SQUEAKY CLEAN MYSTERIES: HAZARDOUS DUTY

SQUEAKY CLEAN MYSTERIES: HAZARDOUS DUTY, currently streaming on Pure Flix, is a successful hybrid of an amateur detective murder mystery and a “girl meets boy” family-channel style romance, in a story about a forensics expert and crime scene cleaner who tries to solve a shooting murder that seems to be stumping local police. HAZARDOUS DUTY is a satisfying, well-acted murder mystery with a strong moral worldview extolling truth and justice.

The opening scene shows a woman sleeping in bed, and then a nighttime intruder opening an unlocked patio door. The intruder sneaks upstairs into the bedroom and aims a gun at the snoozing female. The camera quickly moves to the exterior scenes of the home, and two gunshots erupt with simultaneous flashes of light through differing house windows. Technically, the shooting is not shown; yet the set up effectively launches one’s mind to potentially play it out via imagination.

The scene changes to the opening titles of the movie that come and go against background images of a morning commute whose focus tightens onto a van rolling on the roadways and arriving at its destination. It’s a crime scene clean-up van arriving at the victims’ address. There is sound-over during the titles as narrated voices, presumably reporters on various morning newscasts, give details of the shooting, reinforcing what the audience imagined. After the cleaning service arrives, contracted to restore the crime scene after homicide investigators have finished, the first quarter of the tale continues showing the further visual evidence of blood stains in the upstairs bed and on a downstairs rug, all accentuating the original violent deed.

The movie then slowly but engagingly introduces us to all the varied characters of the story, including the three main characters, plus seven potential suspects. The central character of the whole tale (as well as all 19 novels in the book series that inspired this initial film entry) is one of the two people on the crime scene clean-up crew. During the movie, viewers find out that, after her father suddenly died, Gabby St. Claire put graduating with her forensic science college degree on hold in order to support her mother. Yet, her forensic training prepared her well for the job she chose at Martin’s Cleaning Service: Crime Scene Cleaning Specialists.

Two hallmates on her apartment floor round out the trio of the movie’s hero/heroine figures. Gabby’s longtime apartment neighbor is Sierra Loomis, an aspiring actress with a coffee house day job. Sierra brings both faithful friendship and comic relief to Gabby’s serious life and enthusiasm to the storyline. Riley Thomas just moved in on the other side of the hall and becomes interested in Gabby and in this specific unsolved murder Gabby is now fixated upon. It definitely won’t hurt the case nor the script that Riley once worked for a large legal firm.

The newscast narration during the opening titles names Gil Newsome as the first murder suspect. The husband of the couple shot in their home was set to testify against Gil Newsome in an upcoming armed robbery trial. Gil’s fresh shoe prints were found at the crime scene. Gil insists he was there earlier and knows nothing about the eventual shooting.

The husband of the couple, Michael Cunningham, surviving his gunshot wound, claims that he arrived home and surprised the escaping intruder. Michael is currently a congressional candidate in an upcoming election, so this makes the news story an even bigger deal. However, when evidence turns up that punches holes in both his marriage fidelity and truth-telling, Michael emerges as suspect number two.

Almost everyone else involved in the story gives off suspicious vibes. Suspect number three is nosey, know-it-all, next-door neighbor to the victims, Barbara O’Conner. Her omnipresence in scenes involving anything in and around the crime site, her over eagerness to provide information, plus her none-too-upset demeanor just give you that feeling. Martin’s Cleaning Service owner and Gabby’s boss, Harold Martin, becomes an official person of interest, and suspect number four, based on a past conviction. (One then wonders how he got the police department cleaning contract!)

The candidate’s campaign manager, Candace Mills, gets implicated in an extra-marital affair with Michael, and thus becomes suspect number five, having potentially staged the non-fatal shooting of her love interest. Let’s not leave out Detective Parker of the town’s police department. Her aloof reluctance to gladly accept any of Gabby’s volunteered forensic expertise creates the impression that she could be in on it and is herself suspect number six.

In the last stretch of the film, one of the prime suspects shows up uninvited in Gabby’s apartment kitchen, whereupon Gabby uses a handy bread board to knock the suspect face-first to the floor, unconscious. After leaving to round-up her hallmates for protection, they return to the kitchen to find the suspect now deceased with a kitchen knife in the back, the body unseen by the viewer, but reported upon. This turn of events makes Gabby St. Claire the seventh potential suspect to this and the original murder, at least as far as the Dentonville Police Department is concerned.

In a later return to the kitchen, a chalk outline of the body is briefly displayed, as Gabby’s own apartment has not yet been cleaned after law enforcement finished their work. All the better, though, as Gabby herself inspects the entire scene with her meticulous cleaning service eyes. As viewers might suspect, Gabby proceeds to find evidence that provides a clue to the murderer’s identity.

SQUEAKY CLEAN MYSTERIES: HAZARDOUS DUTY is a satisfying murder mystery, full of professional actors demonstrating their well-honed craft. With major emphasis on a multitude of characters to develop, there’s plenty of dialog and a minimum of action. The lulls in pacing are set in a storyline that promotes a strong moral worldview. The movie extols right and wrong, the pursuit of facts and truth, and seeking criminal justice for illegal behavior. It also depicts a healthy gal-pal friendship and an appropriate, gradually developing romantic interest between the female lead and her new apartment neighbor. Sadly, though, the book series has an overt Christian worldview that’s not included in this film adaptation. Christian elements found in the novels, such as conversations about God, commitments to Christ, and prayer, didn’t make it into HAZARDUS DUTY.

Also, given the nature of HAZARDOUS DUTY being a crime whodunnit, there are a few characters with amoral, immoral and self-centered worldviews who try to get away with murder, literally. Also, deception is practiced by the heroines when Gabby and Sierra borrow nurse uniforms and impersonate hospital staff to illicitly obtain security cam footage about a suspect. Gabby’s imperfect humanity further shows occasional remorse but no amends about her benign neglect of her relationship with her elderly mother, tipping us off to a potentially dysfunctional, family relationship. All this, along with the depictions of elements of murder, warrant caution for younger children.

Ultimately, SQUEAKY CLEAN MYSTERIES: HAZARDOUS DUTY provides a viewing experience ripe for discussions among families with older children. The movie is also satisfying to fans of both murder mysteries and romance.