Death of a Poppy
Whilst Aurora (Candace Cameron Bure - A Shoe Addict's Christmas) is struggling to deal with Martin returning to full active service with the CIA, and so no longer is in town, she is over the moon to hear all about her friend, Poppy's (Jordana Largy), blossoming video blog and possible book deal. But when Poppy doesn't show up at a major town event to honour various heroes, Aurora and Sally (Lexa Doig) head to the apartment she is renting only to find her dead having been murdered. As detective Arthur Smith (Peter Benson - Falling for Vermont) starts his investigation Aurora can't resist also snooping with the help of her crime novel loving friends, especially Sally who stole evidence from the scene as it would incriminate her friend Lizzy (Julia Benson - A Bramble House Christmas).
"Reap What You Sew: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery" is what I would call a modern day Agatha Christie which is made for a TV movie loving audience. What that means is we have a crime, the murder of a family friend, we have the local detective trying to investigate the crime and then Aurora and her friends doing their own investigating and comically causing issues in doing so. But like with an Agatha Christie novel we meet a variety of people who all act in a way which will make us suspicious and question whether they could be the killer, especially as motives start to appear. And like with any good murder mystery we have red herrings and misdirects all which work well enough for those who are fans of TV movies.
But of course these Hallmark movies are not just about the murder mystery but also the characters and in a way this is where "Reap What You Sew: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery" struggles. It isn't that "Reap What You Sew: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery" doesn't have entertaining characters, and they certainly are well played with Peter Benson shining as Arthur Smith. But the trouble is that this time there is little in the way of development and personal growth for the central characters and as such it feels like it is lacking some thing. It almmost feels like we have come to the end of the line for this series of movies as we are now to familiar with the main characters.
What this all boils down to is that fans of these Hallmark murder mystery movies will enjoy "Reap What You Sew: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery" because it delivers that light hearted murder mystery, amateur detective entertainment. But for me this one lacks a little bit when it comes to the returning character's development.
Tags: TV Mystery Movie Crime Solvers
