The small town of Eden Lake in rural northern Minnesota is rapidly becoming the murder capital of the stat per capita. Fortunately they have an able amateur sleuth in the person of Alison Sweeney bakery proprietor and creator of the region's best baked goods.
Other than the film is set at Christmas time and plum pudding has come down to us through Charles Dickens as a Yuletide delicacy and someone urges Sweeney to put it on the menu plum pudding really has nothing to do with the story.
But Christmas sure does. Kirby Morrow has opened a seasonal business the Elf's Christmas Yard where he sells Christmas trees. He winds up shot to death and of course it's Alison Sweeney along with town dentist Larry Hogan who finds him. After that no matter how much she's warned no keeping this woman away from a homicide she discovered.
As it turns out Morrow was one sleazy conman and a lot of people have reason not to mourn him. He's got a long estranged wife in town who hosts a radio show about romantic advice and a current fiancé who invested heavily in the business. And there are others.
I have to say in the end I felt a lot sympathy for the perpetrator. A good lawyer could get the person off.
Sweeney has been wavering between Hogan and police detective Cameron Mattison in the various Murder She Baked films. Whomever she marries I see a Lucy/Ricky like relationship with her being constantly warned you can't get into the homicide investigation.
And when she does she'll have a lot of 'splainin' to do.
Murder, She Baked Murder, She Baked: A Plum Pudding Mystery
2015
Action / Crime / Mystery
Murder, She Baked Murder, She Baked: A Plum Pudding Mystery
2015
Action / Crime / Mystery
Plot summary
It's one week before Christmas in the small, generally quiet town of Eden Lake, Minnesota. After not pursuing romance for most of her adult life, Hannah Swensen, owner/operator of Hannah's Cookie Jar, a bakery/café, is being wooed by two men, who know about the other in Hannah's life. Hannah likes both a lot, but has not even kissed either. While her mother, Delores Swensen, is pushing her into the arms of dentist Norman Rhodes as the person who will provide her with a stable, comfortable life, her sister, Andrea Todd, is pushing her into the arms of Andrea's deputy sheriff husband Bill Todd's colleague, police detective Mike Kingston, as the more exciting choice. What seems to be becoming a more chronic issue in Hannah's life is that she is the person who finds someone murdered in Eden Lake, this time the victim being one of her customers, Larry Jaeger, co-owner of the Crazy Elf Christmas tree lot with his fiancée, Courtney Miller, the two who got engaged after knowing each other for only six weeks. Larry's murder is only the second such in recent memory in the town, and the second such body Hannah has discovered. Hannah can't help but get involved in the investigation, either by accident or usually more on purpose, which irks both Norman and Mike as putting her life in danger. Mike is additionally bothered that her amateur sleuthing is interfering with his official investigation. At the top of the suspect list is Delores' friend, Nancy Schmidt who is better known in town as radio talk show host on issues of the lovelorn, Dr. Love. Nancy is not Larry's ex-wife as she had implied to Delores, but rather his wife - at least up until his murder - he who she claims not to have seen in ten years as he bilked her out of her money and disappeared without a trace until now. The further Hannah and Mike investigate, the further they find that Larry was generally not a nice person who had many enemies who had motive to want to see him dead. What Hannah may or may not be aware is that she is getting closer to the truth which truly does put her life in danger as the murderer would probably not hesitate to murder a second time if she gets too close to discovering the truth.
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"Boiled in his own plum pudding"
Intelligent & Engaging
The title suggested something fluffy and sickly sweet, but I found this and the other MSB entries engaging and interestingly complex. The casting is great and I see Allison Sweeney as a lovely and intelligent actress. I appreciate the fact that she is obviously not a size 2, another believable aspect of her character-as-baker. Her sweet cat with its soft disposition, pretty eyes, and round face mirror the beauty of its owner. Cameron Mathison (sp?) and she have strong chemistry which builds nicely throughout each episode while the character of Norman makes for a suitable romantic alternative waiting in the wings. Throw in Hannah's neurotically romantic mother and slightly competitive but supportive sister and you have a skilled and pitch-perfect ensemble cast. I'm a big fan now and consider the series a new addition to my list of guilty pleasures.
nice series, maybe the nicest of all the Mystery shows
"Murder, She Baked: A Plum Pudding Mystery" is part of a series of movies starring Allison Sweeney and Cameron Mathison. If you're a soap fan you're very familiar with both of them.
People tend to look down on soap actors. They forget that as actors, they have to be able to cry on cue and express real emotion, memorize as many as 60 pages of dialogue in a day, and one other thing as well -- they have to make their unbelievable story lines believable. And they succeed.
In Eden Lake, Minnesota, it's a week before Christmas, and Hannah Swensen (Sweeney) who owns Hannah's Cookie Jar is very busy indeed filling orders. At this point she has two men after her, Mike (Mathison) a police officer, and Norman, a dentist. Her mother Delores (Barbara Niven) likes Norman. Her sister Andrea (Lisa Durupt) likes Mike.
That's one feature of Hannah's life; the other is that she keeps finding dead bodies. This time it's one of her own customers, Larry Jaeger, who co-owned the Crazy Elf Christmas tree lot with Courtney Miller (Farah Fath, another soap actress),his fiancée.
Mike hates that Hannah becomes involved in these cases; she gets in the way of his own investigation.
The major suspect is a friend of Hannah's mother, Nancy Schmidt (Ona Grauer),better known as "Dr. Love" on the radio. She is still married to Larry, but she hasn't seen him in years, since he stole all her money and disappeared. Larry was collecting money from the Christmas tree store but his fiancé was doing all the work.
It turns out that Larry has a few enemies, so Dr. Love is just one. And Hannah may be in danger as she gets too close to the truth.
I guessed I missed something during this - I mean, how big is this town that Dr. Love never ran into Larry? He's obviously in town because he was killed there.
Plot hole or no plot hole, this episode has a nice atmosphere, and the acting is fine. Kristoffer Tabori does a good job of directing as he keeps the action moving. The romance is nice, too, with Sweeney and Mathison having good chemistry.
As an aside, Cameron Mathison is one of the sweetest people in the world. If you tell him your friend so and so met him in Chicago, he'll say, right - she came with her mother, right? He's amazing that way. It's always nice to see him.