Elsbeth Season 3 Episode 16: Murder, He Wrote

Renowned author Elliott Pope reluctantly lets his old friend — book critic and bookstore owner Barney Corman — read the manuscript of his latest work. After two months of silence, Elliott presses him, and Barney finally delivers the verdict he never wanted to give: the book is drivel. When Barney ends up pinned beneath a toppled bookcase and begs Elliott for help, Elliott answers with Barney's own question — "How much do you want me to say?" — removes the stepstool, and lets the shelves finish the job.

Eighteen months later, Elliott has a new novel out: Snow Falls Down, in which his character Marty Roper dies in an avalanche — a death that tracks Barney's killing closely enough that Elsbeth reopens the case and organizes a book club to investigate the celebrated novelist.

The literary tells accumulate: Elliott bases his characters on people from his hometown of Massapequa, the victim's name echoes Barney Corman's, and his hero Edgar Bishop is transparently himself — right down to the initials-and-clergyman naming pattern Lieutenant Connor points out and the beloved mother's tuna fish sandwich.

The book club work leads through Barney's world. His widow Bev admits she misses him more now than when he was alive, messy storeroom and all, so Elsbeth calls on the Rodent Death Society to catch Templeton, the rat living in the store, and search the storeroom with her. Barney's scathing opinions of Elliott's other books survive in letters faxed to Elliott's first wife, Maura Davidoff, now set for publication in a book benefiting the bookstore — and Elliott's publishers, in the wake of several sexual harassment lawsuits, have banned him from hiring younger female assistants.

The trap closes on a habit. Walking her dog Gonzo, Elsbeth licks her fingers to open a dog poop bag and lands on the page-licking parallel: Elliott's DNA turns up on Barney's rare copy of Howards End, which Barney had taken out of his safety deposit box only that day — placing Elliott there on the night of the murder. Asked about the manuscript he sent Barney, Elliott burns it, setting off his own smoke alarm and bringing the fire department to his door.

Election night closes the personal threads: Alec Bloom wins, but Elsbeth ends the relationship — she cannot forget that he lied to her face and that she failed to detect it — and Alec promotes Captain Tully to police commissioner, leaving Wagner passed over despite Marissa's assurance that the factors were more complicated than his ties to Elsbeth. The final beat belongs to lunch: Elsbeth hands Elliott a tuna fish sandwich from the Massapequa Diner, the place his mother's famous sandwiches actually came from.

The case turns on a book. Elliott's habit of licking his thumb to turn pages — the same gesture Elsbeth catches herself making with a dog poop bag — leaves his DNA on Barney's rare copy of Howards End, a volume Barney had taken out of his safety deposit box only that day. That places Elliott in the bookstore on the night of the murder, and it lands on top of everything else: the Marty Roper name tracking Barney Corman, the Edgar Bishop avatar, and the manuscript he burned when Elsbeth asked about it, which set off his own smoke alarm. The man who wrote a murder into his novel gets caught by the physical trace of how he reads.

The personal ending runs alongside: Alec Bloom wins the election, and Elsbeth breaks up with him. Her reason is specific — she cannot forget that he lied to her face, and more than that, that she was unable to tell he was lying, which is not like her. She cannot know when he is telling the truth, so she ends it even as he wins.

Unresolved within the episode: whether Wagner was passed over for commissioner because of Elsbeth's breakup with Alec. Marissa tells him the factors were more complicated than that, but the episode does not settle the question of the timing.