The Best Early Hallmark Mysteries
Hallmark has been creating cozy mysteries for quite a while! Here are some of our favorites from over a decade ago that still hold up:
8. Jane Doe Mysteries
Soccer mom or secret agent? In this series, Lea Thompson plays Cathy Davis who tries to keep her family life and Central Security Agency life separate as she solves mysteries. We love watching her juggle her commitments while finding clues.
7. McBride
We love John Larroquette, so this is great movie series for us! Here, he plays a lawyer who uses grit and unorthodox methods to clear his clients. (We especially love all the canines seen in Dogged!)
6. Wedding Planner Mystery
In this stand-alone movie, Carnegie Kincaid (played by Erica Durance) is planning two weddings for a wealthy family, but when a suspicious death occurs, she needs to add "finding a killer" to her plans before the nuptial. We love seeing the parties on screen as much as finding clues as to who the real killer is.
5. Mystery Woman
Hallmark favorite Kellie Martin (who also stars in the Hailey Dean Mystery series) plays mystery book lover Samantha Kinsey who inherits a bookshop and uses her knowledge of literary murders to help her sleuth. We love her tenacity and wish we could see all the shop’s rare books.
4. My Gal Sunday
With charming chemistry, a newly-wed couple (played by Rachel Blanchard and Cameron Mathison) must save their kidnapped parents by assisting with an unusual ransom request. This Mary Higgins Clark mystery is feisty and fun.
3. Murder 101
The Murder 101 movie series stars Dick Van Dyke and Barry Van Dyke. Here a clever criminology professor helps a private investigator solve murders. We love seeing this father-son acting duo investigate and even get to enjoy seeing the third generation in some later films when Shane Van Dyke joins the cast.
2. The Mystery Cruise
For fans of Mary Higgins Clark’s lottery-winning maid-turned-amateur sleuth Alvirah Meehan (played by Gail O’Grady) and Carol Higgins Clark’s P.I. Regan Reilly (played by Michelle Harrison), this mash-up on the high seas was a delight! The two women attend a mystery cruise hosted by Regan’s mystery writer mother, but soon determine that a real-life murder might occur on deck.
Signed, Sealed, Delivered
It’s no surprise that Signed, Sealed, Delivered tops our list!
This movie inspired the hit Hallmark series and multiple spin-off movies. The Postables fans still send in their own letters to the network asking for more! It’s sweet, sincere, and extremely enjoyable. In this first movie, technology expert Shane (played by Kristin Booth) is mistakenly transferred to the Dead Letter Office for work and meets the quirky team there led by the charmingly old-fashioned Oliver (played by Eric Mabius). When a dead letter could help exonerate a wrongly accused man, Shane insists that they use all resources available to deliver this important mail and learns a lesson about fate from Oliver, Norman (played by Geoff Gustafson), and Rita (played by Crystal Lowe).