Peter Mooney fought to keep the streets of Toronto safe for close to 50 episodes of Rookie Blue as Officer Nick Collins.

Now he’s back on the beat, albeit in a very different setting.

Returning for the second season of Hallmark’s Mistletoe Murders as Detective Sam Wilner, Mooney (Saving Hope) is fighting crime while juggling romance, espionage and decorating the Christmas tree.

Mistletoe Murders, airing Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on W Network and StackTV, is based on the Audible podcast of the same name. Created by Ken Cuperus (Hudson & Rex), the six-episode season follows Emily Lane (Sarah Drew), the owner of Under the Mistletoe, a year-round Christmas-themed store. When she’s not running the shop, Emily is solving crimes and keeping a secret: she is a former spy who has been given a new name and started a new life in the small town of Fletcher’s Grove.

During the course of Season 1, Emily and Sam tackled whodunnits, got close and, ultimately (spoiler alert), kissed. The season finale’s smooch was followed by an awkward conversation. Sam asked Emily to reveal her secret, and she refused, leaving a cliffhanger that could have been the series’ final scene if Mistletoe Murders wasn’t renewed.

“It is a gamble,” Mooney admits about the cliffhanger. “The way these stories are written, with a self-contained mystery over two episodes, there is the bigger overarching mystery of, ‘Who is Emily Lane?’ And the reality, with what Ken has cooked up in his head, is going to take a while to figure out. We knew we were gambling on a Season 2 and, luckily, it went our way.”

When we catch up with Emily and Sam on Friday’s return, that conversation continues, seemingly giving closure—for now—on their budding relationship while kicking off a new mystery. Fans begging for more of Emily’s backstory rejoice: Friday’s return peeks back at her first days as a young student. As for Sam, Season 2 finds him continuing the adventure that is raising teenage daughter Violet (Sierra Marilyn Riley) while not letting Emily’s reluctance to answer his questions stop him from doing digging of his own.

Filmed on location in Toronto and on the former small-town set built for Season 1 of Reacher, Mistletoe Murders is the perfect blend of cozy crime drama, made popular by Midsomer Murders, Grantchester and Father Brown, and the Hallmark holiday movie genre filled with baubles, bows, candy canes and cookies that has become a seasonal (and year-round for some) sensation.

“It does really feel like a family,” Mooney says of being in the Hallmark stable of talent. “So many of the people have longstanding relationships with Hallmark and know and have worked with each other. It’s a really lovely and inclusive bunch of people.”

Mistletoe Murders airs Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on W Network and StackTV.

Images courtesy of Corus.