Cause of Death Reviews

As boudoir whodunits go, this middling mystery does an adequate job of giving viewers reason to play along with its thriller moves. After the execution-style slaying of the Mayor's cousin, Luke Carter (Larry Day), Baltimore D.A. Jonas Phifer (Michael Ironside) pushes Deputy D.A. Taylor Lewis (Patrick Bergin) to indict Carter's widow. Because he successfully prosecuted an innocent woman in a previous case, Lewis drags his feet in the case of curvy, nervy Angela Carter (Joan Severance). Lewis notices weak points in his evidence and questions his boss's rush to judgment. Meanwhile, Detective Missy Baldwin (Maxim Roy) — who's nursing a crush on Lewis — gets a look at Angela's vamp act and starts working overtime to nail her. Not only did Angela sign a pre-nuptial agreement, but also there's no evidence of a hefty life insurance policy. But by the time the star witness to Angela's alibi is murdered, Lewis is too smitten to think straight. While Detective Baldwin keeps digging, Angela steers Lewis to a safety deposit box that contains $600,000 worth of her late husband's IOUs to racketeers. This box of motives must be weighed against an out-of-country insurance policy that surfaces: Is Angela a femme fatale or the victim of a frame-up by Carter's creditors? A missing surveillance tape of the Carter mansion could clear her, but Angela's jealous ex-lover, Sean Malloy (Edward Yankie), hurts her chance of acquittal by tampering with the brake lines of Lewis's car. As Detective Baldwin and Phifer scream for Angela's head, Lewis must factor in that life insurance policy, his lust for Angela, and his reputation. The plot thread involving Lewis's earlier bungled investigation bogs down the ongoing Carter case, but the big problem with this heavy breathing did-she-or-didn't-she thriller is that it offers more surprises than true suspense.