Hallmark Actor Spotlight - Jill Wagner (Part 4)
Written by John Christian Plummer, Robin Bernheim, and Lee Goldberg
Starring Jill Wagner, Kristoffer Polaha, Robin Thomas, Preston Vanderslice, Sarah Dugdale, and Louriza Tronco
Premiered January 27, 2019 on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries
Literature professor Amy Winslow (Jill Wagner) specializes in crime fiction at Elmstead College in the Pacific Northwest, and after years of teaching her Mystery 101 class she’s become an expert in figuring out whodunnit. She’s also good at sizing people up, which is why when she meets Detective Travis Cole (Kristoffer Polaha) in a local café she instantly knows by his accent he’s from Chicago and that he’s new to the police force and no longer married. How? There’s red mud on his shoes, indicating he’s staying at the Scarlet Ridge Inn, and the fourth finger on his left hand is tanned except for a sliver of lighter skin where there once was a ring.
Along with Travis at the café is his colleague Claire Tate (Sarah Dugdale), a plainclothes detective who was once in Amy’s crime fiction class. Now solving real crimes, Claire is with Travis to investigate the theft of a genetically engineered plant missing from the Life Science Lab. Professor Sara Morales (Tosca Baggoo), who reported the theft, has pointed to the motive for the crime, claiming that the plant is no ordinary shrub, as it was created to resist climate change and is potentially worth millions.
Although Travis can’t discuss the details of his investigation, he and Amy do engage in playful banter. She’s at the café with her grad student/assistant Bud (Preston Vanderslice) waiting for Lacey (Louriza Tronco), another of Amy’s students, who is going to work with Bud on the mid- term mystery. But when Lacey doesn’t show, Amy is worried. Lacey was uncharacteristically preoccupied in class, and Amy suspects the girl is having trouble with her boyfriend, who hasn’t been answering calls. As it turns out, Amy’s worries are justified when she gets a disturbing call from Lacey, who is about to describe a scary message smeared on her mirror, until the phone suddenly goes dead. Now the fictional crime professor fears she’s facing a crime that is all too real, especially because Lacey and her boyfriend have disappeared.
Reporting Lacey as a missing person, Amy now finds herself working directly with handsome Detective Cole as the mystery of the plant theft becomes entwined with the enigma of Lacey’s disappearance, and the shocking discovery of her boyfriend at the bottom of a mountain overlook. Adding to the suspense is the sudden “suicide” of Professor Miller (Alvin Sanders), whose office window just happens to look out on the Life Science Lab. As Amy figures out whois behind her student’s disappearance and the two deaths, she also discovers who stole the plant, and puts her own life in danger. Now Travis must do some quick sleuthing himself, or the romance that was blooming with the Mystery 101 professor could quickly die on the vine.
Mystery 101: Playing Dead (2019)
Written by John Christian Plummer
Starring Jill Wagner, Kristoffer Polaha, Robin Thomas, Louriza Tronco, Preston Vanderslice, Sarah Dugdale, Derek Green, Matthew Kevin Anderson, Luke Camilleri, Rekha Sharma, Aaron Douglas, Robert Moloney, Christie Burke, James Rha, Colin Lawrence, Michael Kopsa, Kareem Malcolm, Meena Mann, and AJ Simmons
Premiered June 23, 2019 on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries
Crime Fiction Professor Amy Winslow (Jill Wagner) and Detective Travis Cole (Kristoffer Polaha) have a real mystery of love and revenge on their hands. It all starts when Travis’ partner Claire (Sarah Dugdale) gets whacked on the head investigating a break-in at a pharmacy. Recovering in the hospital, Claire can’t remember anything except the mechanical toy chimp playing cymbals she glimpsed before getting hit. Working the case, Travis questions Josie (Christie Burke), the drugstore manager, who says the security cameras were knocked out by a storm, and all that was taken was $500 and lots of medications.
Meanwhile, another crime is about to take center stage when movie icon Bella Brightman (Rekha Sharma) arrives in town to star in Shadow of Death. Put on by the Community Theater, the play highlights revenge and reward, common motives of detective fiction that Amy teaches. Her graduate assistant Bud (Preston Vanderslice) is the stage manager, and her student Lacey (Louriza Tronco) is an actor, so Amy and many in her class attend the play on opening night. Also in the audience are Amy’s father and Travis, who Amy often helps solve crimes with herexpertise in literary whodunits. But no one expects to see an actual attempted murder on stage when a fake gun appears to fire a real bullet that shatters a mirror near Bella. Now Travis must stop the performance, explaining that the theater has become a crime scene.
