“You’ve Done Some Very Thorough Research. How Annoying.” “She’s a Librarian. She Can’t Help Herself.”
I’ve lost track of Hallmark’s release schedule for their movies on their cable channels. So I’m sure I missed the cable premier of Death at the Diner, the third Aurora Teagarden prequel movie, at some point. But I spotted it on the schedule recently, so I sat down to watch it. I found it to be the best of these prequels, but my usual complaints remained.
It’s been established in the earlier movies that Aurora (Skyler Samuels), in addition to being a teaching assistant and working on her thesis, is working part time at a diner. Her boyfriend, Daniel (Jordan Buhat), is the cook. He’s got a great relationship with their boss, Emilio (Paul Moniz de Sá), the diner’s owner.
When Aurora forgets her phone at the diner, she and Daniel agree to meet up there before their date to celebrate their six month anniversary. However, she finds more than her phone – she finds Emilio’s dead body. The weapon is part of a set of knives that Emilio gave Daniel, and only Daniel’s prints are on it, so the police focus on him as their prime suspect. Can Aurora clear her boyfriend, especially as the evidence mounts against him?
As I said, my typical complaint about these movies holds true again here. While Marilu Henner is still here from the original movies as Aurora’s mom, they’ve recast Aurora, Sally (Kayla Heller), and Arthur (Evan Roderick). Even after three movies, they still haven’t quite erased my memories of the original actors in the roles. This isn’t anything against these actors, who are all fine. I will once again call for Hallmark to give them their own franchise/characters. They are talented and should be given that gift.
That aside, I did enjoy the mystery here. I thought I had it figured out early on, but I was happy to be wrong. There were some good twists and complications along the way to the logical and suspenseful climax.
And the entire cast was good. The low budget cheese was kept to a minimum, which is always nice.
Fans of the Garage Sale Mysteries will enjoy seeing a mini-reunion. Steve Bacic continues in his role as the lead detective in these prequels. Sarah Strange pops up as the victim’s ex-wife, aka one of Aurora’s suspects.
I wasn’t impressed with a sub-plot involving the DA coming down hard on the detectives for the conviction rate. Even trying to explain some of her attitude, it didn’t play well and didn’t add anything to the story.
This is the last Aurora Teagarden prequel movies that’s been released on streaming or cable as of now. No word if they are going to continue the franchise or not. If it is the end, fans will be happy with Death at the Diner.
