Gourmet Detective: A Healthy Place to Die

The Gourmet Detective mysteries are, so far, pretty good, and better than the other Hallmark series.

This time, Maggie (Brooke Burns) is due for a vacation, so her boss sends her off with Henry (Dylan Neal) to a fabulous spa where a food conference is being held, and Henry is speaking.

Henry sees someone dead in the pool, but by the time he alerts Maggie and they go to the location, the body is gone. And a hated journalist, Kathleen (Lisa Marie DiGiacinto) who showed up uninvited is missing. Several people wanted her gone -- a film star, her agent, a man whose marriage she ruined - it's a long list.

It takes a while for the body to re-appear, but it does, and Maggie and Henry find themselves investigating another murder.

Granted the sparring between the two leads is not as acidic this time around, but I still am having trouble with the Brooke Burns character. She has a real edge and as far as I'm concerned, she's not warming up the camera. It's possible as the series goes on, the two will find their rhythm.

I like the chemistry between the two leads. They're fun to watch. And the mystery wasn't lacking in suspects.

During the climactic scene, the music sounds like a track in Bourne Supremacy.

Our gourmet cook detective Dylan Neal has been invited to go to a posh health spa where some of San Francisco's best appetites are hanging out to give a lecture and a cooking demonstration. At the same time his favorite homicide detective Brooke Burns has been ordered on vacation as she is accumulating way too many vacation days. We civil servants know what that is like to be in a use or lose situation.

But it turns into a working vacation as bottom feeding investigative reporter Lisa Marie Giaquinto goes missing and about halfway through the film is found by our vacationing sleuths.

Of course there's a lot of suspects that come with a lot of enemies, a few who are staying at the spa.

This was an enjoyable story, did not guess the perpetrator at all.

Okay, so "A Healthy Place to Die" was in fact better than the initial film "The Gourmet Detective" in this franchise collection mainly because of the refreshing acting of Dylan Neal who plays amateur sleuth and gourmet guru Henry Ross. Now Henry's real motive for engaging in solving murders is because he is attracted to the lead San Francisco homicide detective Maggie Price, played by actress Brooke Burns.

As in the premier film of this franchise the affectionate bantering between Henry Ross and Detective Maggie Price continues as Henry relinquishes his penthouse suite to Maggie if she agrees to attend a cooking convention that he will be the lead presenter at the convention.

I found that the cat and mouse love attraction between Henry making goo goo eyes at Maggie, and Maggie's obnoxious and negative hissing at Henry's affectionate on towards dragged on much longer than needed until finally a reporter winds up dead in the hotel pool which finally leads these two reluctant partners to commence their whodunit investigation.

I will rate this film slightly higher that the premier film in this franchise collection and as the romantic sparks continue between Henry and Maggie maybe by the third film Maggie may just pull a rock star Rod Stewart and "Wake Up Maggie" he really just wants to talk to you!

I give A Healthy Place to Die a 5 out of 10 rating

I thought this installment was a bit better than the first one. However, and I meant to put this in the review for the first movie and forgot, Maggie is shockingly inadequate at wisely going into situations and protecting herself. She doesn't watch her surroundings or seem to have ANY fighting skills. SMH.