Mystères croisés : Le Manoir de tous les secrets

Tess Harper (Lacey Chabert) is taking magic class at The Magic Manor. She attends a show where the magician Alistair is murdered on stage. NYPD Lt. Logan O'Connor (Brennan Elliott) is assigned the case and finds that Tess is doing her own investigating again.

Hallmark is making this a mystery franchise on its channel. Chabert is a great lead to do one of these harmless murder mystery series. There are a couple of problematic issues. First, the series needs to manufacture a more compelling reason for Tess to keep getting involved in these crimes. It would be easier if she gets a column to write mysteries for the paper and she convinces Logan to be her source. Without that, she becomes Angela Lansbury serial killing across network TV and nobody has figured it out yet. Think about it. Everybody around her keeps dying and she gets the glory of solving each case. She's the killer.

The other issue is a lack of intensity. It's a matter of writing and directing. Of course, this is done on the cheap and one must excuse it to some extent. It takes a more imaginative mind to give this series some better action and thrills. Maybe it can add thrills through other means like a love triangle. It has the ingredients but it barely has a love duet. This is another aspect that desperately needs developing before this franchise can truly be successful.

Why was the last mystery of the year not shown!? I am so tired of 3 months of the same cheesy Christmas movies when the channel clearly states it is "mysteries" I am furious they took away our last mystery for this crap. The guide said it was Abracadaver. Boo on Hallmark!

6/10 - pretty good and super twisty for a HMM feature

When a famous magician drops dead in the middle of a performance, in front of a packed crowd, could this seemingly natural death actually be murder? Tess Harper (Chabert), the New York Sentinel Crosswords editor is once again teamed up with NYPD's finest detective, Logan O'Connor (Elliott). The two have to find a way to work together to uncover the challenging clues to solve this murder.

Strange how Logan repetitively tells Tess to not get involved in the case, despite the fact that she has solved the case a few times already. Does Tess listen? No- and thank goodness for that or else the case of magician's catching the bullet trick wouldn't be solved, but after the usually nosing around by Tess and Logan. It's a good mystery, boosted by the world of illusionists. Mystery and magic work hand to hand I think. Love the title!

This one was very good, definitely my favorite! Plenty of guesswork and a couple of really great "scary" moments. Loved it!