'Murder in: Haute-Savoie' - Movie Review

Original title: "Meurtres en Haute-Savoie."

Like both "Murder in: Cognac" and "Murder in: The Land of the Cathars" which I watched recently, our two lead investigators have uncomfortably close ties to each other - in this case, brother and sister. And as locals, we hit another recurring theme in the "Murder in" series, as their family is tangled in the history of the murder(s). In this case, we start with an old woman dying after falling or being pushed off the base of a ski lift. What's clear is that she had some bad stuff in her veins, and it wasn't an accident. Haute-Savoie is in the mountains of France on the edge of Switzerland, and is a skiing resort town. It's set in early winter, and it's pretty in a way that's not really my thing.

The investigating officer has lived there all his life, and his father is the local doctor. He's expecting a second police officer up from Lyon to help with the investigation - but the person who arrives is his sister, also a police officer, who's standing in for another officer who became sick. Our lead obviously isn't pleased that it's his sister, and at the same time his daughter is interning at his office ...

This is the first time in a "Murder in" movie where I spotted the criminal a mile out. This was at least partly because of filming techniques: I was thinking "why does the film keep reminding me of this relatively minor character?" Most murder mysteries do this, throwing up red herrings, but in this case it seemed clear in combination with character notes that this was the person.