User Reviews

It's a slow mystery set in leafy rural England, similar to a lot of UK TV shows.

Quite predictable, but full of lots of good British comedy actors like Caroline Quentin. Kelsey Grammer is as watchable as ever.

This won't set your world on fire but it passed a pleasant 95 minutes for me.

Before I watched this film, I thought it's going to be unbearable seemingly this is some kind of low budget film. But I was amazed to see it turned out to be a watchable film. Yes, the story is simple and so plain, but the director somehow managed to make it not to feel bored. I wasn't feeling bored while I was watching it even though I was kind of feeling sleepy. I woke up completely after 15 minutes of watching this film because it seemed to be interesting and I enjoyed the whole thing.

Anyway, it was fun and I kind of had good time with this film. Although this film is doing okay and watchable, if the story was better than now, it'd be more interesting and I might give it more stars.

Right, well initially I was lured in by this 2021 crime mystery's title. I mean, with it being titled "Miss Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop", I figured that I would be in for something with some kind of haunting.

But imagine my surprise when I found out that what I was in for was something rather different. Yeah, "Miss Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop" from writers Josh Ridgway and Kate Wood felt like a movie based on a cheap mystery novel. You know, the ones that come a dime a dozen and aimed at a slightly older audience. That is how this movie came off to me. So I was somewhat disappointed with it not having ghosts.

And I also have to say that the fact that Kelsey Grammer was on the cast list helped to win me over to sit down and watch the movie.

Director Brad Watson didn't really deliver a movie that fell all that much into my liking. Sure, a mystery movie is fine, but not if it feels like one of those cheap crime mysteries that you have tossed at you with the purchase of a weekly magazine. The storyline simply was too stereotypical, generic and predictable. And there weren't much of any suspense or thrills throughout the course of the movie.

Sure, it was fun to watch Nathalie Cox and Kelsey Grammer playing together in a movie again and at the same mansion nonetheless. They worked togethat at the very same location back in 2020 for the Christmas movie titled "Father Christmas". So that was a fun thing to witness, not that it had any influence on the storyline or anything.

The acting performances in the movie were good. But the storyline was just a tad too generic and mundane for my liking.

My rating of "Miss Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop" lands on a four out of ten stars.

All actors perform well but what a disastrous script.

Obvious ending and if you're waiting for a twist it doesn't come.

Definitely not Agatha Christie.

This movie is better than any Hallmark Original that would come up with the same premise, and that is good enough for me to watch it till the end.

The chemistry between the two leads is believable, the pace of action does not stall once the 1st act is done, and the final act has enough surprises/turns to make the 95 previous minutes worth it.

I don't get it. A mystery with no mystery. A suspense story with no suspense. Hiqh quality acting wasted on a script lifted straight from a very poor episode of Scooby Doo. The writer and director should both read some Agatha Christie. There is no mystery where there is only one obvious set of villains. A lot of 0s and 1s went to digital heaven for no purpose.

Miss Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop is a simple old fashioned British whodunit mystery.

Miss Willoughby is not Miss Marple and this story is definitely not a Agatha Christie story. Also the movie has a TV look and may be a bit slow for some, but it is a good story with very likable actors.

We open in 1996 and young Elizabeth Willoughby is attending her parents funeral. Elizabeth inherits the family's elaborate huge English Estate complete with full-time servants. A family friend, Robert (Kelsey Grammer) becomes Elizabeth's Guardian and caretaker of the Family Estate.

Robert raises Elizabeth and trains and teaches her fitness, martial arts, chess. And ancient war strategies.

Then we cut 25 years later, and now an adult, a book author, and Professor of Ancient Civilizations, Elizabeth (Nathalie Cox) is asked to investigate a series of hauntings at her friend's Bookshop.

As Elizabeth starts to investigate, she begins to question the possibility that this may be a real ghost.

The movie is more of a fun British TV show and doesn't really take itself too seriously but I did enjoy it. The ending suggest that this may be the first of many more Miss Willoughby mystery films.

I actually thought this was a Hallmark movie mystery.... Hallmark movies are cheesy as hell but they're way better than whatever this snooze fest was. It was just so boring, no build up, not even a decent storyline. Once the villain was exposed I turned it off.

Was expecting it to be a hallmark quality production but it was actually decent. Sure there not great actors and Kelsey grammer doesn't try anymore but it had a decent mystery and story going throughout. Not overly long or complicated, worth the watch for someone looking for a short murder mystery.

A woman becomes convinced her bookshop is haunted. A local amateur sleuth investigates.

A terrible film. The cast is fine but a weak script. The overall plot itself is not too bad but it's so low budget, boring and unengaging.

Several times I wanted to switch it off and I wish I had. Avoid!

