The Wrong Man

I do like these, but not as much as Murder She Baked. I gotta concentrate on the dialogue much more in the Chronicle Mysteries plus having so many actors from the other Hallmark mysteries gets a bit confusing! However it is different to have two journalists instead of the standard Cop & Annoying Civilian format.

Bones have been found just off a hiking trail out of town. Thanks to the wedding ring found on the body, the remains are quickly identified as Tara Thurman. She's been missing for three years. A year after she went missing, her car was found. Eventually, her husband, Mike (Peter Benson), was charged with her murder, but the jury let him off back then for lack of evidence, including no body.

Now that Tara's body has been found, Mike wants to clear his name once and for all, so he turns to podcaster Alex McPherson (Alison Sweeney). After all, Alex has now solved two different cases on her show. She is reluctant to take it on at first, but she quickly agrees when she sees how much Tara's family is hurting. Will she be able to figure out what really happened to Tara? Or did the police have the right suspect all along?

Starts out well, but becomes a maze of convolutions with many twists. It's also not too exciting and is rather pedestrian. There's a good mystery in here and there's a fine twist at the end, but not very striking.

We found this 3-movie DVD at our public library, called "Chronicle Mysteries: 3-Movie Collection." Each of the three feature Alison Sweeney in the lead role as Alex McPherson. This second of the three is called "The Wrong Man".

Alex has a podcast where she focuses on various mysteries. Now about three years after her disappearance the remains of Tara were found, identified by her ring with her name engraved. While her body had never been found her husband was charged and tried but found 'not guilty.' But Tara's twin brother always stayed convinced that the husband was guilty.

In a very complicated investigation, with a large number of possible killers, finally the real killer was flushed out, and it was mostly a surprise.

This isn't a hard-hitting movie and some of the situations have a bit "low budget" look to them, but my wife and I were suitably entertained.

I like Allison Sweeney and the way her character Alex treats people meanwhile relentlessly pursuing the solution in a quiet way. I've said in reviews of the other two Chronicle Mysteries that I especially like that this amateur detective isn't reckless and she at least has some justification for getting involved. The fact that Sweeney and Benjamin Ayres, Drew, work well together is another big plus.

As in any good mystery, there are good clues and red herrings. I didn't see the outcome coming, but another reviewer did so I guess there were some clues to that end which I missed. I did think that one of the red herrings was too obvious.

Apparently Alison Sweeney's pod cast mystery debut that now she has a permanent place in the local newspaper. Benjamin Ayres and Dave Collette are back once again to lend able assistance and to help with the morgue files of their newspaper.

This episode opens with the discovery of the body of a woman who had disappeared for two years and whose remains are found in a national forest in the western Pennsylvania region. She had already been declared legally dead and her husband was tried and acquitted. The prosecutor made a rush to judgment and the acquittal was due to the lack of evidence. A body would have helped.

It's the acquitted husband Peter Benson who asks that Sweeney use her pod cast to find the real killer. By the way his acquittal did not mean he was innocent.

All kinds of suspects and all kinds of motives are given for the woman was murdered. It turns out it was for one of the oldest of motives out there.

This one is nicely done though I kind of guessed who did it about halfway through.