Serialized

IMDB has this as Serialized, but on roku, it's Best Selling Murder. Desperately in need of cash after a divorce, Hannah starts publishing a murder series. And it's a hit. It's so much of a hit, that murders start happening in the same style as her own Bloody Mary Chronicles. And the victim is someone she knows! So now she's a suspect. We are offered a couple of obvious possibilities for suspects, so now it's up to us to make our best guess. We don't get clues about who the killer is like on Moidah she Wrote. Now she's dating the cop investigating her (really??), and even HE doesn't know if he can trust her. The acting, the story, and the sound quality are all sub-par, so it's listed as "TV Movie", and a 5.2 rating on imdb, as of today. We just don't like (or believe) ANY of the characters. The writer lets the ex husband walk all over her without question. The ex is a complete taker, and just wants the booty call. The best friend is always telling Hannah what to do. Directed by Michel Poulette, who has lots of film festival awards. Story by Doug Barber and James Phillips. Can skip this one... no big.

Was surprised by this! It is well-paced and fairly interesting for a TV movie. The lead actress is gorgeous and her character is likeable. The acting was pretty good as well; not over-the-top dramatic like TV movies tend to be.

Novelist Hannah Ryan (Vanessa Ray) is struggling after getting dumped by her husband for her friend and getting dropped by her publisher. She decides to change course and write a pulp crime serial for internet subscribers. Her first chapter has her character kill her publisher. When her real world former publisher gets killed in the same manner, Hannah initially becomes a suspect and her serial starts to gain success.

This Lifetime TV movie is rather bland. I like Vanessa Ray on Blue Bloods. I don't mind the premise which has some potential. The directing contributes nothing. There is little tension and the intensity flatlines. The danger doesn't seem to be directed at Hannah and she quickly stops being a suspect. There is nothing elevating the drama. It's a nice mystery but the killer makes little sense unless she's a complete non-sense psycho. That lack of logic is really unsatisfying. It skips over a much better logical suspect. This could be good in more competent hands.

Great acting. Well filmed. A solid Made for TV film in Cinema Quality.

The meta levels for this film are intelligent.

I appreciate the mystery.

This movie speaks to me in two different levels. One one hand the main character Hannah is a writer and as an aspiring novelist myself, I'm instantly interested in her. Secondly the murders here are a case of life imitating art which I fine particularly interesting when it comes to crime stories. Hannah is striking it big with her new murder web novel serial but much controversy arises once a copycat killer appears

Viewers will certainly be kept guessing trying to find the killer with all the red herrings thrown about. Admittedly the true killer didnt really get any hints and almost came from nowhere. This movie kept me fully enticed into the plot and I kinda wish it was a bit longer. The only problem had was the character of Jason . Lmn has a habit of making the male characters either controlling psychopaths or idiotic fools who only think with their penises. Jason cheated on Hannah and left her for another woman in the past and forces her to pay alimony ( I find the concept of alimony to be utterly stupid and greedy) even though she's strapped for cash . And he has the audacity to act entitled. If I was Hannah I would've wrote his death in a heart beat.

It's probably me looking too deep into things but I believe a theme of best selling murder is that murder is corruptive. Hannahs publishing company threaten to sue her, her ex husband constantly demands money from her and the killers motive is influenced by money despite being pretty well off. All in all, this was a great murder mystery.