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Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery #19
The Death of Pie
When bestselling novelist Ramat Sreym falls face-down dead into Magdalena Yoder's prize-winning apple pie during the village of Hernia's 110th Annual Festival of Pies, there is no shortage of suspects in the subsequent murder investigation. But who was enraged enough by the acid-penned writer to want to poison her? Magdalena determines to find out.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 2014
60 people are currently reading
409 people want to read
About the author
Tamar Myers
63 books293 followersTamar Myers was born and raised in the Belgian Congo (now just the Congo). Her parents were missionaries to a tribe which, at that time, were known as headhunters and used human skulls for drinking cups. Hers was the first white family ever to peacefully coexist with the tribe, and Tamar grew up fluent in the local trade language. Because of her pale blue eyes, Tamar’s nickname was Ugly Eyes.
Tamar grew up eating elephant, hippopotamus and even monkey. She attended a boarding school that was two days away by truck, and sometimes it was necessary to wade through crocodile infested waters to reach it. Other dangers she encountered as a child were cobras, deadly green mambas, and the voracious armies of driver ants that ate every animal (and human) that didn’t get out of their way.
In 1960 the Congo, which had been a Belgian colony, became an independent nation. There followed a period of retribution (for heinous crimes committed against the Congolese by the Belgians) in which many Whites were killed. Tamar and her family fled the Congo, but returned a year later. By then a number of civil wars were raging, and the family’s residence was often in the line of fire. In 1964, after living through three years of war, the family returned to the United States permanently.
Tamar was sixteen when her family settled in America, and she immediately underwent severe culture shock. She didn’t know how to dial a telephone, cross a street at a stoplight, or use a vending machine. She lucked out, however, by meeting her husband, Jeffrey, on her first day in an American high school. They literally bumped heads while he was leaving, and she entering, the Civics classroom.
Tamar now calls Charlotte, NC home. She lives with her husband, plus a Basenji dog named Pagan, a Bengal cat named Nkashama, and an orange tabby rescue cat named Dumpster Boy. She and her husband are of the Jewish faith, the animals are not.
Tamar enjoys gardening (she is a Master Gardner), bonsai, travel, painting and, of course, reading. She loves Thai and Indian food, and antique jewelry. She plans to visit Machu Pichu in the near future.
Series:
* Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery
* Den of Antiquity Mystery
Tamar grew up eating elephant, hippopotamus and even monkey. She attended a boarding school that was two days away by truck, and sometimes it was necessary to wade through crocodile infested waters to reach it. Other dangers she encountered as a child were cobras, deadly green mambas, and the voracious armies of driver ants that ate every animal (and human) that didn’t get out of their way.
In 1960 the Congo, which had been a Belgian colony, became an independent nation. There followed a period of retribution (for heinous crimes committed against the Congolese by the Belgians) in which many Whites were killed. Tamar and her family fled the Congo, but returned a year later. By then a number of civil wars were raging, and the family’s residence was often in the line of fire. In 1964, after living through three years of war, the family returned to the United States permanently.
Tamar was sixteen when her family settled in America, and she immediately underwent severe culture shock. She didn’t know how to dial a telephone, cross a street at a stoplight, or use a vending machine. She lucked out, however, by meeting her husband, Jeffrey, on her first day in an American high school. They literally bumped heads while he was leaving, and she entering, the Civics classroom.
Tamar now calls Charlotte, NC home. She lives with her husband, plus a Basenji dog named Pagan, a Bengal cat named Nkashama, and an orange tabby rescue cat named Dumpster Boy. She and her husband are of the Jewish faith, the animals are not.
Tamar enjoys gardening (she is a Master Gardner), bonsai, travel, painting and, of course, reading. She loves Thai and Indian food, and antique jewelry. She plans to visit Machu Pichu in the near future.
Series:
* Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery
* Den of Antiquity Mystery
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
August 10, 2014
As a long time reader of both this series and the author's Den of Antiquity series, I am beyond disappointed in this book. There is virtually no plot whatsoever. The characters are flat and beyond annoying. Basically, it seems the author has brought forth every pun, quip, and sarcastic comment ever used in the series and thrown them in this book to be repeated ad nauseam. On top of that, she seems to have taken every criticism or critique ever given to her by a reader or editor and made passive aggressive comments concerning them. This work simply comes off as a self-serving, lazy attempt that thumbs its nose at the readers. This is by far the worst book I've read this year, possibly longer.
December 1, 2015
This series has always been an entertaining and enjoyable one, but this novel is not nearly as good as some of the previous tales. I know there is a plot in there somewhere, but sometimes you can’t find it for all the alliterative dialogue. Some of it was witty, but more often, I just wanted to get on with the story. It was too much Magdalena, and no, I never thought I would find myself saying that, and not enough of the “supporting cast.” And Magdalena’s dialogue never seemed to stop. Not enough action, too much dialogue, and a bare bones mystery let me down. Still, fans of this series will want to read this story, but if you are new to the series, read one of the earlier ones. This mystery won’t make a fan of you.
