"I'd really like your help and advice on this murder mystery," said no cop ever in real life. But in every Hallmark mystery there's are more than a couple of conversations between the police officer (or a retired cop) and the cute, vivacious, perfectly coiffed lady detective, who, carefully following in the pattern of Jessica Fletcher and Miss Marple before her, assumes that she's indispensible to the case. The words,"Back off", or "Not your job", or "OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE" seem to mean nothing. Those crazy bureaucratic (trained, armed, experienced) cops - what do they know - even the good-looking ones? She'll show them, Bud! 'Cause gosh, he'll rescue her at the end, just when the real killer has pulled the gun! Or the knife!
Ok, that being said, these Mystery 101 mysteries (this is for the four current ones) are some of the best of the Hallmark Mysteries. The two leads do actually try to solve the mystery, after the obligatory conversation noted above. I've guessed the villain in several but it's not obvious, and the misdirections and red herrings are well done. It's as Hallmark-y as all getout (partly a commercial for beautiful Canada, fine with me, no PDAs, lots of unrequited "like") but the mysteries are good, and I actually enjoy Jill Wagner's lecturettes about crime fiction. The rest of the cast a good job with the somewhat predictable lines they're given.