Francesca Quinn, PI

I never wrote a review on IMDB before, but then, I've never watched a Hallmark channel movie that I spent more time on my computer looking at baseball scores, than time watching the movie. I liked Dylan Bruce in "A Novel Romance" and "The Christmas Promise" and Mallory Jansen in "On The 12th Date of Christmas" but if they make this movie into a series, I'll find something else to watch. I read on other comments, that Mystery 101 is cancelled, and possibly Aurora Teagarden too. If that's the case, there are lots of other channels for me to watch, including some without commercials, because I have never lost interest in a Hallmark movie as easily as I did on this one!

We had high hopes for this new mystery, but somehow it just never quite got past Ho-hum. The actors all seemed to be reciting their lines, without putting life in to their characters. The pace and story were oddly put together, the background music reminded me of B movies from the 1950's, and I'm not certain my husband and I would watch another movie in this series. Compared to the ones that are no longer produced, such as Hailey Dean, The Gourmet Detective, or McBride, this lacked warmth, charm, and a sense of connection to the audience. My husband picked out the killer fairly early. I stopped caring fairly early.

First, this movie is SUCH an improvement over"Cut, Color, Murder", and "The Curious Caterer "!!!

I think that it is a teaser for the solving of Travis and Amy's cliffhanger, and I'll bet a lot of Mystery 101 fans do as well.

The script's author has authored the 101 series too.

There's a strong father-daughter bond, a solid friendship between the father of the female lead, and the detective, and now a dead fiance.

Mallory Jansen and Dylan Bruce play their characters well enough, but the chemistry is not as strong as it is between Travis and Amy in Mystery 101.

Mallory's emotions and Dylan's don't seem to click as well. Maybe it's the line delivery.

This is an ok movie to watch more than once. There are lots of twists and nuances to revisit, although the way the background story is told tends to be a bit confusing.

Overall, while there are obvious teasers and parallels to Mystery 101, it can not vie as a replacement for, or take the place of, Mystery 101 as the top HMM Signature Movie Series/Franchise.

Hope Hallmark figures that out!

This was a bit boring and also fairly convoluted. I can't believe they cancelled Mystery 101, Matchmaker Mysteries and Ruby Herring for something like this, that felt a little bit more like a Lifetime movie than a Hallmark mystery movie. There was plenty of melodrama along the way in this. Amy Groening.was a definite bright spot in this movie, as limited as her role was, she was fun to watch while she lasted. Anyways, this movie got so boring at one point that I began hoping that the main protagonist would turn out to be the killer. Rather that turned out to be the case or not, I will not say.

We generally like Hallmark movies. I even use the Hallmark Movie Checklist app to keep up with new productions because we enjoy the Christmas movies and series like Mystery 101, the Martha's Vineyard movies, and Signed, Sealed, and Delivered. But this one is truly bad.

I sympathize with the poor actors who have to make the best of the bad writing but even then, other than the main protagonists, the acting is flat to downright poor.

The story itself is like a bad soap opera and the dialogue is worse.

I don't think the actors were miscast. With better writing they are very fine actors, as evidenced by their performances in other Hallnark productions.

I really hope they don't plan on making any sequels. We certainly won't be watching them in this household.