Melanie Clark (Anna Van Hooft) is a villainess from the 2015 Hallmark film, Real Murders: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, the second film of the Aurora Teagarden series (airdate July 26, 2015). She is the fiancee of Bankston Waites, and they are both members of Aurora Teagarden's "Real Murders" club.
Melanie shared Bankston's twisted belief that the club members were belittling his intelligence, and with that, she and Bankston decided to commit murders--doing so in an attempt to prove that they could be the perfect killers. Their first victim was fellow club member Mamie Wright, who was bludgeoned to death in her home. The villainous couple later murdered mayoral candidate Morrison Pettigrew by stabbing him to death in his bathtub, and they made an attempt on Sally Allison's father, before Aurora's call to the Allisons woke him up.
The two murders and the attempted murder were all copycats of classic murders, with Mamie's murder copying the unsolved murder of Julia Wallace from decades past. However, during Aurora's investigation with murder novelist (and Aurora's idol) Robin Daniels, a hammer was found in Robin's bag, and that gave Bankston away--as Aurora remembered his argument regarding the weapon used in Julia's murder, with Bankston stating that a hammer was used. After figuring out that Melanie had to be Bankston's partner, the pair went to their home to investigate, only to be caught by the pair.
Melanie and Bankston took Aurora and Robin to the library, with the villainess speaking in defense of her fiancee and speaking ill of the Real Murders club, accusing them of belittling Bankston. Their plan was to kill Aurora and Robin in the same fashion as a murder committed in a library years prior; with the use of a dictionary as a weapon. Aurora chastised Bankston for using the wrong dictionary, and informed him to use the original one, which was in the rare book room. This allowed Aurora to escape her capture, but she was unable to untie Robin in time. Meanwhile, Melanie was in the room looking for the dictionary, and while she was there, Aurora knocked out Bankston with the "wrong" dictionary and saved Robin. Melanie and Bankston were both arrested.
Trivia[]
- Melanie Clark is mostly similar to Marcia Rideout, the first Aurora Teagarden villainess. Both are part of villainous couples and act as friends of Aurora, but Melanie serves as a supporting antagonist, while Marcia was the first film's main villain.
- Anna Van Hooft later played psychotic villainess Kelly Conway in 2017's My Baby Is Gone!, as well as the villainous Claire Johnson in 2018's Til Ex Do Us Part.
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