'Murder She Wrote' novel to be set in Tampa

Fictional sleuth Jessica Fletcher and her friend, Dr. Seth Hazlitt, are on the case but far from Cabot Cove. For this adventure they are in Tampa, swept up by foreign intrigue, stolen medical research, a Cuban doctor who defected from Castro's communist regime and, of course, murder.

The storyline for the 39thth "Murder She Wrote" novel comes from the imagination of writer Donald Bain, though he shares billing with Fletcher, the character made famous by actress Angela Lansbury in the long-running television series.

With its mafia ties, Tampa is no stranger to mystery and murder.

But a longtime email friendship between Bain and local artist James Vann is the reason Cigar City is the latest scene of the crime. Their correspondence began more than five years ago when Bain bought a neo-cubist painting of a jazzy trumpeter from Vann.

A first-time face-to-face visit with Vann and his wife, Jeannette, who live in Valrico, was too good to pass up.

Scratch Fort Lauderdale and Miami. On Thanksgiving Day, Bain and his wife, Renee, flew to Tampa.

"I just had a feeling that Tampa held more interest," Bain said.

The Vanns will turn up as characters in the new book with the working title, "Rendezvous in Tampa."

And Vann's art, including six murals depicting East Tampa history that are outside District III police headquarters on 22nd Street, will be featured.

"It's unbelievable," Vann said. "To include me and the art in it is overwhelming. I think it was fantastic how art opened the way for Tampa and Ybor City."

Vann helped set up interviews with East Tampa police officers at District III and a meeting with Tampa City Council Chairman Charlie Miranda at the Columbia Restaurant. It was research for the story.

"The research is always so fascinating," said Renee Bain, who has been co-writer with her husband on the last six "Murder She Wrote" novels. Researching on the Internet is convenient, but she said, "I believe you pick up details when you go somewhere that you'd never find elsewhere."

Davis Islands, Peter O. Knight Airport and Ybor City will be backdrops for the action. Cigars will provide some of the clues to solve the murder. Vann's character might even offer up a crucial clue.

The novels, which Bain began in 1988, are based on the television series but are original murder mysteries unrelated to the television episodes. Obsidian, a subsidiary of Penguin Books, is the publisher.

Bain has written about 115 books, some of them as a ghost writer.

"I've been very open to ideas," he said. "I've done just about every genre from romantics to westerns."

Taking second place behind Jessica Fletcher on the dust covers is just part of the contract. But sometimes fans have trouble separating Fletcher from Lansbury.

"She's funny. People stop her to say they appreciate that she writes the novels," Bain said. "She thanks them and walks on."

And, yes, he said, Lansbury in person is as nice as anyone would expect. "She's an amazing talent," Bain said.

Bain's first published book was on the history of stock car racing. A 1967 comedy about airline stewardesses — "Coffee, Tea or Me?" — sold more than 5 million copies. Bain was a Pam American consultant for about 17 years.

Other titles include "The Fine Art of Murder" and his autobiography "Murder HE Wrote: A Successful Writer's Life."

He and his wife recently founded Hyphenate Books. So far they have one published author, Joe Stockdale. He penned a picaresque tale — "Taking Tennessee to Hart" — about a black college professor and his students who try to fulfill the funeral wishes of Tennessee Williams. They dig up his body and set off to bury him at sea in the spot where writer Hart Crane killed himself.

Bain writes two "Murder She Wrote" novels a year. The Tampa book will be published in 2013. With one more novel left on his contract, Bain doesn't know whether the series will be continued.

If not he has had discussions about writing a mystery series under his own name.

"What I'd like to consider myself above all is a professional," Bain said.

He is a professional in another way, as a jazz musician. His instruments are the vibraphone and the drums.

Bain's friendship with Vann may have begun with the painting.

But Vann said, "I was drawn to him because of his jazz."

Vann grew up in New York and as a teenager sneaked into jazz clubs Basin Street East and Birdland.

He taught art to inmates at Rikers Island and elsewhere during more than 20 years with the New York Department of Corrections. On his own, he painted canvases, breaking the rules of size, shape and scale to capture the vibrant colors of the jazz age and black historical figures.

Bain learned about Vann's talent through a mutual friend who was also Vann's supervisor at the corrections department and at one time manager for jazz artist and vibraphonist Lionel Hampton.

Vann still wonders at the twists and turns and surprises of life that brought this all together.

"It would have to be a murder," he said. "It's unbelievable."