It wasn't what I anticipated, but sometimes that's a good thing. Well written, excellent casting. I'm not sure why others rated so low... If they made this into a series, I'd gladly watch!

Walt Disney's Pollyanna was more dramatic than this"mystery" crime drama!!...the Cole ladies martial arts skills were weaker than a wet paper kitchen towel.

We watch a lot of Hallmark mysteries that all have a predictable, boring plot that normally ends up with the heroine kicking the gun out of the perp's hand (after the confession, of course). This movie had a plot that was just as bad, only this heroine manages to kick 2 guns out. Bravo! At least this is only a one off.

. . . unveils in to a who-done-it mystery. Kelsey Grammer is as always excellent in his role. My personal mystery of this film is why Nathalie Cox's character has no love interest.

This looked like the usual, cookie cutter mystery, where the good brilliant and the bad are devious and all pulled from a generic pool of heros and villians.

This does that but really just skimmed the top of the pool, got the most generic cut and ran with it ...

That by itself is not abad thing, it is exactly what is expected and there is a certain comfort in that. However once they had these characters they did nothing with them, the bad were just bad ( in every way) and the good were just meh ( not anything more than a meh ).

Getting the the real plot of the story it felt like the whole thing was just lumped together to fill time and make some sort of plot that almost, would work ... swiss cheese is glad it does not have this many plot holes !

The story feels like it was written in a afternoon, and directed in 2.

The upside is Kelsey Grammar is really fun to watch, he made me want to believe a little more, I even to a air bit enjoyed Nathalie Cox in her role, although it did feel her direction was somwhat unimaginative.

I think I am being pretty fair with a 4.

I suppose having Kelsey Grammer in it helped draw us in to watch, but this movie brings you back down to earth and not try to excite you beyond your desensitised feelings like most movies try these days. It's a family movie, a bit obvious with the clues but that's ok. Would see another in the franchise when it comes.

Decided to watch this as wanted something that didn't need a lot of concentration whilst laying on the sofa unwell. And whilst I wasn't expecting anything brilliant I also wasn't expecting it to be this was so bad.

Whatever you do don't waste your time watching it and if you do, don't say I didn't warn you.

Miss Willoughby (Nathalie Cox) was raised by her guardian former soldier Robert Windsor (Kelsey Grammer) after the death of her parents. She was taught hand-to-hand combat, strategy, and much book learning. She is now teaching ancient civilization in university. Her friend Helen seems to be having trouble. She and her husband Oliver Deakins run her late father's bookstore but she's being haunted by her father. Willoughby and Windsor set off each on their own investigation.

This is a lower grade TV mystery. It may insulting but it's comparable to a good Hallmark mystery. I don't know if the intent is to start a series of these mystery movies on Brit TV. I don't see any great needs for that. The obvious first investigative move is to check the pills. If I was Willoughby, I would ask for one of the pills. For all they know, they could be contaminated. At least, Windsor is willing to ask but he does it in a ridiculous way. They seem to be trying for comedy there. As for the duo's chemistry, Windsor has to be the mentor but Grammer does not give off that airs. All in all, this is second rate and borderline grade at best.

Enjoyable, light, breezy kinda watch. Ok the storyline is predictable but Cox is pure delight to watch. Dear makers, please don't stop at this, hope it turns to a series or more movies. Love to watch this sassy detective at work.

Obviously intended to kickstart another TV 'cosy crime' series. Nathalie Cox is unfortunately both bland and cold as wealthy mystery solver Miss Willoughby, trained in military strategy and martial arts since childhood after the deaths of her parents (very 'Batman' - she even lives in a ridiculously large, isolated mansion); but co-lead Kelsey Grammer is as watchable as ever as her Alfred-like assistant/mentor, Robert. You'll probably see the solution to this paranormal head scratcher coming a mile away, but it passes the time well enough. Not sure I can see this becoming a hit franchise. 6/10.

Whilst it passed an hour and a half pleasantly enough, I felt cheated by the title.

Certainly OK for a Sunday afternoon, and with decent acting and production values, but a little spookiness wouldn't have harmed it at all.

This movie reminded me of the made-for-tv movies of the week from the 1980's. It just wasn't very good. The most interesting character was a little obnoxious.

This movie could have been written twenty years ago it felt that old. It was like some old fashioned TV Movie, the sort of thing the TV companies churned out in there hundreds. Less than half an hour into this movie, both the wife and I had figured out who the guilty parties were...it really wasn't difficult. One scene where a lady says she likes York because it is so quite, was laughable for anyone who has spent any time in York...it certainly isn't a quite city. There were numerous references during the movie to the history of Miss Willoughby which leaves you feeling like you've missed others movies or perhaps a TV series. Ultimately this is just another off the conveyer belt movie that offers nothing new or exciting, and even as something familiar it falls well short of decent entertainment.