MatchMaker Mysteries: A Fatal Romance

The film opens with Angie Dove, Philadelphia's premier matchmaker and TV host, arriving at the 'Written in the Stars' romance convention to moderate a high-profile writers' panel. Among the guests is Beatrice Penn, a legendary author whose career is managed by her sister and assistant, Margaret. Before the panel, Angie runs into her ex-boyfriend, Ethan Plume, who has recently inherited his mother's struggling publishing house, Evergreen. Tensions are high as Beatrice is publicly heckled by a fan named Caroline Higgins, who accuses her of being a fraud. During the panel, Beatrice drinks from a water bottle provided by the staff, begins to lose her voice, and collapses. She dies shortly after at the hospital from strychnine poisoning. Detective Kyle Carter leads the investigation and quickly arrests Ethan Plume after witnesses report him making public threats against Beatrice, who was planning to leave his publishing house. Angie, convinced of Ethan's innocence, begins her own investigation. She looks into several suspects: Beatrice’s estranged husband Ted, who is caught breaking into the Penn estate to retrieve valuables; rival author Helen Travers, who started rumors that Beatrice used a ghostwriter; and the mysterious third panelist, Neil Garfunkle (writing as Sylvia Donner), who claimed his car broke down and missed the event. Through her investigation, Angie discovers that Margaret was actually the ghostwriter for all of Beatrice's books, a secret born out of guilt from a childhood accident that ended Beatrice's ballet career. The breakthrough occurs when Angie finds a monogrammed cufflink with the initials 'E.P.' in Beatrice's hotel room. While filming her show, Angie realizes that Neil Garfunkle’s real name is Eli Price. She traps him on her TV set, where he admits to having an affair with Beatrice. When Beatrice decided to confess the affair to her husband to save her marriage, Neil poisoned her to protect his own reputation and marriage. After a brief struggle involving a rack of costumes, Neil is arrested by Detective Carter. The film concludes with Ethan deciding to stay in the publishing business and Angie sharing a playful moment with Detective Carter in the park.