the local sheriff (Roy Thinnes) who doesn't know who she really is yet, Jessica gets immediate attention from some dangerous townspeople.

The men in town (among them: Mills Watson, Stuart Whitman, Thom Christopher, Macdonald Carey) are quick to weigh their options when it appears Mary Rose may become the new de facto extortioner.

Add in the fabulous Tricia O'Neill as Lila Benson, the front desk clerk and bawd in absentia, and you know Viktor and Petra are, appropriately, hooked.