Movie Review: Heist and Seek - An Aurora Teagarden Mystery

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Fun, solid mystery

Cons: Too many actors look similar; light dose of cheese

The Bottom Line:

Necklace is stolen

With murder soon to follow

Fun, creative film

Stealing from a Fundraiser

I miss the days when a mystery could be about something other than murder.  You know, the mysteries you read as a kid that involved theft and counterfeiting and other crimes.  While murder does appear in Heist and Seek, the new Aurora Teagarden movie from Hallmark Movies and Mysteries, the key to solving the murders is solving a theft.

The library where Aurora (Candace Cameron Bure) works is holding their annual fundraiser, and it is promising to be their best one yet.  They are borrowing some artifacts from a nearby museum that proport to have been given to Queen Elizabeth I.  Naturally, security is tight, with Lynn and Arthur Miller (Miranda Frigon and Peter Benson) on hand to help make sure nothing happens.

However, when the curtain is pulled back for the big revel, the crown is missing.  A search of the people at the event turns up empty, but the cameras caught a suspect.  When that suspect is shot before he can be questioned, it is a race to figure out who else was involved in the crime.  Will Aurora figure it out?

Of course, there are several people with had motive, so it is a matter of figuring out which of them had the opportunity and actually committed the crime.  The plot does a wonderful job of teasing us answers, confusing us, but ultimately leading to the logical conclusion.

Meanwhile, Nick (Niall Matter) is trying to find the right time to propose to Aurora.  This was a completely predictable sub-plot, but every scene that involved it left me smiling.  It was so much fun watching it all played out.

I’ve seen some complaints about the casting of this movie, and I would tend to agree.  Many of the guys looked too similar, so it was hard to tell them apart the instant they walked on the screen.  Fortunately, there were usually clues early in the scene so we could figure out which characters these were, but it would be nice if they found some different types for the next movie.

This isn’t a knock on the cast – they are all fine.  There is a bit of Hallmark cheese in the film, but it is a mild dose, and won’t bother fans of the franchise at all.

This movie was fun from start to finish.  Light, fun entertainment is perfect for right now, so be sure to check out Heist and Seek.