La libreria del mistero: Piccoli semplici indizi

Why do I watch Mystery Woman? I don't know, except that I love mysteries no matter how bad, and I am a fan of Kellie Martin as an actress and as a person. This series was beneath her, not particularly well written, well directed, or well acted. That about sums it up.

The story begins with some soldiers in wartime, probably Vietnam, finding a treasure at a destroyed Buddhist temple.

We then cut to the present day. The bookstore is having plumbing problems which are being remedied by Tyler Dell, from a local company. A man named Jim Carter shows up and while he's there, a rare book goes missing, and Samantha calls the police. But the book isn't anywhere.

Jim Carter confides in Samantha that he is in town to connect with his daughter, but he's murdered later on. He's left Samantha a note for his daughter and a box with clues inside -- but what they lead to is uncertain. And why leave it to Samantha? The reverend who runs the homeless shelter has a few answers as Samantha and her assistant Philby, who seems to have once been a government agent with big connections, try to solve the mystery of the murder and the box.

The culprit is evident in the first fifteen minutes. To show how sloppily written these shows are, one character is using an assumed name. Talking about him in the past, he's called by his real name except during a flashback where, for some reason, he is called by his assumed name. Sloppy.

Mystery Woman is low-key to the point of sleepwalking, with Clarence Williams III phoning it in and Kellie Martin doing the best she can. The police investigator is unpleasantly aggressive, and I can't decide if he's overacting or just comes off that way because everyone around him is so underplayed. Bad direction, anyone? The sad thing is, if I spot another one I haven't seen, I'll watch it. I'm a sucker for mysteries, even if it's Mystery Woman.