"Murders have to be solved."
Hello everyone!
Okay, yes, this isn't exactly the time to talk about this particular movie installment in the Murder, She Baked series, considering it happens at Christmas time, but there's nothing to it - it's the second one that follows A Chocolate Chip Cookie Mystery.
And I'm big on chronological order, you know.
Plus there's just something about this particular series that keeps me both amused and entertained at the same time!
It might be Alison Sweeney, or it might be Cameron Mathison.
Either or, although I'll also admit that the stories and the lines running through them are also quite interesting to follow along, if you go into this simply for entertainment's sake.
Agatha Christie it will never be, but it IS something to enjoy just the same!
Murder, She Baked: A Plum Pudding Mystery is up next!
The link to the first movie can be found at the bottom of the page.
If we recap very quickly, however: Hannah, the local baker, has a knack for solving puzzles, and when her best friend gets murdered she's determined to find the culprit, which clashes with Detective Mike Kingston who comes in from another city to solve the mystery. Eventually the two of them bury the hatchet though and work sort of together to figure it out, while she's also being courted by local dentist Norman.
This is where we clock back in with her.
She's extremely busy around Christmas time - what bakery isn't, I ask you? - and she's also busy because of her two suitors.
That's right, Hannah's currently going on dates with both Norman AND Mike to determine which one of them she's eventually going to choose. I mean, me, I'm firmly in the Mike corner, though I will admit there's nothing truly going against Norman.
Anyway.
While returning from her date with Norman, Hannah has her usual stroke of luck and finds owner of the Christmas tree lot, Larry Jaeger, dead.
This of course prompts pretty much everyone around her to groan with 'not again' and 'what IS it with you and dead bodies?', but equally launches a full investigation, once again spearheaded by Mike, because who else?
Mike repeatedly tells Hannah to back off and let him do his job - he IS a detective, after all - but naturally she doesn't. She has a puzzle to solve! Like she tells Norman.
Norman tells her to stick to the safe, paper crossword puzzles, and this is a HUGE stroke against him because while the show attempts to make this his way of saying he's worried about her and just wants to keep her safe, it's also a warning sign since he's obviously not pleased with her extracurricular activities and would PROBABLY try to actually forbid her from doing them later on in their relationship.
It's an interesting contrast to what Mike does; after getting her a Christmas tree (and beating Norman by a whisker), helping her decorate it, etc., he also gives her self-defense lessons on how to disarm somebody pointing a gun at her (after recent events when this actually happened, it's kind of necessary).
See the difference there?
One guy tells her what she can't do, or shouldn't do, and the other recognizes he can't actually stop her but he still wants her safe, so he does what he can to ensure it.
Moving on.
Hannah had previously noticed some tension between the tree lot owners, and she discovers that Larry Jaeger wasn't actually as squeaky clean as he tried to make himself look. Not only did he get engaged to his current fiancée within 6 weeks of her husband's death, but he equally never actually divorced his wife!
His wife runs a successful podcast on the radio and her sobriquet is Dr. Love; she also happens to be friends with Hannah's mother, who doesn't believe the woman killed him when the police arrive to take her in for questioning, thinking her the prime suspect.
Hannah doesn't believe them either, and with further digging discovers that Larry's usual con was to get close in some sort of business, then potentially do away with the owner/CEO, and reap the benefits. This occasionally lands him in hot water, like here in Eden Lake when he gets punched by the local florist, though never quite as deep as when Mike goes deep with his investigation.
While this is all going on life at Eden Lake doesn't just stop and a fundraiser is in full swing when Norman and Mike both bid on Hannah's entry, and she eventually stops them by saying she'll reward them both (to prevent outright bloodshed since the men are getting serious!).
Mike also commends her when she brings up some video footage (though how on Earth he didn't think of it first is beyond me) and promises to tell her what they'll uncover from that, though of course he's too slow.
Hannah has already puzzled out that a surname from one of Jaeger's victims sounds familiar, and it leads her to her mother's business class teacher (who is none other than Molly from When Calls the Heart!).
See, she was one of Larry's victims, who fell for him and his con, but of course, being a con man, he left only death and destruction in his wake, so she went and killed him in revenge.
She's going to kill Hannah now, too, while she's at it, even though she regrets it, but no one can know her secret.
No one, that is, except Mike, who gets a call from Hannah as this is all going on and the police arrive just in time as Hannah attempts to disarm her would-be shooter. Mike pretty much tells her she shaved off ten years of his life, and the two of them kiss in that snowy parking lot in the heat of the moment.
Later, at Christmas dinner hosted by Hannah and her family, it's obvious that love is in the air as Norman's mother is also there with her beau, the florist who at one time was a suspect in the Jaeger murder, but so are both Norman and Mike since Hannah still hasn't made up her mind.
That's okay though, because her sister takes center-stage, announcing she and Bill (the deputy of police) are pregnant, and everybody cheers.
All's well that ends well! Tune in next week for the review of part three.
And if, like me, you're wondering when Hannah's going to pick one or the other bachelor, you'll sadly have to keep waiting some more because she can't seem to make up her mind. She does bake a mean plum pudding though.
Alison and Cameron once again put in strong performances to carry the movie through to its ending, and the supporting cast is delightful, from Barbara Niven with her slightly eccentric, overly emotional motherly character, to the murderess. Honestly, the town itself is a side character all on its own too given the atmosphere, and it's obvious that at some point soon, despite all the murder mysteries, Hannah's going to have to make a choice.
Too bad she seems no closer than at the start!
But let's reserve judgement. Tune in next week!
xx
*images and video not mine
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