The episode starts with a flashback to events that happened one year prior in St. Petersburg, Russia. The action then moves to present-day Miami Beach, which is hosting the World Book Fair that Jessica is attending.
Jessica gets pulled into some international intrigue when she meets a Russian detective who is there to track down a stolen Faberge egg.
Just the facts:
Similar to what we saw in the previous episode, this episode opens with us as viewers witnessing a murder that happened in Russia one year prior. We know that the victim is a Russian Thief, but we don’t know who the murderer is or the motive until much later in the episode. This initial crime leads to another crime that happens in present-day…
Click on the text below to reveal spoilers.
Click to reveal the victim
It was James Harris, a collector of smuggled artwork!Click to reveal the killer
It was Victor Roscoe, a hotel businessman!Click to reveal the weapon
The victim was hit over the head, which caused him to fall into a pool where he drowned while unconscious!Click to reveal the location
It happened in the secret room the victim kept his artwork in, during a party he was throwing for the World Book Fair!Click to reveal the motive
OK, I’ll admit this one has me stumped. We know that the killer was secretly a smuggler who initially brought over the Faberge egg; and we know that he attempted to steal the Faberge egg when the victim surprised him, which led to a struggle and ultimately the victim’s death. But I still have no idea why the killer tried to steal the egg in the first place. We do however learn that the Russian Thief was murdered because he was going to expose the smuggler unless he gave him half his profits!Click to reveal the major clue
The killer’s chain, with the initials BP, were found at the scene of the crime! Once Jessica realizes the letters were in the Cyrillic alphabet, she realized in English the killer’s initials would have been VR.Cast of characters:
- Peter Lucas as the Russian Thief who is killed at the beginning of the episode; he is at one point referred to as “Constantin Persky”.
- James Stephens as Charles Devon, the Wold Book Fair organizer. This is Stephens’ fourth and final appearance on MSW; he previously appeared in “Night of the Coyote” and “The Grand Old Lady“.
- Cyril O’Reilly as Leo Stone, Charles Devon’s brother in law. This is O’Reilly’s third and final appearance on MSW; he previously appeared in “Snow White, Blood Red” and “A Killing in Cork“. He will also go on to appear in the TV movie “The Celtic Riddle”.
- Kaitlin Hopkins as Marcie Stone Devon, a bookstore owner, married to Charles Devon, sister of Leo Stone.
- Christopher Thomas as Connors, a gangster that Leo owes money to.
- David Ogden Stiers as Sergei Nemiroff, Russian Law enforcement, posing as a book publisher, actually here to help exhonerate his brother who was convicted of killing the Russian Thief. This is Stiers’ second of three total appearances on MSW; he previously appeared in “Corned Beef and Carnage”. He will also go on to appear in the TV movie “The Last Free Man”.
- Paul Scherrer as Ben Peterson, a Book Fair employee and med school hopeful.
- Sara Melson as Valerie Harris, another Book Fair employee.
- Lazarus Jackson as the Security Guard monitoring the entrance into the conference hall.
- Andrew Robinson as James Harris, father of Valerie and a rich book publisher who lent money to the Devons. This is Robinson’s second and final appearance on MSW; he previously appeared in “A Killing in Cork“.
- Allan Miller as Victor Roscoe, owner of the hotel that the Book Fair is taking place at. This is Miller’s fourth of five total appearances on MSW; he previously appeared in “A Virtual Murder“.
- Efrain Figueroa as Lt. Perez, in charge of the murder investigation. This is Figueroa’s second and final appearance on the show; he previously appeared in “Funeral at Fifty-Mile”.
- Steve Adell as Officer Long, a police offer who located evidence at the crime scene (though his note is not actually mentioned on the show).
Final thoughts and other trivia:
One interesting tid-bit that we learn about Jessica is that, at this point in her life, she understands Russian!
Similar to the previous episode, we also learn more about Jessica’s novels. For instance, we learned that one of Jessica’s protagonists was named Lenny Terhune (and Terhune is a name that pops up at least a couple of times in the Cabot Cove episodes). We also see Jessica signing her latest novel, The Venomous Valentine, which (based on the title) seems to tie into the events of the first episode this season in which she researches venomous snakes.
Notably, there is a major continuity error in this episode where Jessica’s first novel is referred to as “The Corpse Danced Alone” rather than The Corpse Danced at Midnight.
Murder, She Watched 