Mystères croisés : Le Manoir de tous les secrets

6/10 - pretty good and super twisty for a HMM feature

Tess Harper (Lacey Chabert) is taking magic class at The Magic Manor. She attends a show where the magician Alistair is murdered on stage. NYPD Lt. Logan O'Connor (Brennan Elliott) is assigned the case and finds that Tess is doing her own investigating again.

Hallmark is making this a mystery franchise on its channel. Chabert is a great lead to do one of these harmless murder mystery series. There are a couple of problematic issues. First, the series needs to manufacture a more compelling reason for Tess to keep getting involved in these crimes. It would be easier if she gets a column to write mysteries for the paper and she convinces Logan to be her source. Without that, she becomes Angela Lansbury serial killing across network TV and nobody has figured it out yet. Think about it. Everybody around her keeps dying and she gets the glory of solving each case. She's the killer.

The other issue is a lack of intensity. It's a matter of writing and directing. Of course, this is done on the cheap and one must excuse it to some extent. It takes a more imaginative mind to give this series some better action and thrills. Maybe it can add thrills through other means like a love triangle. It has the ingredients but it barely has a love duet. This is another aspect that desperately needs developing before this franchise can truly be successful.

The low ratings are due to anger at Hallmark promoting this like crazy and then switching at the last minute to one of their endless supply of Christmas movies. The audience for the mysteries is most likely not the same audience for the Christmas movies. Hallmark! Start a Christmas channel and keep your mysteries channel!! Have mysteries set at Christmas if you want, just give us mysteries!

The Crossword Mysteries is one of Hallmark's better mystery series. I've watched them all, love many of them, like some, tolerated some, etc etc. Here there is a really nice chemistry between the leads. Also they are both intelligent and thoughtful characters. Although all mysteries require a suspension of disbelief, this is so much less ridiculous than so many out there. In fact, in the world of mysteries, it is just about realistic. I grew up watching and reading mysteries with my Mom, so I have seen and read a ton. I really love Crossword Mysteries and look forward to the next!

Her movies are a joy to watch and fun and entertaining. Great to watch for sad days. She is so cute she just lifts my spirits to watch this series. I hope there are more.

When a famous magician drops dead in the middle of a performance, in front of a packed crowd, could this seemingly natural death actually be murder? Tess Harper (Chabert), the New York Sentinel Crosswords editor is once again teamed up with NYPD's finest detective, Logan O'Connor (Elliott). The two have to find a way to work together to uncover the challenging clues to solve this murder.

Strange how Logan repetitively tells Tess to not get involved in the case, despite the fact that she has solved the case a few times already. Does Tess listen? No- and thank goodness for that or else the case of magician's catching the bullet trick wouldn't be solved, but after the usually nosing around by Tess and Logan. It's a good mystery, boosted by the world of illusionists. Mystery and magic work hand to hand I think. Love the title!