The Cases of Mystery Lane: Death Is Listening

Birdie and Alden Case are a quirky married couple attending private investigator classes while balancing their eccentric hobbies—Alden’s robot collecting and root beer brewing, and Birdie’s legal career. Their lives take a turn when Laurel St. James, a famous true crime author who rose to fame covering the 'Roxdale Killer' (TRK) in the 1990s, is shot dead in her recording studio. Officer Tom Newton, who is dating Birdie’s high school rival Kristin Duckburn, reluctantly recruits the couple as consultants because of their deep knowledge of the true crime community. The crime scene features a 'TRK' signature, suggesting the serial killer has returned after 30 years. As the investigation unfolds, Birdie and Alden juggle a subplot involving a mouse in their home that Alden attempts to catch using ground-penetrating radar and elaborate humane traps. Birdie also confesses to Alden that she has become a 'ruthless shark' in online poker, winning nearly $29,000. They interview several suspects, including a rival podcaster named Katie Hiller, a zen-obsessed yoga instructor named Wintress, and Maxwell Kovack, a former detective whose career was ruined by Laurel’s reporting. Kovack reveals that Laurel actually stole evidence from the original cases to manufacture the 'serial killer' narrative for her own profit. Birdie and Alden locate Laurel’s secret storage unit, which contains the stolen evidence from the 90s. They realize Laurel, who was terminally ill, intended to confess her fraud in her final podcast episode. This provides a massive motive for her publisher, Kristin Duckburn, whose family business relied entirely on Laurel’s bestsellers. The couple initially suspects Katie Hiller due to a misheard name on the murder recording, but Alden realizes the 'squeak' on the tape wasn't a wheeze—it was a rubber duck keychain, the logo of Duckburn Publishing. In a tense climax at the podcast studio, Kristin attempts to kill Birdie and Alden to keep the secret, but she is distracted by the very mouse Alden was trying to catch. Kristin is arrested, and the stolen evidence is used to finally solve the three original, unrelated murders from the 90s. The film ends with a cliffhanger when a mysterious man informs Birdie that her father, whom she thought died when she was six, might still be alive.