Murder, She Baked: A Plum Pudding Mystery

I learned something, plum pudding doesn't usually contain plums!

These "Murder, She Baked" series of movies will never be mistaken for great movies but they are entertaining, partly because they have to be complete by 85 minutes so there isn't any dragging.

Plus Alison Sweeney, who plays baker Hannah Swensen, is very attractive and very personable. As in the others there is a murder mystery to be solved but that never really takes the focus off the real meat of these movies. Whether Hannah will end up with Mike the Cop or with Norman the Dentist.

Her mother and sister are suitably annoying, it helps the story line move forward, they are OK in small doses.

We found a set of two DVDs at our public library that contains five of the "Murder, She Baked" movies. We are watching all of them at home.

We watched this out of desperation during COVID-19 lockdown! What a dreary offering! All the characters were equally annoying in their roles! The actress playing the mother was particularly painful! Inane lines, silly situations, nothing really seemed worth caring about! Very disappointed we gave it our attention.

I love the Murder She Baked cosy mystery series on Hallmark. The cast is really tight, the dialogue is smart and funny, and the mysteries are pretty good. Alison Sweeney plays Hannah Swenson...small town baker and part time mystery sleuth. She is the owner of The Cookie Jar, which is providing cookies for the Crazy Elf Tree Lot. In this, the second entry the flames are fanned with her two romantic rivals the handsome and unpredictable detective, Mike and the dependable dentist, Norman. There is some comedy as both men show up at the tree lot buying Hannah a tree. Comedy is had, as one tree is donated to charity and the other the two men attach to Hannah's car. There is some great banter with both mother and sister, as each tries to put their romantic choice forward as the obvious candidate for Hannah. But this is a murder mystery, and post a date with our dentist, Hannah arrives at the tree lot to pick up her check for the cookies. Together Hannah and Norman find the owner's dead body. Mike tries but fails to keep Hannah out of this investigation.

Fun cosy mystery that has a bit of a Christmas theme with cookies and plum pudding. A must watch in the Murder She Baked series.

Love this series and was not surprised that it was nominated for an Emmy award at some point. Hannah is so real as is the whole cast. Hope to see a lot more new programs this year. I like that Hannah can't make up her mind if she should keep trying with Mike or give up. I loved the Valentines show where Hannah chooses to spend the holiday with her mother and sister rather then spend it with Mike or Norman.

The small town of Eden Lake in rural northern Minnesota is rapidly becoming the murder capital of the stat per capita. Fortunately they have an able amateur sleuth in the person of Alison Sweeney bakery proprietor and creator of the region's best baked goods.

Other than the film is set at Christmas time and plum pudding has come down to us through Charles Dickens as a Yuletide delicacy and someone urges Sweeney to put it on the menu plum pudding really has nothing to do with the story.

But Christmas sure does. Kirby Morrow has opened a seasonal business the Elf's Christmas Yard where he sells Christmas trees. He winds up shot to death and of course it's Alison Sweeney along with town dentist Larry Hogan who finds him. After that no matter how much she's warned no keeping this woman away from a homicide she discovered.

As it turns out Morrow was one sleazy conman and a lot of people have reason not to mourn him. He's got a long estranged wife in town who hosts a radio show about romantic advice and a current fiancé who invested heavily in the business. And there are others.

I have to say in the end I felt a lot sympathy for the perpetrator. A good lawyer could get the person off.

Sweeney has been wavering between Hogan and police detective Cameron Mattison in the various Murder She Baked films. Whomever she marries I see a Lucy/Ricky like relationship with her being constantly warned you can't get into the homicide investigation.

And when she does she'll have a lot of 'splainin' to do.