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Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Movie Review: Honeymoon, Honeymurder - An Aurora Teagarden Mystery

Stars: 4 out of 5
Pros: Enjoyable mystery with most of the characters we love
Cons: A few niggles with the climax
The Bottom Line:
Delayed honeymoon
A body floating in lake
Another fun case




“Only You Could Have Stumbled on a Body on Your Honeymoon.”

When you are a cozy mystery sleuth, it’s pretty much a given that you will have a murder to solve surrounding your wedding.  However, the cozy universe usually gives you your honeymoon off.  Sadly for Aurora Teagarden Miller, she became the rare exception.  That’s good news for us since Honeymoon, Honeymurder was an enjoyable movie.

Aurora (Candace Cameron Bure) and her new husband Nick (Niall Matter) had plans to go to Paris for their honeymoon, but their flight is cancelled due to a heavy fog.  While a few days extra on their hands, they accept an offer of a cabin at nearby Ridge Bay for a pre-honeymoon.  Even though they are only half an hour from home, they are really out in nature to the point that cell reception is spotty at best.

Their first full day away, they rent a boat, but their plans for a picnic lunch are spoiled when they find the dead body of Cliff Minton.  Naturally, Aurora is curious about what happened to him, and she quickly finds some connections to investigate.  Will she figure out what happened to him?

Since Aurora and Nick are close to home for this mystery, most of the regulars are still involved.  Sally is out of town (that’s all we know) and Arthur is on a cruise with his mother and his kids.  I kind of find that a funny excuse, but it does leave us with just Lynn (Miranda Frigon) as the main police presence in the film, assisted by Charlie Heard (Brad Harder), who has appeared in some of the other recent movies in the franchise.

Speaking of Lynn, the fact that we didn’t have Arthur allowed her to have a couple of scenes to really shine.  I haven’t always appreciated her brusk manner, but I really loved those scenes.  I doubt we will see that character development carry over to the next movie, sadly.

The mystery was strong, and the fact that Aurora and Nick were so close to home meant we could get all the regulars involved in a meaningful way.  I didn’t have a clue who done it until the very end.  I do have a couple of niggles about how the climax unfolded, but they were minor.

Once again, the cast does a good job of bringing their characters to life.  This feels like a Hallmark movie, so there aren’t going to be any awards for the acting, but it worked to pull me into the story.

I had to wonder when this movie was filmed and when it was supposed to be set.  I noticed that all the actors had on coats for the outdoor scenes.  Nick even referenced getting their coats a time or two before they went outside.  Mind you, I HATE to be cold, so I’m not criticizing in the slightest.  Since that kind of thing is usually ignored, however, I found it funny.

The Aurora Teagarden movies have many fans, and they will be pleased with her latest case.  If you haven’t caught it yet, check the rerun schedule so you can sit back and enjoy Honeymoon, Honeymurder.

2 comments:

  1. I was waiting to see if you would review Honeymoon, Honeymurder. I also watched this movie when it came on, and I had many of the same thoughts about it. It was a really good movie. Great review!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh I need to watch this! Since they cancelled The Garage Sale Mysteries this has been my favorite series.

    ReplyDelete

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