Roux the Day: A Gourmet Detective Mystery

This installment had a different actor playing Bailey. He did okay but actor changes in a series messes with a shows chemistry.

I am frankly a little surprised how much I have enjoyed all five of these Gourmet Detective episodes.

It struck me as too much of a copy of the "Murder, She Baked". While I had no idea which show came first, it seemed like a bad idea to have two mystery shows, with such similar format. But I was ignoring what makes so many of these Hallmark mystery shows so enjoyable--the care taken in casting.

Dylan Neal and Brooke Burns are a terrific team. They are believable in their attraction to each other, and their care for each other. Equally they are believable in their different tastes, and their nettling of the other.

At the end of this episode, Henry's father, Jim (Bruce Boxleitner) remarks that they make a great detective team "like Holmes and Watson". Maggie humbly declines the comparison. Henry pipes in with "Beckett and Castle!"--a sweet nod to the former popular ABC detective show, that for my money, The Gourmet Detective compares very favorably to.

Poor gourmet chef Dylan Neal was really getting exasperated with his police detective bestie Brooke Burns with her constant reference to a rare chef's book of his recipe secrets as a cookbook. What's gone on the market at an auction house is one of those from a really classy San Francisco restaurant back in the day. But when our sleuths go to a rare book dealer who purchased the item, the dealer's employee is found murdered.

As in all the Gourmet Detective movies, Burns and Neal go through the Bay City's culinary scene looking for clues and culprits. A second murder happens as some folks want this book real bad.

The contents are quite interesting and here's a hint. That former classy dining spot had some interesting ingredients the chef used in some dishes.

Nicely done story, the perpetrator had quite an operation to protect.

If you don't mind gaping plot holes, Gourmet Detective movies are usually fun. The leads have good chemistry and manage some decent dialogue. The mystery is interesting. I usually find it goes back and forth with enough complexity that I don't anticipate whodunit.

Unfortunately, perhaps more than some of the Hallmark whodunits, Gourmet Detective also usually has a few too many procedural issues. Apparently the writers never heard of the fruit of the poison tree, and break-ins by one or both of the leads are fairly common. The final perilous confrontation makes no sense since the first thing out of Maggie's mouth should have been to tell the villain what the people back at the station already knew meaning there was nothing left to hide. But then that would eliminate the token drama. Plus another illegal search and why were they there alone? Like I said, ignore the plot holes and the movie is fine.

There's a sweet surprise at the end that has nothing to do with the mystery, but adds another nice element to the personal stories.

6/10 - an intriguing plot isn't as fleshed out as I would've liked, but it fits the bill for a HMM fix