While the bullet is tested for fingerprints, Travis interviews everyone with access to the gun, including set designer Karl (Aaron Douglas) and Bella’s ex-husband Sebastian (Colin Lawrence). Karl was in an argument with Bella before the show, and Sebastian was at a dress rehearsal Amy attended where she found a Valentine under the seats that read: “Be Mine...as soon as You Know Who is out of the way.” Suspicious, Amy shows the card to Travis, suggesting he interview Bella’s current husband Duncan (Matthew Kevin Anderson) and Elliot (Luke Camilleri), an actor in the play, who has a crush on the movie star. Amy also tells Travis that Bella’s life was in danger earlier when a stage light fell from the catwalk and barely missed her.
Though shaken, Bella insists on having the opening night party. Despite a few squabbles with Elliot and Sebastian initiated by drunk and jealous Duncan, the party is a success, until Bella is found dead the next morning from a heart attack. Tracing the cause to a drug stolen from pharmacy run by Josie, Elliot’s girlfriend, Travis gets a warrant to search Elliot’s house and finds garbage bags full of pharmaceuticals. But forensics found Sebastian’s fingerprints on the catwalk where the light fell and on the bullet. Karl, too, is a suspect when it’s discovered he owed Bella $100,000. Finally, Duncan could have put the heart attack inducing powder in his wife’s protein shake out of pure jealousy. With motives and suspects galore, Travis has his work cut out for him. But when Amy finds the toy chimp, she solves murder mystery and cracks the pharmacy break-in, and cleverly gets confessions as well.
Mystery 101: Words Can Kill (2019)
Written by John Christian Plummer
Starring Jill Wagner, Kristoffer Polaha, Robin Thomas, Preston Vanderslice, Sarah Dugdale, Amanda Wong, Lossen Chambers, Nathalie Boltt, Eric Keensleyside, Marci T. House, Milo Shandel, Rhona Rees, and Yumi Ogawa
Premiered September 15, 2019 on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries
When Crime Fiction Professor Amy Winslow (Jill Wagner) goes to her office Sunday night, she surprises an intruder who nearly mows her down trying to get away. Calling Detective Travis Burke (Kristoffer Polaha) to the scene of the crime, the two make an odd discovery – nothing has been stolen. It’s just the beginning of a series of strange events – and murders – that lead to the arrest of none other than Graham Winslow (Robin Thomas), the famed author of the bestselling Atticus Keller detective novels, who also happens to be Amy’s father.
Charged with killing Betsy Crane (Marci T. House) and burning down her motorhome, Graham seems to be the least likely suspect, especially since Betsy is the publisher who launched his career. Nevertheless, all the evidence points to Graham. Not only did he recently end his publishing relationship with the victim, but also a nearly empty can of kerosene and a bloody paperweight was found in his trunk. In addition to that, a man was just shot in his car rightoutside of Graham’s house! With no one else to charge, Travis has no other choice but to bring in the respected author for questioning.
Convinced her father is innocent, Amy sets out to find the real killer with the help of her graduate assistant Bud (Preston Vanderslice) and her good friend Holly (Amanda Wong). Together they write down the names of possible suspects, and at the top of the list is Detective Jenk (Eric Keenleyside) in town for the “Murder We Wrote” book festival. Amy first met Jenk outside her office the day after the break-in, claiming he was looking for her father in hopes of collaborating on a book. Checking up on Jenk, Travis finds out he’s a dirty cop who’s about to lose his job.Even more suspicious, Jenk is seen in shouting match with Betsy, claiming her publishing house owes him $10,000 for being a resource for one of her authors.
That author is Rick Fitch (Milo Shandel), another major suspect on Amy’s list, who happens to be her father’s literary nemesis, and the reason Graham switched publishing houses. It seems Betsy leaked one of Graham’s manuscripts to Fitch, who then turned around and plagiarized the book. Finally, there’s Hannah (Rhona Rees), a crazed fan who slashes Graham’s tires so she can give him a ride home. But why would she kill Betsy and then frame the man she idolizes?
With two people murdered, the last thing this case needs is another body, but that’s exactly what’s thrown into the mix when Rick Fitch is found dead at the bottom of a canyon, with Betsy’s phone on his body! Luckily, that clears Graham of her murder, which makes his new editor, Celia (Nathalie Boltt) quite happy. She’s clearly quite taken with her new client, and Graham is certainly smitten with her. With three dead, motives galore, and no clear killer, Travis and Amy have their work cut out for them. All they know for sure is that with all these literary people in town, words can definitely kill.
