ABSTRACT
When most people think of Hallmark movies, they likely imagine fluffy holiday rom-coms with bubbly heroines in search of a little something more from life and love. A less common image is of Hallmark’s made-for-TV mysteries: serial movies in which bubbly heroines solve crimes instead. This chapter considers Hallmark’s investigative women in relation to the immensely popular—and also deeply gendered—genre of the cozy mystery which provides the source material for many of Hallmark’s mystery series. It explores how the movies adapt conventions of this publishing niche to problematize a singular reading of the Hallmark heroine. The protagonists of these mystery movies complicate our understanding of the cultural work that Hallmark movies do around gendered and generic entertainment.
