Movie Review: Mystery 101 - An Education in Murder

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Strong leads, fun plot

Cons: Mystery a little too easy to solve

The Bottom Line:

Old case reopened

Fun time with these characters

Movie worth watching

Questions About a Solved Murder

With so many of my weekly TV shows on hiatus due to the current pandemic, I was thrilled to see Hallmark air new mystery movies starting this week.  An Education in Murder returned us to the world of Mystery 101, and I was glad class was back in session.

Several years ago, a murder rocked the campus where Amy (Jill Wagner) teaches. Mac (Steve Bacic) was convicted of killing Nicole (Ashley Alexander), both of them were fellow professors.  Amy never quite believed Mac did it, but she was never involved in the case.

The scandal has come back to light because Ella (Brenna O’Brien) has come to town.  She is researching a true crime book about the case and claims to have new information on it.  Amy begins to poke around as well, must to the dismay of Travis (Kristoffer Polaha).  While Travis wasn’t the detective who originally investigated the case, he doesn’t think there is any reason to reopen it.  Is he right?  Or is the wrong person in jail?

I really enjoy these characters.  Okay, so Amy, Travis, and Amy’s father were the only returning characters with any amount of serious screen time, but I still love watching them together.  They have great chemistry, and that goes double for Amy and Travis.  I got a kick out of watching their relationship in this movie.

The mystery?  Honestly, it could have been better.  I figured out what was going on early on in the movie.  That’s not always a deal killer for me, especially in a movie, and I had a lot of fun watching Amy and Travis catch up to me as they investigated the case.  And the red herrings were interesting and entertaining, which helped.

I’ve seen a couple of comments about Jill Wagner being obviously pregnant in this movie.  I don’t know what it says about me, but I wouldn’t have noticed if it weren’t for the comments.  I thought they did a good job of hiding it.  And if the choice was delaying production on this movie, I’m glad they didn’t.

The writers of this series do a good job of keeping the Hallmark cheese to a minimum.  Likewise, the acting is good, and I found it easy to get lost in the story.  Fans of the Garage Sale Mysteries will be thrilled to see Steve Bacic pop up here, although if I hadn’t recognized his name, I’m not sure I would have recognized him.

An Education in Murder is another entertaining mystery movie.  If you are looking for something like and fun to watch right now, this will be perfect for you.