Mortelle Saint-Valentin

6/10 - good mystery that makes for a great 2 hours

These "Murder, She Baked" series of movies will never be mistaken for great movies but they are entertaining, partly because they have to be complete by 85 minutes so there isn't any dragging.

Plus Alison Sweeney, who plays baker Hannah Swensen, is very attractive and very personable. As in the others there is a murder mystery to be solved but that never really takes the focus off the real meat of these movies. Whether Hannah will end up with Mike the Cop or with Norman the Dentist.

In this one a new bakery opens up across the street and, as the movie begins, Hannah finds the lady dead in her kitchen. Based on the gunshot wound she appears to be murdered. The resolution gets a bit complicated, including the role of her twin sister (same actress plays both roles), but once again Mike finds that Hannah is helpful in solving the mystery.

As always her mother and sister are suitably annoying, it helps the story line move forward, they are OK in small doses.

We found a set of two DVDs at our public library that contains five of the "Murder, She Baked" movies. We are watching all of them at home.

This episode really develops various aspects of the triangle of Hannah, Mike and Norman. For one thing, we find out more about Mike's past, his late wife, and one of their mutual friends who also had a crush on Mike. Meanwhile, with Mike distracted by events, Norman has a chance to strengthen his relationship with Hannah.

We see the results of the murder at the start of the movie, and then there is a flashback of what leads up to it. These things take up about half the movie. Personally I hate this type of flashback. I also hate when the lead character, who is also an established upstanding citizen, is suspected of the murder. Yep, Hannah literally walks right into being a suspect.

I also hate when the protagonist ignores the law doing illegal things in the name of "helping" the investigation. Admittedly, Hannah has skirted the line on this in previous episodes, but this time ...

I have liked previous episodes of the series of movies, primarily because of Alison Sweeney. Hannah's heart is so big, it is hard not to like her. In this one, there were too many of my pet peeves, so I didn't care for it. However, many viewers without my prejudices will probably enjoy this one because there is so much going on.

In this Murder She Baked: A Peach Cobbler Mystery, Hannah Swenson's profession of baker actually comes into play as part of the plot. In this case someone opens a rival bakery across the street and it will be a war for customers in the small town of Eden Falls, Minnesota. Rumor has it that rival Michelle Harrison just imports her stuff and it's not baked on premise. But that pales when Harrison is killed and Alison Sweeney is discovered over the body. Later on the gun that killed Harrison is found in Alison's bakery.

Sweeney is as usual caught between Cameron Mattis and Gabriel Hogan, she must feel like a volleyball at times. Her mother Barbara Niven has found a little romance with Roark Critchlow a guy that seems a bit too smooth. He's also got a connection to the sister of the late bakery rival also played by Michelle Harrison.

Those shots of all the baked goods in the shop. 1000 calories just for looking at it and on television too not live.

Fans of the series won't be disappointed.

I love these books and episodes, but why is Hannah not a slightly chubby redhead, as she's described in the books?