Customer Reviews

Too Many Crooks Spoil The Broth

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Tamar Myers' character Magdalena Yoder is a hoot! The dialogue is great, imagine it with a Penn-dutch accent and you'll find it even better. The people around Mags all add to the excitement. The recipes included in the book also sound great, and having now read the first three books of the series, I can say they get better and better!

This is the first book in a series written about Magdalena Yoder who owns the PennDutch Inn in Hernia, Pennsylvania. Magadalena is an upfront woman who tries to always follow what the Good Lord teaches, but always manages to twist it around to suit her. Reading this book brought many a giggle to my lips as the Amish characters were a kick! You can almost forget that one of Magdalena's guests have been murdered as you read about the local sheriff who accuses Magdalena of the murder. (But he once tried to milk a bull.) For a bit of light reading, start with this one and you'll be anxious to read the next one.

I did enjoy this book. It is genuinely funny in quite a few spots. Magdalena is quite a character. She is a no-nonsence, mean-spirited Pennsylvania Dutch woman who has turned her family farmhouse into a successful country inn. The hotel guests were interesting as we meet them through the book. The murders themselves were a bit slow and the mystery was less than breathtaking, but it was still fun to read and I will read more by this author. There is a lot about food in the book, and you will find yourself hungry as you read it. Miss Magdalena's acid tongue gets to be a bit much sometime, but nevertheless, the book is worth a read. In this book Magdelena is faced with two sudden deaths of her hotel guests. Are they connected? She sets out to find out pretty much on her own since the acting constable is a bumbling idiot.

I bought this book completely on a whim while at a mystery book store. The play on words in the title caught my eye. I was not disappointed. This series is more amusing than a lot of mysteries, focusing mainly on the first-person oberservations of the main character. Magdelena is witty and conservative, and very clever. A lot of humor can be derived from her observations. I enjoyed this book a lot, and I've just started the second one. I also thought including recipes was a clever idea.

This is the first in the Pennsylvania-Dutch murder series, and one can only hope that the series improves with practice. By the time I was one-third of the way through, I'd slogged through enough whining about how the main character had been deprived of all the normal adolescent fun (proms, etc.) while her much-younger sister got all the experience (and then ran off and married outside the community) that I was ready to scream as loudly as the author has the characters hollering. To call the dialogue ham-handed is to give it more credit than it deserves. And the main character doesn't solve the murder -- the murderer conveniently attacks her and then confesses, outlining all of the steps in the murder -- no brainpower needed at all. Why bother?

This first book in the Penn-Dutch mystery series by Tamar Myers is nothing short of wonderful. From start to finish this page turner is full of kooky characters that we quickly cherish (well, most of them), a hilarious narrative, and a darned good mystery to boot. Not to mention the recipes! A pure pleasure to read. Thank you, Ms. Myers!

Magdalena Yoder has turned her family farmhouse into a famous Amish country inn. Booked well in advance, she has the privilege of selecting her customers. So she's a little surprised when she discovers she's booked a hunting party led by a well-known Senator and an anti-hunting, animal rights group for the same week, the opening week of hunting season. With the varying dietary requirements of the two groups, she has her hands full keeping the guests happy and fed while keeping her cook in the kitchen and her sister in line. And that's before the first body shows up!

As a mystery this book is a little slow. The first body doesn't show up for quite some time, and then it's the one guest we've forgotten about. Still, there is plenty of conflict to keep the reader going and I never felt the pace lagged. The guests are interesting characters, however the characters that are to be regulars seem like they could become annoying caricatures. Still, this is a fun, promising first novel and I plan to read more books by this author.

I have read a number of culinary mysteries and I found this one a waste of my time. Two murders take place - is any one concerned? When I finished the last page of the book - where was the ending?

Miss Magdalena Yoder is the innkeeper of the chi chi PennDutch Inn in southern Pennsylvania. Here you pay through the nose for the spartan furnishings, simple food, and the privilege of cleaning your own room. It's all in the name of atmosphere-the 43-year-old Miss Yoder is a Mennonite, and her farm (the legacy left by her parents' sudden death 10 years ago) is now an inn with the longest waiting list in the state.

With a client list that reads like People magazine, Magdalena has her hands full keeping the inn running smoothly. Her sister Susannah is too busy staying out late and (gasp!) putting on makeup to be of much help, and Magdalena's cantankerous cook is prone to quitting every day or so. When an ambitious congressman comes to the inn for the start of deer hunting season, followed by a group of animal rights protestors, Magdalena thinks she might be in over her head. But it's not until a body turns up that she realizes just how out of hand things can get. With the reputation of her inn at stake, Magdalena sets out to find a killer.

Magdalena is a wonderful character. She's irreverent at the same time she is true to her Mennonite upbringing. Her shock at her sister's behavior (and the behavior of the English) is truly reflective of this different culture. At the same time, she yearns to travel, she's not too pious to sneak a peak at the television every now and then, and she's been known to let slip a rude remark when provoked.

Better yet, Myers is a fun and savvy writer, someone to read closely. Look for her description of "Tammy Myers," the chief of police's wife. There's also a character named Dorothy Gillman, and a reference to Poe's "The Purloined Letter," which is also the name of the newsletter for the High Crimes Mystery Bookshop in Boulder, Colorado. I'm sure a close reader will discover more treats for the avid mystery fan.

But best of all, read closely and you will enjoy Myers' subtle sense of humor as much as her overt one. The Amish Lifestyle Plan Option is abbreviated ALPO. One character belongs to the New Age Church of Holistic Oneness (NACHO), and the animal rights group is the Animal Parity Endowment Society (APES).

My only complaint is that the resolution to the mystery is a bit weak-the reader is never provided all the clues that help to solve the case, and things wrap up a bit too quickly. Still, Miss Yoder is a wonderful addition to the world of amateur sleuths, and the book even comes with recipes. Who could ask for more?

Magdalena Yoder is the owner of the PennDutch Inn. She is a no-nonsense lady and cleverly includes in the options for the inn the Amish Lifestyle Plan where the guests clean their own rooms. This corresponds to the Amish culture and saves Magdalena a whole lot of work. Magdalena also cooks for her guests and Myers sprinkles recipes throughout her book. In her spare time, Magdalena tries to keep her more worldly sister Susannah on the straight and narrow, argues with her tempermental cook, Freni, and works on solving the murders of two of her guests. She is an interesting and amusing character and is not quite as "over the top" as Myers' heroine, Abigail Timberlake, in the Den of Antiquity series. This is an enjoyable introduction to the series with amusing characters, complicated enough plot and all the loose ends put together at the end.