The Novel Murders

Only the most peripheral connections to Lori Loughlin's antiquing business are involved in this Garage Sale Mystery. She delivers an item that this most reclusive man bought at her store and finds him dead.

Possibly this film should have been part of the librarian Aurora Teagarden series given her connections and book knowledge. But Loughlin recognizes the method as belonging to an Agatha Christie story. A clue left point to another man, than he's murdered by a method that Arthur Conan Doyle used in one of his Sherlock Holmes stories.

Go to a Holmes aficionado and he's later murdered with a method used in a Mary Roberts Rhinehart novel. Takes a while a Loughlin solves it, but she nearly becomes a fourth victim. If she hadn't who knows how many this killer might have racked up?

Two side plots not normal in a Hallmark mystery are in this one. One involves husband Steve Bacic and son Connor Stanhope trying a little father&son camping for bonding. The second is Loughlin's BFF Sarah Strange exposing a bunco racket involving a fortune teller.

Nice, but really should have been a Teagarden story.

Who doesn't love a good mystery murder film? Well, multiply this mystery murder film by a count of three (3), and then add the four (4) Shannon family members, another host of unusual murder suspects, Jennifer Shannon's (Lori Loughlin) good friend and lead detective Frank Lynwood (Kevin O'Grady) and voila', we have another excellent addition in the Garage Sale Mystery series.

Again, I did not figure out who the murderer was until after our amateur sleuth, Jennifer Shannon outlined for us the audience who the perpetrator was and what was their motive.

Ahhhh, I love a good mystery and this one was above par. Add the entire Shannon family into the mix and you have a family film sure to entire your clan as well.

I give this particular episode a strong 9 out of 10 rating

I still love this series in spite of the corrupt Lori Loughlin. I actually still find her perfect for the role much to my annoyance.

There are still many I haven't seen but I prefer when she's finding dead bodies at garage sales or in old houses she's checking out for antiques. This one felt more like an Aurora Teagarden mystery I saw where the murderer was copying real murders. Lori even delivered lines like Aurora's character would have.

I liked the camping subplot with father and son and it gave me a chance to get a little more used to the new actor playing their son, Logan.

It seemed a little slow and not as exciting as usual. But still enjoyable.

This script is similar to one in the Amanda Teagarden series, where someone is killing people by recreating famous cases.

In this one, someone is killing people by recreating fictional murder cases.

When Jennifer (Lori Laughlin) delivers something from her store to an elderly man, she finds him dead, and his death brings to mind something she read. Then the next murder happens.

I have to say, while none of these Hallmark mystery movies are fabulous, I like this series the best. I like the fact that Jennifer and her partner have an antique/collectibles store and we get to see and hear about the merchandise. I like the warmth exuded by Jennifer and her family.

The stories...well, this one has a few suspects, and it's not cloying like some of the Hallmark Christmas shows. (Someone told my sister how much she loved the Hallmark Christmas shows, so my sister decided that's how she would spend the Christmas season. She watched one and that was it.)

It also doesn't have the hyper energy of Candace Cameron Bure, who plays Amanda Teagarden. I watch anything that says "mystery" on it. This is enjoyable.

7.3 stars.

Almost as good as the previous one, but lacking only in the area of how I felt once it was over. I think the story itself is more elaborate and the characters are much more interesting, but something about the presentation, maybe the timing and even some of the acting was more mundane. There are so many nuances to these mystery series on Hallmark, they are all so similar. Once in a while there is a standout amongst the crowd. 'Mystery 101' for example, almost every episode is extremely entertaining and almost riveting. 'Garage Sale' is more akin to an older style of mystery show, not as engaging, more lighthearted and less serious. The mystery went off without a hitch, although I think we all knew who the antagonist was, we just didn't want to admit it to ourselves...