Murder, She Baked: A Deadly Recipe

These "Murder, She Baked" series of movies will never be mistaken for great movies but they are entertaining, partly because they have to be complete by 85 minutes so there isn't any dragging.

Plus Alison Sweeney, who plays baker Hannah Swensen, is very attractive and very personable. As in the others there is a murder mystery to be solved but that never really takes the focus off the real meat of these movies. Whether Hannah will end up with Mike the Cop or with Norman the Dentist.

In this one Hannah is putting together a book of recipes and part of her mission is to figure out what the "secret ingredient" is in one of them. In the process she also helps figure out who is responsible for the brick to the back of the head of the Sheriff on the eve of the election. There is also a red herring of sorts when a series of car thefts occur. Or was that just part of the Sheriff's re-election effort? The resolution gets a bit complicated, but once again Mike finds that Hannah is helpful in solving the mystery.

We found a set of two DVDs at our public library that contains five of the "Murder, She Baked" movies. We are watching all of them at home.

There is a huge mistake about how the car thieves stole the cars. They didn't have the keyless system, they used a slim Jim to gain access. Also, the alarm would go off if the door is opened without having the key they came with the car. Another thing, it doesn't matter if they used the access point to override anything, you can't use another key to start the car. Whoever wrote the story line needs to do better research for the movies.

If you're looking for a more realistic, accurate, and engaging crime show to watch - you're better off with Law and Order SVU or Chicago PD. Best to leave this fluffy, sugar-coated "feel good" 0 calorie mystery on the shelf. The reason I gave this 2 stars instead of 1 is because there are some who surprisingly enjoy watching these feel good movies and shows to escape reality. I am not one of those people, hence my opinion.

The main issue with this movie was that the lead character was an utterly vile human being. Yes, murder mystery detectives do tend to be nosy busy bodies but she took takes biscuit (excuse the pun). The way she got involved in other people's private affairs and stuck her oar in where it didn't matter was unbelievable. The icing on the cake was her visiting a recently widowed lady, bringing her her dead husbands favourite cakes and asking for a family secret BBQ sauce recipe, whilst she snooped through her mail. Her exchanging recipes at a funeral also was just a tad insensitive!!! The kitchen where she works should also be shut down. So many health and saftety violations with all the staff wearing zero protective gear and quite happy to nibble whatever they like. One lady chomped on half a cupcake and then put the rest back with the others!! Utter tosh

Allison Sweeney and Cameron Mathison star in "Murder, She Baked: A Deadly Recipe" on Hallmark channel. In this mystery series, Sweeney plays Hannah Swenson, who owns a bakery, The Cookie Jar, in Lake Eden, Minnesota, and she has a penchant for solving mysteries.

This time, it's the town sheriff who has been murdered, and his deputy, Hannah's brother-in-law, is a suspect.

Hannah gets to work trying to clear her brother-in-law, but as she does so, she finds herself in danger.

All My Children's Cameron Mathison plays Mike, a police officer, who is crazy about Hannah. He has some competition, but it looks like he's winning.

This was slow, but okay, with decent acting. The leads are pleasant. One thing I noticed was that not everyone had a Hollywood figure - I guess it was the bakery influence. It's a good influence.

For trivia buffs, the director is Kristoffer Tabori, a former actor who is the son of Viveca Lindfors and Don Siegel. Viveca had a stage and film career, and Don Siegel? He directed the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers.