Mistério das Palavras Cruzadas: Segredos Mortais

Lacey Chabert the crossword puzzle editor and creator of the crossword puzzles of a fictional NYC newspaper despite homicide detective Brennan Elliott's best efforts to keep her out is invaluable in his latest case.

The murder Elliott is looking to solve is that of Kyle Buchanan a friend of Chabert's aunt Barbara Niven. No way she's keeping out of this.

The late Mr. Buchanan a writer was working on a book about code names for World War 2 operations from all countries. Chabert figures out his code expertise is what got him into a modern treasure hunt.

Her work at creating crossword puzzles makes her a natural codebreaker. It's the cops who are having trouble keeping up with her.

Nice story with a bit of a surprise in the end.

This is supposed to be set in New York City, but a cab had a white Ontario license plate. It's filmed in Toronto.

The cars being used by the people involved in the scenes had NY plates.

Guess they forgot to change the cab.

On a different note, Brennan's hair looks better in this second installment than as short as it was in the first one. I also like that he's not dressed in a suit and tie, but is dressed more casually.

Lacey's hair is better, too. They got rid of those long extensions.

Too bad they killed off Harris in the first one, though. He was a good actor.

Lyle (Kyle Buchanan), the victim, seemed to have everything going for him when he met with Tess days before his murder. A recently tenured history professor, he was getting ready to propose to his girlfriend, Abby, via crossword puzzle when he came in deadly contact with a ceramic knife. Suspicion turns to her because she's a chef and has whole sets of cutlery with which to kill people.

But she's not the only suspect - there's a few of them in this smoothly-plotted mystery that benefits a lot from the two leads, their chemistry adds to this rather fetching addition to a great series. Love how the lead duo bump into a each other and Brennan asks her what she's doing and that she shouldn't investigate. You would have thought by now he would just allow to do what wants - after all she helped solve the other cases.

This is my first dip into Hallmark Mysteries.

I was familiar with Lacy Chabert from somewhere, but not Brennan Elliott.

Given the acting role resumes for both Lacy and Brennan, I would expect them to work together well, and they do. They are believable as a pair who respect and exasperate each other.

And with the overused plot device of the professional male detective versus the intuitive and spunky female amateur, Brennan and Lacy so far make it work better than many other mystery shows.

Of the two Crossword Mysteries I have watched so far--"A Puzzle to Die For" and "Proposing Murder"--I would rate "Proposing Murder" higher. I found it slightly more believable, and more "puzzling".

As someone who enjoys working crossword puzzles myself, I like the conceit that Tess could transfer her skill in creating crossword puzzles into solving crime. I smiled at the end of this episode, when Tess teasingly asks Logan, "So, are we a team yet?"

Cruciverbalist Tess Harper (Lacey Chabert) and police friend Logan (Brennan Elliott) team up to work on another murder mystery, this one involving a puzzle fan who has Tess work his proposal of marriage into her daily crossword.

The chemistry between Chabert and Elliott is always strong. Again, he tries to keep her away from his case, but she is too interested and too valuable, just like an Aurora Teagarden mystery. The two sleuths work the case from different angles, occasionally crossing paths to share clues.

A surfeit of suspects and a raft of red herrings keep the detecting duo guessing until the very end. Meanwhile, the dueling dicks keep any mutual attraction on the back burner, where it can smolderappropriately.