In January Hallmark debuted another cozy mystery based on best-selling mystery writer, Kate Collins’ Flower Shop Mystery series. This movie has an all-star cast which features, Brooke Shields, Brennan Elliott and Beau Bridges.
Mums the Word tells the story of how a former attorney and an ex-marine/private investigator get pulled into investigating a murder in the small town of New Chapel. After the death of her husband, former attorney Abby Knight (Brooke Shields) moves back to her hometown to open a flower shop. Bloomers is located near a bar run by ex-marine-former-private investigator, Marco Salvare (Elliott Brennan). Abby’s vintage Mercedes is involved in a hit and run and she sets out to find the driver. When a down-on-his-luck old friend is accused of the murder and is later found dead, Abby seeks justice for her friend.
I’m going to confess a secret. I didn’t expect to like this movie. Amateur detectives are fun but Hallmark has presented a garage sale sleuth, a gourmet detective, a cookie baking sleuth and now a flower shop owning sleuth. Not even my cozy-mystery-loving-heart could accept all of the situations that would lead to these upstanding citizens putting their lives on the line to investigate murders, especially murders that were completely unconnected to them. However, the Flower Shop Mystery was different. Abby Knight loved the law and she loved being an attorney. However at some point she became disillusioned. Her husband died and she realized that life was short and she wanted to be happy and follow her passion. Yep. That’s something a corporate-trainer-turned-cozy-mystery-writer could understand. When Abby learns that her neighbor, a divorced ex-marine, former private investigator is now running a bar, she asks for his help. Both Abby and Marco seem happy in their new lives. Still, it’s easy to see how owning a flower shop or a bar would be a bit boring compared to the adrenaline rush and fast-paced life of a lawyer or a marine. They have unique skills and need the excitement and stimulation associated with those skills periodically.
Bottom line for me, I can easily accept an amateur sleuth as long as there is a good reason for me to believe they would risk their lives to catch a murderer. The Flower Shop Mysteries provided that reason. Great acting from a cast of all-stars doesn’t hurt either. I’ve only seen one episode of this series but I think this is my favorite of the Hallmark cozies so far.