A Shannon Hughes Murder Mystery
Contractor Shannon Hughes (Jewel Kilcher - Ring of Fire) has just finished renovating her friend, Jennifer's (Erin Karpluk - Christmas Lodge), guest house and has met Mackintyre Sullivan (Colin Ferguson - Every Christmas Has a Story), a writer, who after an awkward first meeting wants her to renovate the old estate he has just bought. But happiness turns to sadness when she goes to see Jennifer's father, Jesse (Ken Tremblett), only to find him dead. Whilst the local Chief of police thinks it is a case of accidental death following a fall Shannon is more suspicious as various things to do with the house don't add up. Unable to let it go Shannon starts her own investigation as she fears others she know will be killed, but in doing so puts herself in danger.
I am sure there will be those who watch "Framed for Murder: A Fixer Upper Mystery" having read the book which it is adapted from and I hope enjoy seeing the story come to life. For me though what I felt when I sat down to watch "Framed for Murder: A Fixer Upper Mystery" was that Hallmark Movies & Mysteries had found another occupation to build an amateur crime sleuth franchise around having already done book shop owners, bakers and garage sale experts. As such if you have enjoyed the "Garage Sale Mystery", "Aurora Teagarden Mystery" as well as the "Mystery Women" movies you are probably going to enjoy this as it works in a very similar way.
Now to be honest I enjoyed "Framed for Murder: A Fixer Upper Mystery" as whilst these types of movies always feature a strong business woman they have always had the sort of jobs which are traditional such as book shop owner or baker but here we have a woman who renovates buildings and is handy when it comes to changing tyres. But beyond that one enjoyable change the rest of the movie is typical and so on one hand we have Shannon getting herself in to danger whilst going all Nancy Drew whilst on the other she also finds herself becoming close to Mac. Yes there is some motivation to why Shannon is turning amateur detective but you can also take a good stab as to who the killer is within the first half of the movie.
Of course there is also the small matter of Jewel Kilcher who does a nice job of playing Shannon as feminine but also a bit of a tomboy, attractive but tough and it certainly makes for an entertaining character. But Kilcher benefits from having Colin Ferguson alongside her as well as Erin Karpluk who round out the characters nicely so that it isn't just the Jewel Kilcher show.
What this all boils down to is that "Framed for Murder: A Fixer Upper Mystery" is a nice addition to the growing number of made for TV amateur detective movies and is certainly good enough to warrant a follow up movie. But at the same time it is an amateur detective movie which sticks close to the Hallmark Murder & Mystery formula, well if you ignore a scene in there to showcase Kilcher's wonderful singing talents which to be honest was not needed.
Tags: TV Mystery Movie Crime Solvers
