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6/10 - good second installment in the new Hallmark series

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?"

It wasn't quite as good as the pilot film, of course. But, as I stated elsewhere, first sequels rarely equal the first film. In this case, the only minor flaw is that the true culprit becomes pretty obvious early on. For anyone who's spent the last twenty years watching MURDER SHE WROTE re-runs, anyway!

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.

I enjoyed movie as I do all the Hallmark Mysteries. The only thing that seemed odd to me was the murder victims mother wasn't the least bit upset that her son had just been murdered👎