Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel is where it’s at for Friday night.
The network is bringing back a juicy whodunit murder mystery, Hailey Dean Mystery: Murder, With Love, written by legal eagle, TV personality and host Nancy Grace, who also appears in the film with star Kellie Martin.
Prosecutor-turned-therapist Hailey Dean is a whip-smart “powerhouse” observer of the human condition who can sort through any sort of difficult problem.
Martin plays her with the right amount of pluck and steeliness, but always with classic Hallmark heart too.
Hailey Dean Mystery: Murder, With Love is best described as a classically styled family-friendly mystery, created by Nancy Grace from her crime mystery novels.
This is the first of Grace’s Hailey Dean books to be adapted for a TV movie, and she is also an executive producer.
The film is a “back by popular demand” replay (original air date was October 2016), directed by Terry Ingram and adapted from the book by Jonathan Greene.
In the film, Hailey experiences a tragic week, as one of her patients suffers a calamitous and tragic event. She loses both her parents in fatal accidents in a short period of time.
Not only are the parents dead, but millions of dollars are missing, completely untraceable.
The patient in question, Amanda Stone, is now a prime suspect as Hailey gets to the bottom of the crime and works hard to defend her client, who she believes is innocent.
But is she?
Hailey Dean is drawn into the cryptic world of her seemingly on-the-level patient.
Stone found her mother, Laura Stone, dead in the bathtub. Everyone including the police believes that it is an accidental drowning caused by too many sleeping pills.
Then, interestingly, Amanda Stone’s father winds up dead too, tragically, just four days later in a quirk accident.
Now the spotlight is shined on Amanda Stone and her brother as the accidental deaths are believed to be possible homicides.
They always say “follow the money”, and we learn that Amanda and her brother are poised to inherit a fortune in the event of their parents’ deaths. It gets more and more curious.
The crackling Friday night mystery features Nancy Grace in a cameo as a defense attorney, plus Giacomo Baesato (Danny Morgan), Cindy Busby (Amanda Stone), Viv Leacock (Fincher Garland), Jesse Moss (Aaron Stone), Lucia Walters (Monty Montgomery), Michael Kopsa (Dewey Stone), and Matthew MacCaull (Jonas McClellan).
Hailey Dean Mystery: Murder, with Love airs tonight, April 14 at 7/6c on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.