My Life Is Murder: Season 4 of Hit Whodunit Series Is Entertaining as Ever

The weekend is here (yay!), but there’s great stuff when it’s over, too: the US premiere of Season 4 of the hit Kiwi whodunit series My Life Is Murder.

Gorgeous scenic shots of Auckland. Humor sprinkled in with the serious. Clever murder mystery stories. They’re all there in the latest season of My Life Is Murder — plus series star Lucy Lawless!

For folks who may not be familiar with the mystery series, My Life Is Murder stars Lucy Lawless (Spartacus, Xena: Warrior Princess) as Alexa Crowe, a retired police detective who returns to the crime-solving business by consulting on head-scratcher cases for the local police — first in Melbourne, Australia (in Season 1), then in Auckland, New Zealand (Season 2 forward), for Detective Harry (Rawiri Jobe, Shortland Street). Alexa is also an avid bread baker who delivers loaves of sourdough and other yeasty goodies to cafe owner owner Reuben (Joe Naufahu, Game of Thrones). Working alongside Alexa is Madison (Ebony Vagulans, The Heart Guy), her tech-savvy sidekick (and now housemate) whose hacking skills come in very handy for their investigations.

I’ve watched the screeners for the first four of eight episodes of the fourth season of My Life Is Murder (with the last four on my watchlist for this weekend), and each is a delightful way to spend forty-five minutes.

Season 4 opens with the episode “To Dye For,” in which Alexa investigates the suspicious death of Lulu Vandervorn, a rich, divorced socialite found dead on the beach. This doesn’t sync with her known movements, and Lulu’s left her entire estate to her cat, so when you combine these details with others — including Lawrence Beaumont (Erik Thomson, 800 Words), proprietor of the chichi hair salon where Lulu was a regular; Bridget Sandler (Sia Trokenheim, Step Dave), the cat’s new caretaker; Page Six-like high-society gossip; and secret goings-on — there’s all kinds of murder-worthy stuff for Alexa and Madison to look into. Here’s a sneak peek at “To Dye For”:

In “Tough Love,” Griff Springfield, a tennis pro and a tough coach at the posh Kingston Rackets Club, is found dead on a tennis court, seemingly the victim of a malfunctioning ball launcher. Interestingly, his widow, Verity (Chelsie Preston Crayford, The Bad Seed), had hired private investigator Christine Knox (Lisa Chappell, McLeod’s Daughters) three weeks before his death. Suspicious, no? There are other suspects, as well, including new head coach Callum Armstrong (Richard Crouchley, Head High) and pro tennis player Taylor Perkins (Anna-Maree Thomas, The Sounds). If it’s up to Christine, she’ll beat Alexa at her own game by solving the case first — as if Alexa would ever let that happen.

A supposed haunted house is the site of the death of estate agent Payton Green in “Location Location Location,” and owner Sage (Jess Hong, 3 Body Problem) has video to prove there’s a ghost in it. While the deceased’s colleague, the smarmy Baxter Wells (Benedict Wall, Home and Away), is trying to sell the hundred-year-old house now, next-door neighbor Leslie (Ilona Rodgers, The Brokenwood Mysteries) shares the home’s colorful history with Alex. Soon, Madison and Alex discover that things really do go bump in the night in the house.

And in “One Man’s Poison,” Alexa investigates a Midsomer-sounding “death by stir-fry,” in which Louie Cutler, the fiancé of Beatrice Boyd (Erin Meek), daughter of wealthy Karin (Tandi Wright, Creamerie) and Malcolm Boyd (Jamie Irvine, The Brokenwood Mysteries), is the victim. The entire family, including son Holden (Ben Black, Roman Empire), point the finger at private chef Tyler Wicks (Joel Tobeck, The Doctor Blake Mysteries) as the person who poisoned Louie. Tyler is Reuben’s friend and mentor and Reuben insists the guy is innocent, so Reuben joins Alexa and Madison in the investigation to help prove it.

As I’ve written before, I’ve been a fan of My Life Is Murder since Acorn TV brought the series to the US. I highly recommend it to everyone, especially to folks who prefer mystery stories to be free of violence, f-bombs, darkness and foreboding, and the like. Kiwi noir, this isn’t. It’s more like a cozy mystery, but instead of a Marple-esque amateur sleuth in a quaint village, there’s a funny, talented, quick-thinking professional investigator in a big city figuring out the whodunit, howdunit, and whydunit.

My Life Is Murder: Season 4, an Acorn TV Original, premieres in the US with two episodes on Monday, June 17, on both Acorn TV and BBC America. New episodes will drop in pairs on Mondays on both platforms through July 8.

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My Life Is Murder Series 1 DVD