Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Garage Sale Mystery: Guilty Until Proved Innocent is a cut above the usual Hallmark mysteries. This series has antiques and collectibles, and often information about them, which makes it fun. It also sports a likable cast, mostly Canadian and starring Lori Loughlin.

In this film, Jennifer (Loughlin) is offered some antiques and collectibles by a friend to sell in her shop. While in a barn that holds some of the antiques, she sees that there is an entrance to a basement.

There, she discovers the body of her friends ex-fiancé, who allegedly left her for another woman. Turns out he didn't. Her friend is ultimately arrested, and Jennifer is determined to get her out of prison.

Jennifer discovers some interesting information about baseball cards besides going to the health club where the fiancé hung out and locating the woman he was supposedly leaving her friend for.

Okay story, easy to figure out, good for a rainy afternoon.

Typically with any of the films in the Garage Sale Mystery series the audience gets involved in the whodunit mystery and there are a number of potential suspects. We usually get a few side stories that include Jennifer Shannon's (Lori Loughlin) business partner, Danielle (Sarah Strange), and one or more of Jennifer's immediate family. This particular episode was no different.

Danielle is propositioned with a new job offer to manage a prestigious art gallery and potentially meet a few wealthy and single men in the art gallery. Danielle is even advised her new job would entail her making periodic trips to Paris France which is very appealing to Danielle. As for Jennifer's family, her son Logan (Connor Stanhope) is facing his own internal dilemma as two of his video playing buddies have developed a scheme to hack into their high schools computer system to upgrade their semester grades and he needs to decide if this is both ethical and practical.

In the meantime Jennifer is approached by an old college friend named Sandra Chambers (Kirsten Robek) who has been estranged from Jennifer for approximately 10 years. Sandra provides Jennifer with an offer she cannot turn down which is for Jennifer to take possession of her old friend Sandra's entire store's content on consignment. In return all Sandra asks for is a 20 percent commission on everything Jennifer sells in her Rags to Riches store. Unfortunately when these two ladies go into the garage basement amongst all the fruitful antique finds they also discover the dead body of Sandra's old boyfriend who Sandra had thought her old boyfriend had just up and disappeared a year or so ago on her without an explanation. Now Sandra and Jennifer have solved the mystery why Sandra's boyfriend completely disappeared, it was because he was murdered.

So Jennifer takes it upon herself to try and solve this mysterious murder. I just felt that this particular episode was weak as far as a the list of potential suspects, and Danielle's decision whether to leave Rags to Riches for a better paying job, and her son's decision whether to proceed with a computer hack were all very weak plots.

As usual, Lori Loughlin is quite charming as the amateur sleuth. I just felt that the writers could have put in a lot more effort to provide a more in depth plot, rather than the weak story line this episode provided. Thus the 5 out of 10 rating. I guess as with any garage sale there are some hits and misses.

6/10 - captivating mystery will hold your interest and keep you guessing

This mystery was written a bit differently than the others, whereas Jennifer was trying to prove her friend's innocence in a seemingly dead end mystery. Worth the watch!

7.4 stars.

This is the best one of the bunch so far (of the first 5 installments). I feel they are improving as they go, this one being far better than the previous one in my opinion. The idea of the hidden basement and all the relics is just very exciting to me, almost like they stumble upon a room full of treasures. The whodunnit aspect of the story is a stretch and not very interesting, so that detracts from the overall thrill of the adventure. The family and friend storyline is as fun and entertaining as ever. If you don't watch these for the mystery, just enjoy the family side of it. That is one major facet of 'Garage Sale Mysteries' that exceeds most other Hallmark mystery series, because the family in these is very endearing and down to earth, and very well developed.