Things are getting spicy TONIGHT ON MURDER, SHE WROTE. The town of Cabot Cove is flooded with suggestive letters about affairs, fraud, arson, and more, and it's up to Sheriff Harry Pearce (John Astin) to uncover the truth from the lies!

Wait, who? The real estate guy, Harry Pearce, is the sheriff now?! What is going on? Amos Tupper (Tom Bosley) attempts retirement and hands the badge to Gomez Addams here just in time for chaos to consume the mail slots of every resident.

Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) makes efforts to help solve the flood of questionable accusations after a young woman ends up dead in the tub, and wonders if there's a connection... what are the odds, really? Our new Avengers also includes an enterprising young writer (Parker Stevenson) in the mix, alongside Dr. Hazlitt (William Windom), Tupper, and Pearce, all seeking the answer behind the unusual, mismatching letters that even get Jessica a pocketbook across the face from a jilted wife.

Following some fistfights on the docks, arguments between neighbors, curious motivations between three condominium investors led by the glorious horror movie icon Betsy Palmer (Friday the 13th's Mrs. Vorhees), the exposure of a false German, and the death of an innocent old lady, it's up to booze and butter to get us the answers we need.

Our cast this week also includes Evelyn Keyes, Marsha Hunt, Denny Miller, Christopher Stone, John Campanella, and Paul Benedict. Join Petra and Viktor for STICKS AND STONES as we examine some suspiciously underused kitchenware.

TONIGHT ON MURDER, SHE WROTE: Jessica is getting put in the slammer!

When murder mystery writer and former English teacher Jessica Fletcher is tapped to fill in for a friend at the local maximum security prison for women, all hell breaks loose when a body is discovered, leading to a lockdown and hostage situation.

The warden (Psycho's Vera Miles) is the prisoners' main suspect, and well-liked inmate Mary (Linda Kelsey) is the staff's and Jessica needs to figure out if either of them done it or someone else might get killed... well, someone else other than the other person who gets eventually killed.

Our intrepid inmates include Adrienne Barbeau, Margaret Avery, Susan Oliver, Eve Plumb, and Susan Peretz in this all-ladies cast of convicted thieves and murderers (sometimes wrongly) torn between rioting and shooting their way out and working together to save one of their own. Since the food there sucks, the clinic drugs don't work, and the staff doesn't seem to treat them well, it could go either way.

Among our prison employees are the doctor (Janet MacLachlan), the chef (Yvonne de Carlo), the deputy warden (Barbara Baxley), and a collection of guards of varying likability.

Will Jessica be able to prove Mary innocent, the Warden ethical, and the prison food actually edible before the hotheads overtake the practical and a bloodbath of fire and fury? And is this the first TV episode where a poster of a uterus made it on TV? All this and more will be revealed in JESSICA BEHIND BARS!

And weeeeeeee're off to the races TONIGHT ON MURDER, SHE WROTE! Place your bets* on the killer of the week or on our favorite dirty nose* Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury), persistent meddler and murder mystery writer who this week is at the track to help exonerate yet another family member, this time niece Tracy (Linda Grovenor).

Detective of the week Misko (Roy Thinnes in a stupid hat) joins Jessica to determine who's behind the murder, centered around Anchors Away, a 20-to-1. The usual jockey, Carlos Gallegos (Bert Rosario), gets replaced by Tracy at the last minute, a major boon for a rookie steeplechaser*. It's all just in time for Aunt Jessica to learn from his wife, Vicky (Priscilla Barnes), and a couple of gambling eccentrics (Carole Cook and Jack Carter) all the reasons why the sleeper won't win; but when he does, it's almost more shocking than the corpse found soon after. Is it a ringer?* A fix* Something clubhouse turn?*

It's a story of mob ties, undocumented Panamanians, food poisoning, lip tattoos, and carrots; this is DEAD HEAT.

Norman Fell joins the cast as a mobster in a great suit, Clu Gulager returns as a horse vet whose medical bag goes missing, Ramon Bieiri is the cranky security guard, and Derrel Maury is Cookie the horse wrangler and our latest inductee into the #HotGuysOfMurderSheWrote.

(* horse racing talk, sorry.)