The cosy crime series finally returns for its second batch of irresistible mysteries.
Like the vast majority of the world, I was watching far too much TV in 2020 (and most of 2021 plus the majority of my life) as lockdowns were in effect and the need for comfort TV was high. One of the many TV show gems I happened upon during the banana bread era was Queens of Mystery. A charming series; I must confess I completely forgot about it until I saw the trailer for the second series just a few weeks ago.
The first run saw DS Matilda Stone (initially played by Olivia Vinall) return to (the sadly fictional) Wildemarsh. This rural town remains the home of her three aunts, Cat, Beth, and Jane (Julie Graham, Sarah Woodward, and Siobhan Redmond), who just so happen to be crime writers. Before you can say Diagnosis Murder, She Wrote, the town that has the aesthetic of a National Trust gift shop also has a worryingly high homicide rate.
Series 2 sees Florence Hall takes over the role as DS Stone, but happily, everything that made the first series work, solving murders, still being undermined by her aunts, and still carrying the unresolved weight of a mother who vanished and left only questions, is still there. That last thread is what quietly elevates this series. Aunts Cat, Beth, and Jane (Julie Graham, Sarah Woodward, and Siobhan Redmond) are as magnificently deluded as ever, deploying genre knowledge as though it were police procedure, and getting away with it because they’re occasionally right.
Three cases this series: a murder at a health spa that manages to be both silly and genuinely sinister, an art world whodunnit with a satisfying sting, and a robbery that reaches back into the family history in ways the show has been carefully laying groundwork for. It’s well-constructed. The mystery writing is sharper than the cosy genre usually demands.
And then there’s Juliet Stevenson, narrating, Emmy-nominated, making every sentence land like she’s personally invested in your enjoyment of it. She is the show’s luxury item. It would work without her. It simply wouldn’t be as good.
If you want Sunday-night television that makes you feel warmly about the world while also keeping you genuinely guessing, and doesn’t condescend to you for wanting both at once, this is exactly that.
