Mystery 101: Words Can Kill

Words Can Kill is the fourth Hallmark mystery movie I've watched recently. In Words Can Kill, Professor Amy Winslow (Jill Wagner) is responsible for putting together a mystery writers' convention. Her father, Graham Winslow (Robin Thomas), Is set to be the star of the show. But when his previous publisher is found dead, Graham becomes a key suspect. Amy will move mountains to prove her father is innocent.

As I continue to roll through these Hallmark mysteries, they just keep getting better and better. Maybe I've gotten lucky and accidentally picked the good ones, but whatever, I'm really enjoying the movie journey I'm on. I had great fun with Words Can Kill. The plot has some nice twists and turns, culminating in a very satisfactory conclusion. This one kept me guessing right up to the end (even though I really should have spotted the killer from a mile away). The growing relationship between Amy and Detective Burke is another highlight. Jill Wagner and Kristoffer Polaha are solid. And I was impressed with Robin Thomas as Amy's father. Given a larger role in this film, he excelled.

I can't write one of these without listing a few of the problems I had with the movie. Without going into detail: several one dimensional characters, standard mystery tropes, and some iffy acting. But it's easy for me to overlook these weaknesses given how much I enjoyed the rest.

Finally, one of the things I like about these movies is how much they remind me of the mystery novels I grew up reading, with similar plots, similar pacing, and similar reveals. The movies have that mystery novel "feeling" - nothing heavy or groundbreaking, just entertainment and escape.

7/10.

Maybe the two Hallmark channels should change their names to some variation on the Fantasy channel. Oh, I love a lot of movies on the two channels, but in order to do so, more often than not, I have to suspend expectation for realism. Sometimes more than others. This movie has a little mystery but a lot of plot holes. It hurts my brain to even try to list them.

For starters, how about arresting a respected member of the community based on evidence that's planted in an unlocked car. This despite the fact he has no motive and there are easily two or three other people who have openly argued bitterly with the victim, including threats. I can just see the DA visiting Travis' office and asking him what he is thinking.

Another reviewer pointed out Amy contaminating the crime scene once but failed to point out at least one other time. Travis refuses to take Amy to the hotel room once in order to play it "by the books" and then lets her tag along every time after that. Then one of the key players "falls while rock climbing"? I never did figure out whether they were calling that a murder immediately. If not, why not? If so, why no reconstruction of the timeline to determine where Graham was at that time?

Like another reviewer, I had bets with myself early on whodunnit and as time went on kept doubling down until I was proved correct. My deduction was not based on any clues the characters had though. Those were pretty complicated.

The only thing that keeps bringing me back to this series is the combination of Jill Wagner and Kristoffer Polaha. Love them both. I think either one of them could connect with anyone opposite them but even so they are great together.

Big doings over at the college where Jill Wagner teaches, there's a College Book Festival going on and a bunch of writers are coming. But the college's own Robin Thomas is the real star of the show. He taught the class in mystery writing that his daughter Wagner teaches now.

For all these professional sleuths three murders happen during the course of the event. A stalker, a publisher, and a rival of Thomas's in many things from the old days.

There are as usual no shortage of suspects. But one of these three does not fit with the other two. Once the team of Wagner and Kristoffer Polaha figure that one out, the solution for the other two takes a quantum leap forward.

A good one for this series.

College professor Amy Winslow (Jill Wagner) enters her office when a masked person knocks her down running past her. She calls her police detective friend Travis Burke (Kristoffer Polaha) but nothing seems to be stolen. The college is hosting a book festival where her father is a key speaker although he's not happy that his hated rival had rented a booth. His police friend Phil Jenk from Reno PD arrives with a suspicious note.

The character Betsy Crane is being too broad although I do like the Phil Jenk character. He's playing both faces which makes him a good suspect. I like the Who What dichotomy which serves to put up a structure for the investigations. Hallmark mysteries can be bland. One grades on a curve sometimes. This is better than most and it's a good one from the series. It's good as a TV mystery movie.

Who can it be knocking at my door?... I am really enjoying the on-screen chemistry that they have slowly built over time between Amy and Travis. There is mutual admiration and respect that is evident between these two, not to mention trust and a burgeoning relationship. In this installment someone breaks in to Amy's College Campus Office the night before Amy and her College department host a book event that brings in Authors and publishers a like. Amy's father, Graham, is one of the featured authors and thus we delve into some blasts from his past. We get to meet, Amy's mother's former beau as well as her Dad's first publisher and the thief of his first novel...which is how we learn the origin story for his now wildly popular series about Atticus Keller. Over time, Travis has started to read more mystery novels...a little of Amy rubbing off on him, and in a humorous moment wants to know how he walks out of a book event having purchased more books than she did. As the cosy mystery genre demands there is a murder(...and in this case two!) for which Graham falls under suspicion and is arrested. This seems to cause a strain on Amy and Travis' burgeoning friendship...but thankfully resolved when together they put away the rightful killer. I really enjoy the concept of Amy's college course, wish one like that was available when I went to school at the University of Washington! I also really enjoy the mystery novel tidbits that are shared...in this one the concept of the unreliable narrator is discussed along with Agatha Christie's Murder of Roger Ackroyd, which I have subsequently added to my "to read list". (Thank you!) The mystery 101 series is fun, the mysteries are enjoyable and this is good clean entertainment