Movie Review: Garage Sale Mystery - The Mask Murder

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Strong mystery, continuity with supporting characters

Cons: Normal cheese, mask tie in weak

The Bottom Line:

Jen returns for a

Storage unit murder that

Will entertain fans

“These Are Death Masks.”  “That’s Not Creepy at All.” 

Storage lockers make great set ups for mysteries since you never know what you will find inside them, and a dead body is very easy to hide in them.  So, I’m not that surprised that it was the set up for The Mask Murder, this week’s new entry in Hallmark’s Garage Sale Mystery movie franchise.

Jen (Lori Loughlin) and Dani (Sarah Strange) are heading to a storage locker auction hoping to score some bargains for their store, Rags to Riches.  They are excited when they realize just what is in the locker they win.  With dollar signs in their eyes, they begin to move stuff to their store.

When Jen goes back for the final load, the owner of the facility asks if she would be interested in another locker owned by the same person as the one she already bought.  Excited by the prospect, Jen immediately agrees to take a look at it.  However, when she raises the door, Jen finds a dead body.  The young woman was an employee of the storage facility.  What could have led to her death?

Once again, Jen is off on a mystery that contains plenty of viable suspects and twists before we reach the logical climax.  I did feel the mask tie in was a little weak, but the rest was so strong, I’m certainly not complaining.

On the sub-plot front, the rest of Jen’s family gets involved in a fund-raising competition at Hannah’s college while Dani has a chance to reconnect with an old flame, Drew (Matthew Harrison), who we actually met in one of the movies from last summer.  It was nice to see a love interest for Dani brought back.  Meanwhile, Hannah (Eva Bourne) is still dating Officer Ryan (Cory Rempel), who we met in the previous movie.  I’m hoping that both pieces of continuity actually last.  As always, it was such fun to see the characters again.

And, as always, there’s the Hallmark cheese factor.  It seemed to be worse when the sub-plots were the focus rather than the main mystery.  Still, as long as you know to expect this going into the movie, you’ll be perfectly fine.

Hallmark’s mystery movies have quickly become addictive for me, and The Mask Murder was another pleasing one.  If you are a fan, you’ll enjoy it as well.

This movie is part of the Garage Sale Mysteries Collection Four set.