Quick answer: there are seven Mystery 101 films, made for Hallmark Movies & Mysteries between January 2019 and August 2021. Start with Mystery 101 and finish with Deadly History. The series was cancelled in 2023, so there are no more on the way.
If you have ever wished your favorite English teacher solved murders on the side, this is the series for you. It is smart without being stuffy, and the two leads spar like people who secretly enjoy it.
The premise
Jill Wagner plays Amy Winslow, a professor of English literature at Elmstead College in the small coastal town of Garrison, Washington. She teaches a class on crime fiction. Kristoffer Polaha plays Travis Burke, a big-city police detective newly transferred to Garrison, who would very much like her to stop helping. She does not stop. Robin Thomas plays Amy’s father, Graham Winslow, a famous author of detective novels.
Over seven films the two go from wary colleagues to friends to something more, while Amy keeps putting her reading list to practical use.
Mystery 101 movies in order
| # | Film | First aired |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mystery 101 | 27 January 2019 |
| 2 | Mystery 101: Playing Dead | 23 June 2019 |
| 3 | Mystery 101: Words Can Kill | 15 September 2019 |
| 4 | Mystery 101: Dead Talk | 22 September 2019 |
| 5 | Mystery 101: An Education in Murder | 29 March 2020 |
| 6 | Mystery 101: Killer Timing | 21 March 2021 |
| 7 | Mystery 101: Deadly History | 1 August 2021 |
Four of the seven came out in 2019 alone, two of them a week apart in September. After that the pace slowed to one film a year.
Is Mystery 101 over?
Yes. Deadly History (August 2021) was the last film, and the network officially cancelled the series in late April 2023. A year earlier, Jill Wagner had said publicly that Hallmark was not telling her anything about the series’ future.
Is Mystery 101 based on a book?
No. The series was created for television by Robin Bernheim and Lee Goldberg, and no novel is credited for any of the films. The only books in the story belong to Amy’s father, whose detective novels are part of the plot. That puts it alongside Crossword Mysteries as a Hallmark original, rather than a series like Aurora Teagarden that grew out of novels.
Do you need to watch them in order?
Each film solves its own case, so any one of them makes a fine Sunday evening. But Amy and Travis’s relationship builds steadily across all seven, and the later films lean on it. If that is half the fun for you, start at the beginning.
Where was Mystery 101 filmed?
Not in Washington. The films were shot in and around Vancouver, British Columbia, including Maple Ridge, and the Elmstead campus scenes were filmed at Quest University in Squamish and the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford.
FAQ
How many Mystery 101 movies are there?
Seven, released between 2019 and 2021.
Who stars in Mystery 101?
Jill Wagner as Amy Winslow and Kristoffer Polaha as Travis Burke, with Robin Thomas as Graham Winslow.
Will there be an eighth Mystery 101 movie?
No. The series was officially cancelled in April 2023.
Which film is your favorite, and would you have signed up for Amy’s crime fiction class? Tell us in the comments.
Keep reading
- Crossword Mysteries in order
- Hallmark mystery movies based on books
- Cozy mysteries set in bookshops and libraries
Sources
Film titles, order, air dates, cast and production details were checked on 3 November 2026 against:
- Wikipedia — Mystery 101 (film list with original release dates, cast, filming locations and cancellation)
- Hallmark Mystery — the network’s own site
Spotted a mistake? Tell us in the comments and we will fix it.