Nathalie Cox

(On Cable TV, October 2022) The lineage of Miss Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop as a low-end made-for-streaming title is obvious from the get-go—while some of the cinematography is glossy, much of the film lives in this awkward space reserve for films attempting too much on a small budget. It’s also, clearly, the (attempted?) start of a franchise, what with our heroine (Nathalie Cox, adequate) set up as this orphan who grows up, under the tutelage of her loyal butler (Kelsey Grammer, slumming but having fun), to be a mystery-solving detective. To its credit, the film is almost exactly what it presents itself to be: a pleasant small-town non-nonsense British mystery in which the heroine figures the mystery before people get really hurt. Ideal for the prototypical middle-aged audience that doesn’t want too much excitement in their thrillers. “Watchable” is probably where most assessments will land—not spectacular in any way (even the heroine’s deductions are few and slight), absolutely not interested in the supernatural, fairly light on the suspense even when there are gunshots going around. It’s not good, but it’s cozy. [September 2026: Five years later, no further films have been produced in the series.]