Samantha Kinsey is trying to organise a book signing for notoriously difficult mystery writer Donald Frisk and just about convinces him to do it, despite walking in on a major bust up between him and his ex-wife and manager Jody. Meanwhile an old school acquaintance of Sam's (Randy) turns up at the bookshop trying to get her to sell his new mystery computer game in her store (a trial of it sees Cassie hooked!). The signing goes ahead no thanks to Randy's supposed connections with Donald, but a mention of the video game and some poorly balanced food trays bring it to an end. The next day Sam goes to see Donald at his home but finds him dead with Randy standing over the body. She sticks up for him as he claims he just found him as well, but soon lies and mystery abound.
A slightly older entry in the Mystery Woman series of films but we still find that Samantha is struggling with the gypsy curse that sees her bringing death to any new people she meets. In this case it is an old classmate and the family of author Donald Frisk, who is dead quicker than you can say "recognisable guest star". Perhaps it is the modern hook of having a video game (albeit a dated one) as one of the plot devices but this seems to be slightly less pedestrian film from this series and, dare I say, it was actually a little more enjoyable than normal? This is not to say that it is pacey or that strong as a film but it does the job for the those that find the series more or less OK, although it is still not good enough to bring in new viewers. The music is the same terrible mood music that is trying to be atmospheric but ends up just being like the wallpaper music they play in elevators. The direction is a bit better as Cass seems to want to move the camera around a little bit and have fewer boring, well-lit static shots (although this isn't Scorsese). Martin is lively as normal but her performance is still very much of a muchness. Siemaszko is again handed a thankless supporting character that doesn't fit and she adds little; just once I'd like to see her handed some comedy or mystery of her own to work with. Williams is stiff and lethargic, while Sander is yet again directed to act like a bear with a sore head and does only that. Katt is an OK guest star and reminds us that the target audience for this is viewers who watch Jane Doe, Perry Mason and so on. Elman, Mills, Wilson and others are all par for the course and do what the material deserves.
Overall then an enjoyable entry in the series but it does require you to like the Mystery Woman films because even a good one isn't much more than the average standard of Hallmark TV movies. Livelier than some of the weaker entries from MW recently though.
