Crossword Mysteries: Terminal Descent

Crossword puzzle maker Tess Harper (Lacey Chabert) enters a competition with a supercomputer. Its creator, tech mogul Morgan Daniels, seems to be killed by his own AI creation. Police detective Logan O'Connor leads the investigation and Tess keeps getting involved.

There isn't enough romantic chemistry between Tess and Logan. They don't spend much screen time together and they don't have heat when they do. He even has a new hot female partner. If this franchise is to continue this way, it would be more compelling to follow Tess doing the investigations all by herself. I like her going into the biker bar and I like her using her book smarts. She should become a Sherlock Holmes type character without the need of a Watson. It may be a rule that Hallmark mysteries always need to have a couple but this needs an exemption from that rule.

Tess is so irritating. Does she need to prove something, or make herself seem important? Is she competing with Logan? She wanders alone into dangerous places, playing detective. She learns important info and doesn't tell Logan, her detective friend. They went together to the hospital hoping to find out who the murder victim had been visiting, and yet when Tess later discovers that it was his former business partner, she keeps that info all to herself entirely. Nor does she tell Logan what she later learns about another potential suspect, Jessie. Tess comes across to me as nosy and needy, not a busy crossword editor who occasionally is helpful in police investigations.

On the upside, I was interested in the premise - computer versus organic brain in solving nuanced puzzles. I was also interested in the privacy invasion aspects of the government deal.

Crossword exhibition: Tess versus a super computer...or at least it was going to be until the CEO and inventor of said super computer plummets to his death in an A.I. controlled elevator at his tech company on the day Tess was checking in pre-crossword off.

Logan is called in to investigate the high profile case even though it is out of his jurisdiction.

"How do you think your friend Hammer in there got his nickname?"-Logan "He's in construction?"-Tess "Felony assault...with a hammer."-Logan

There is some great humor in this entry in the Crossword Mystery series on Hallmark. A great and timely topic in this tech heavy mystery and as usual Logan tells Tess to stay out of it. That does not prevent Tess from making friends at a motor cycle club in order to get info on a suspicious plant curator at the tech company.

Wife in the process of divorce, 20 year Cold War ex-partner, tech and CEO rival...there are plenty of suspects, but who did the deed?

"You grow on people."-Tess "Like a fungus?"-Logan

Another great hallmark mystery with the emphasis on the mystery...this is becoming a very slow burn.

"Us O'Conner men, we play things close to the vest."-Logan

This is as light as a murder mystery can get, but I think that's what most viewers of this genre want. The writers are obviously holding back in the relationship arc because they don't want to kill off the series, which is why I can't go higher than a 7 out of 10.

Lacey steals the show, even with her persistent giggle. She's perfect for this genre and her costar does well alongside her.

After volunteering to participate in a crossword solving competition with a new supercomputer, crossword puzzle editor Tess Harper finds herself swept into the investigation of the bizarre murder of a tech CEO, who heads into an elevator, speaks to it, asking for the parking garage, and the elevator actually answers him. But instead of going down, it starts ascending. As it plummets he cries out to the interactive computer programming that runs the elevator, BB, but it hits the bottom.

Death by elevator makes a change from a stabbing or poisoning. This is a decent, if a little convoluted mystery that made it hard to keep with the characters, addition to the excellent Crossword Mystery starring cutie Lacey Chabert and Brennan Elliott.