A Talent for Murder (1983) on Netflix

Plot summary

Anne Royce McClain writes bestselling murder mysteries from a mansion on her New York estate, its walls hung with art she has collected and its shelves with her own first editions. She gets around in a motorized wheelchair, drinks cognac, and flicks lit cigarillos into wastebaskets, setting off the smoke alarm. Her granddaughter Pamela, hurt in the crash that killed her parents, lives there too, as does Rashi, her Rajasthani factotum, on parole, who installs the alarms. For Anne's sixty-fourth birthday the family gathers, joined by Dr. Anthony Wainwright, a friend and former lover from Paris, and Anne tells him an Edgar award is coming for her newest book. With some guests away at a concert, the two hear that Anne's daughter-in-law Sheila plans to seize the estate through Anne's son Lawrence, and Anne records what is said.