[Warning: General spoilers ahead.]
Saturday night, Hannah Swensen Mysteries returns with Sugar & Vice, a bottle show mystery set inside a hotel when Hannah and her family, Chad, the sheriff, and an assorted who’s who of Lake Eden’s finest find themselves trapped in a hotel during a storm with a murder victim and a murderer on the loose. Written by series star Alison Sweeney (from Joanne Fluke’s Sugar Cookie Murder and directed by Hallmarkie Peter Benson, the film is the first of two new installments we’re getting in 2026.
Sweeney and her co-stars Barbara Niven and Victor Webster announced last week that they’re in production now on another mystery that will premiere later this year. When I chatted with Sweeney last month for last weekend’s Romance at Hope Ranch, she shared the scoop on Sugar & Vice.
She was excited to do a self-contained Ten Little Indians/Knives Out style story. “I love those. I have, of course, a long-time love of mystery, and I was inspired by the classics like Agatha Christie for the locked-in concept,” she explains.
“I love it because it creates all sorts of different problems for the characters, and you can’t follow the rules and the chain of evidence and the normal way it would go. And I think that was a fun twist for this story. Sheriff Ron has to deal with Hannah and her ideas in a different way.”
“I had to add, of course, weather, so that they are trapped in this building. And then it just made it fun because they all have to brainstorm together to figure out their way out of this and what’s gonna happen. Then I wanted it to be an elaborate situation so that they’re all out of their comfort zone.”
“It’s a masquerade party, so they’re all in real costumes. Our costume designer, Kelsey Baran, did a phenomenal job. She really stepped up and made everyone in that party look fantastic. You’re trying to solve a murder, but the sheriff is still in his absurd costume, so it adds a good twist to it.”
Sweeney was also excited to have to MacGuyver some of the typical processes they rely on in the wild. “The clues are different because you can’t rely on DNA evidence or phones and tracing, locations, or whatever,” she shares.
“You have to really rely on the kind of sleuth thing that Hannah does. What did she overhear? What gossip does she know? She senses a connection between two people. It’s very different from the CSIs of the world, which makes it fun, too.”
“Peter Benson directed, and it’s his first time with us. He of course, was a big part of Aurora Teagaren, so he was very familiar with murder mysteries and knew the deal and he watched all the Hannahs so he could really bring his own voice and vision to our little world. He did a great job. I think it turned out great.”
Sweeney also enjoyed progressing the romance angle between Hannah and Chad—and Delores and the sheriff—in an ultra-heightened setting. “It’s fun because I thought, it’s one thing to go on a dinner date. Going to a masquerade ball is different, and more elevated, because you’re out of your comfort zone,” she says.
“It’s fun to see Chad and Hannah in that situation where she’s not in her normal casual wear. And Chad is there on a date and he is taking care of her and he’s a perfect dance partner in that way. But then when the crime happens, the protective streak in him comes out. They’re all also relying on each other’s wits to figure out what best to do over the course of the evening until they can get out of there.”
“I wanted it to still feel like we’re seeing the beginning of their relationship and the beginning of that trust and in new, different situations because it’s fun to be a part of that with them. And then Dolores and the Sheriff are there together, as well. So, you’re getting to see a little more of that new dynamic and then how the four of them interact. Seeing all those different energies interplay is fun.”
Sugar & Vice: A Hannah Swensen Mystery premieres Saturday, March 7th, at 8 pm/7c on Hallmark Channel and streaming on various outlets in the US. It will also be streaming the next day on Hallmark+ Here are a couple of sneak peeks.
Photos courtesy of David Astorga for Hallmark Media; videos courtesy of Hallmark Media.
