“We Should Hire You.” “You Can’t Afford Me.”
It appears we’ve reached the final Hallmark Mystery movie of 2024. How do I know? The only ads we got during this movie were for Christmas movies, which start this weekend. After all, it is mid-October. Anyway, Hallmark ended their mystery movies for the year with a bang with Forbidden Fruit, the newest Curious Caterer Mystery.
Caterer Goldy Berry (Nikki Deloach) and Detective Tom Schultz (Andrew W. Walker) are finally going to have their first date. Tom has managed to get tickets to a reunion concert of The Faithful. Goldy loved the band, but they haven’t played since one of their members died 20 years ago. However, it becomes a working date for Goldy when she accepts a last-minute job to cater for the band before their one night only concert.
Then, it becomes a working date for Tom when one of the members is electrocuted on stage just as he’s about to sing. His gut is telling him that it was murder, but all the evidence points to accident. That is until something else happens. Will Goldy’s knowledge of the band help Tom solve the case?
This is a solid mystery. There are enough twists and red herrings that it kept me guessing until near the end. Once Goldy and Tom figured it out, everything made sense.
And yes, they did figure it out together. I love how the writers have made them a team in crime solving. Yes, Goldy gets away with a lot she wouldn’t in real life, but I’m okay with that. There are only so many times we have hear “stay out of the case” before it gets old. Tom respects her skills as a detective, and she also respects him. They also get some help from some very surprising sources, and that just added to the fun.
And fun really was the key word. I enjoyed this movie the entire way through. It helped that the subplot of Goldy and Tom’s first date attempts was amusing. The two leads have such great chemistry; it’s a delight to see them together.
The writing and acting were both good in this movie, with minimal low budget cheese. And the humor in the movie felt natural. It was fun to see Sarah Strange from the Garage Sale Mysteries franchise show up here in a substantial role.
I’m glad the Curious Caterer franchise seems to be doing well, and I hope they continue to give us more movies with these characters. If you enjoy these films as much as I do, you’ll enjoy Forbidden Fruit.
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