'Mistletoe Murders' 2: Cobie Smulders can let her Canadian accent fly in Audible murder mystery

While much of Canada won't be seeing any snow this Christmas, it's still the perfect time to tuck into a thrilling and captivating winter-themed murder mystery, the Audible Original story Mistletoe Murders, with characters voiced by several talented Canadian actors, including Cobie Smulders and Raymond Ablack.

With the second season now available to listen to on Audible, after the story's initial 2022 release, Smulders reprises her role as the narrator of the story and Emily Lane, the owner of Christmas-themed store in the town of Fletcher’s Grove. Ablack voices Detective-Constable Sam Wilner, who's trying to solve murder cases that continue to impact this small community, and he also has a crush on Emily.

In the second season of the story, we start to learn a little bit more about Emily's mysterious past, as she continues to be involved in the investigation of the murders, and gets closer to Sam.

While Mistletoe Murders is a great story for everyone, Canadians will have a few extra bits of Canadiana to enjoy in the story, some of which are specifically related to Smulders herself.

"They mentioned White Rock a couple of times, which they put in because that was the town that I grew up in on the border in B.C., and I love it," Smulders told Yahoo Canada.

For the actor, who was a favourite on How I Met Your Mother, and also played Maria Hill in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), working on Mistletoe Murders meant she could really lean into any remnants of her Canadian accent.

"I can let this Canadian accent just fly," Smulders highlighted. "It's nice to do a project where if there's a ... sound that comes out, it's OK."

"It's also the seasons. I live in California now, there's no snow and I missed that, and I miss the seasons changing and the excitement of the holidays, ... and how closely connected that is to the weather and the fireplaces of it all. It was nice to tuck into the Canadian life for a moment."

'That voice just becomes so intimate and important'

Coming back for book 2 of Mistletoe Murders, both Smulders and Ginny & Georgia star Ablack were excited about the direction of the murder mystery story.

"I really love the direction they were going in, because they set up in the first season that Emily has this mysterious past, ... we don't know where she's coming from, we know she's running from something, but we don't know what that is," Smulders said. "This season, we're finally tapping into that."

"That mainly uncovers itself because of her relationship with Sam Wilner ... and their relationship deepens, and they become more intimate with each other, and with that more information comes to the surface about who she is actually. By the end of this season, we kind of know who she is and what she did in her past, and tee up some stuff for hopefully a third recording."

"I'm a sucker for a good guy who wears his heart [on his sleeve] and gets hurt really hard pursuing someone that he cares about, or loves, or has an interest in," Ablack said in a separate interview. "I'm a sucker for that rom-com trope and I was excited to see that go further with Emily."

Moving into audio-only storytelling, Ablack explained that the script becomes particularly important, compared to on-camera acting.

"Everything becomes heightened about what's on the page," he explained. "When you're physically on a set, you have all your senses, ... but when you're in a booth and you've got those headphones that are the best, better than anything I'm certainly wearing right now or any other time, that voice just becomes so intimate and important."

"Cobie's voice [is] what you have to rely on and you pay so much closer attention to it. It's an interesting experience and way to play within a new media."

Voicing the narrator of the story, Smulders recognized the importance of her voice to not just guide the narrative, but to keep listeners engaged.

"I love doing it. I am a fan myself, I listen to a lot of ... audiobooks on Audible, and it is so important, the narrator, and I hope I'm doing a good job," Smulders said. "Because it really can make or break ... a series."

"Our series has so many amazing performers, so thankfully it's not just on me, but when I'm listening to an audiobook, I tend to preview it first to go like, 'Who's reading this and am I going to like listening to their voice for like 22 hours.' It's an important thing and so I take that very seriously."

Ablack revealed that it can be exhausting to work in a space where you're putting so much energy into just using your voice to convey a character's narrative to the listening audience.

"You realize just how much you've got to put a lot of energy into your voice," Ablack said. "Where a wink or some subtle physical movement, or action, can convey a meaning on screen, ... you don't have those sorts of cheats or access in audio."

"You do leave at the end of that day pretty tired because all you're doing is standing in one room and delivering lines. I mean, technically, that's all you're doing. ... I wanted to, in Season 2, ... put all the energy that you would expend on a regular day on a physical set into just the booth."

The future of the 'Mistletoe Murders' story

When it comes to moving into a Mistletoe Murders 3, both Ablack and Smulders have some ideas for their characters.

"I felt like Sam got to be a little less doe-eyed this year, I felt like he was in on it this year and understood the covert side of Emily, but there's still so much," Ablack said. "There is a lot more that he doesn't know still, and he knows that he doesn't know."

"So I would like to see him sometimes have to be maybe stern or assertive with [Emily] in order to find out truly what's going on, and not be, ... for lack of a better word, playing the fool."

"We end Season 2 with a bit of a cliffhanger, ... and we sort of unveil what role she played in her past life, but not really her familial relationships," Smulders said in a separate interview. "I think with any character that I go into, I like to see a happy ending, I'd like to see her happily within a relationship, if that is what makes her the happiest, or just sort of find the peace."

"And we've got to stop the murders in this town. ... They're piling up, they are just one after the other. So to find peace, maybe in the interest of growth, would it be nice. ... I think we still have a lot more of a journey to go on, and looking into her past and why she had to start over. We don't know the answer to that so that would be interesting for the third season."