Stream It or Skip It: ‘A Zest for Death: A Hannah Swensen Mystery’ on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Brings Back Alison Sweeney’s Baker/Sleuth

Hallmark Movies and Mysteries fulfills all the promises of its name with A Zest for Death: A Hannah Swensen Mystery — a movie that is both, well, a movie and a mystery. The latest installment in the renamed Murder, She Baked movie series brings the 2003 Joanne Fluke novel Lemon Meringue Pie Murder to life. Picking up where Carrot Cake Murder left off earlier this year, A Zest for Death gets the Swensen family together to solve another murder in Eden Lake. But is A Zest for Death a tasty treat or is this mystery under-baked?

A ZEST FOR DEATH: A HANNAH SWENSEN MYSTERY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Alison Sweeney (A Magical Christmas Village) returns as Hannah Swensen, a small-town baker who also happens to come across murders with alarming frequency. When A Zest for Death starts, we find Hannah helping her sister Michelle (Tess Atkins) find a place to live. And for those keeping tabs on Hannah’s love life (like her mom Delores), she is currently estranged from her former fiancé Mike (Cameron Mathison) and engaged in a game of phone chicken with him. Come on Hannah, just call him!

Things take a turn for the deadly, as they are wont to do in Eden Lake, when the Swensens come across a dead body while touring a potential home for Michelle. As for who murdered the homeowner, Hannah declines to help solve the murder because she’s busy with work (and also depressed, re: Mike) — but Hannah can’t help but notice clues. Okay, she’s in! She’s a natural in the kitchen and at crime scenes.

Can Hannah keep the police from pinning this murder on an innocent man? How will Hannah react to having her mom tag along for the investigation? And where there’s a murder, there’s bound to be Detective Mike — Hannah’s ex! Most importantly: can Hannah solve this murder and cater an event for the high school’s booster club? Jessica Fletcher never had to deal with this kind of pressure!

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Speaking of Jessica Fletcher, the Hannah Swensen Mystery series is one of the many Hallmark TV movie franchises that feel directly inspired by Murder, She Wrote. I mean, this specific franchise was titled Murder, She Baked before it returned from a hiatus in 2021.

Performance Worth Watching: Barbara Niven (Chesapeake Shores) is once again at her best as Hannah’s stylish, overbearing, and self-assured mother Delores. Watching her get in on the murder-solving action is a true delight. Delores realizes that discovering a dead body makes one feel a little responsible for solving the crime (as she hilariously asks her daughter, “Isn’t that how you felt about the many bodies you’ve discovered?”). She’s not not good at being a private eye, either — she just needs to learn to snoop around in something a little less conspicuous than a pastel pink trench coat and matching hat.

Memorable Dialogue: This, of course, goes to Delores, who gives the following statement to a police officer, re: the murder: “I simply wanted to check out her closet space. Closet space is everything you know — write that down.”

Our Take: Y’know, it is easy to compare any episode-of-the-week mystery serial to Murder, She Wrote — and we frequently do judging by the number of other shows in our Murder, She Wrote tag. That’s not to say that those other shows aren’t Murder, She Wrote-y! I’m just saying that there is something uniquely Murder, She Wrote about the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries movie mysteries — and that’s especially true of the Hannah Swensen series.

What this network’s ongoing mystery movie franchises get about the cozy mystery sub-genre is their inherent campiness and playfulness. These mysteries take place in a reality where murders are common but the communities remain pleasant, the sleuths are rarely in danger, and the police are affable gentlemen who have a hankering for some baked goods.

The Hannah Swensen Mystery series works so well because of its serialized nature, because each installment feels equally of a larger narrative but also fully standalone. And for new viewers, a Hannah Swensen Mystery gets the added benefit of taking place in a setting that feels fully realized with a supporting cast that feels fully interconnected. You feel welcome, even if you’re visiting for the first time.

Now, whether or not A Zest for Death will go down as one of the best installments in this franchise — I’d lean towards probably not. The central mystery, the murder of Rhonda (Kendra Anderson), feels like the typical puzzle that we get in almost all of these movies. It almost feels like the movie is ticking off murder mystery elements as it goes along: Hannah oversees future victim arguing with someone, a priceless heirloom is introduced, a secret love affair is hinted at, a guy fresh out of jail is pegged as the killer, and a number of locals start acting shady. It’s by the book (and that book is Lemon Meringue Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke).

Instead of being hooked by the mystery, A Zest for Death hooks viewers with its cast and its serialized elements. For first-timers, the dynamic between Delores and her three daughters is a hoot and a half. The way all of the adult children know how to work in tandem with their mom’s playfully flighty ego feels absolutely earned, real, and relatable. And for those who’ve been hanging with Hannah since before the TV movies started, there’s the simmering tension between Hannah and Mike to hold your attention. Will they get back together? And also… uh, is Hannah’s little sister really going to buy this movie’s murder scene in the next movie? Can’t wait to find out!

The only place A Zest for Death really falters is in the introduction of Hannah’s old college flame Bradford Ramsey (Firefly Lane’s Oliver Rice). He gets a big introduction as the new university professor in town (That accent! That blazer!) and… then spends the movie in his office on campus, presumably, far away from the action. It would’ve been nice to see him stir up more feelings, even uncertainty, from Hannah now that she’s on the outs with Mike. But I don’t know — maybe that’s the plot of another Hannah Swensen novel and they’re saving that tasty plot for dessert. But that’s the good thing about A Zest for Death: it leaves you wanting a second slice.

Our Call: STREAM IT. A Zest for Death isn’t as revolutionary as recent Hallmark movies, but it’s nice to see that the old mystery recipe still satisfies.