Crossword Mysteries: Proposing Murder

Lyle (Kyle Buchanan), the victim, seemed to have everything going for him when he met with Tess days before his murder. A recently tenured history professor, he was getting ready to propose to his girlfriend, Abby, via crossword puzzle when he came in deadly contact with a ceramic knife. Suspicion turns to her because she's a chef and has whole sets of cutlery with which to kill people.

But she's not the only suspect - there's a few of them in this smoothly-plotted mystery that benefits a lot from the two leads, their chemistry adds to this rather fetching addition to a great series. Love how the lead duo bump into a each other and Brennan asks her what she's doing and that she shouldn't investigate. You would have thought by now he would just allow to do what wants - after all she helped solve the other cases.

6/10 - good second installment in the new Hallmark series

It wasn't quite as good as the pilot film, of course. But, as I stated elsewhere, first sequels rarely equal the first film. In this case, the only minor flaw is that the true culprit becomes pretty obvious early on. For anyone who's spent the last twenty years watching MURDER SHE WROTE re-runs, anyway!

I enjoyed movie as I do all the Hallmark Mysteries. The only thing that seemed odd to me was the murder victims mother wasn't the least bit upset that her son had just been murdered👎

Cruciverbalist Tess Harper (Lacey Chabert) and police friend Logan (Brennan Elliott) team up to work on another murder mystery, this one involving a puzzle fan who has Tess work his proposal of marriage into her daily crossword.

The chemistry between Chabert and Elliott is always strong. Again, he tries to keep her away from his case, but she is too interested and too valuable, just like an Aurora Teagarden mystery. The two sleuths work the case from different angles, occasionally crossing paths to share clues.

A surfeit of suspects and a raft of red herrings keep the detecting duo guessing until the very end. Meanwhile, the dueling dicks keep any mutual attraction on the back burner, where it can smolderappropriately.