November 20, 2014
It's been a long time since I've read one of the Magdalena Yoder books, but unless my memory has gone, this is not nearly as amusing, nor as mysterious, as earlier books. In addition, characters seem to want to use a lot of Anglicisms, which seem out of place. An author who slandered the little town of Hernia is murdered. First Magdalena, as mayor, investigates most of the suspects. Then she's captured by the murderer, who tries to kill her. Her teenaged daughter talks like nothing seen on land nor sea, apparently to fit in with other teenagers. A disappointment.
July 9, 2014
That was disappointing. I've loved all of the PennDutch Inn books, until this one. There wasn't much of a story, and I normally laugh out loud while reading about those crazy characters...but not this time.
December 17, 2014
Until this book, I have really enjoyed this series. Not sure what happened with this one. :(
June 20, 2019
To give this book one star was an act of generosity.
I enjoyed previous books in this series, but this particular book had no plot. Magdalena's excessive use of alliteration and sarcasm and put downs became incredibly tedious.
I will give the next book in the series one last try, to see if there is an actual story line in it.
I enjoyed previous books in this series, but this particular book had no plot. Magdalena's excessive use of alliteration and sarcasm and put downs became incredibly tedious.
I will give the next book in the series one last try, to see if there is an actual story line in it.
January 2, 2021
Closer to 1.5 stars.
The change in publishers, and editor, I presume, has changed a dependably readable light mystery series into an absurdist, self-referential spectacle. It has some amusing parts, though.
The change in publishers, and editor, I presume, has changed a dependably readable light mystery series into an absurdist, self-referential spectacle. It has some amusing parts, though.
dnf
January 13, 2025dnf @ 49
Spoiler free rant 'cause I didn't even make it half way and I have so many issues with this book.
I picked it up from the mystery section of the library 'cause it seemed interesting like the death of pie?? But the book starting with the ten commandments should have been my first sign that I wouldn't like this. Pretty much immediately the mc tells the reader she had an affair with a jacuzzi she named Big Bertha. Which. It's a fucking jacuzzi. Also what is with her coming after pretty much every woman in this book? Like not even 15 pages in and she's already slut shaming. Also what the fuck is her business idea like she became a millionaire by having people pay her hundreds of dollars to clean the toilets and shit for the ExPeRiEnCe>?? Sure that definitely happens /s. And Ramat Sreym isn't even that hard to pronounce but the mc comes for her name anyway. And why isn't she a suspect? Ramat collapsed when she was tasting the mc's pie but she's not a suspect? Who trained Chief Officer Toy Graham (don't even get me started on his name)? Like nothing in this book makes any real sense. Also why did the author phonetically write in Ida's accent like I have no idea what the fuck she's saying. The mc is really acting like Ida is the crazy one like no she's the only one who has any sense and the bar is so low too like cmon. "People don't convert away from christianity" ??? what is the mc on. "We Americans are fanatics about equality" oh I'm sure /s. And how hard is it to hire an editor? Like this is the 19th book in the series or sm? But the difference between 'its' and 'it's' is too hard??? The last straw was when the mc mentioned a substitute who was introduced as a little out of it bc she hinted at believing the theory of evolution. Are you kidding? I shouldn't have even read this at all, definitely not for me.
Spoiler free rant 'cause I didn't even make it half way and I have so many issues with this book.
I picked it up from the mystery section of the library 'cause it seemed interesting like the death of pie?? But the book starting with the ten commandments should have been my first sign that I wouldn't like this. Pretty much immediately the mc tells the reader she had an affair with a jacuzzi she named Big Bertha. Which. It's a fucking jacuzzi. Also what is with her coming after pretty much every woman in this book? Like not even 15 pages in and she's already slut shaming. Also what the fuck is her business idea like she became a millionaire by having people pay her hundreds of dollars to clean the toilets and shit for the ExPeRiEnCe>?? Sure that definitely happens /s. And Ramat Sreym isn't even that hard to pronounce but the mc comes for her name anyway. And why isn't she a suspect? Ramat collapsed when she was tasting the mc's pie but she's not a suspect? Who trained Chief Officer Toy Graham (don't even get me started on his name)? Like nothing in this book makes any real sense. Also why did the author phonetically write in Ida's accent like I have no idea what the fuck she's saying. The mc is really acting like Ida is the crazy one like no she's the only one who has any sense and the bar is so low too like cmon. "People don't convert away from christianity" ??? what is the mc on. "We Americans are fanatics about equality" oh I'm sure /s. And how hard is it to hire an editor? Like this is the 19th book in the series or sm? But the difference between 'its' and 'it's' is too hard??? The last straw was when the mc mentioned a substitute who was introduced as a little out of it bc she hinted at believing the theory of evolution. Are you kidding? I shouldn't have even read this at all, definitely not for me.
May 3, 2014
In an interesting twist, Tamar Myers chooses to treat the last book in this series (Butter Safe than Sorry)
February 17, 2015
This is number 19 and should be the last!! There was no story! Just pages and pages of Magdalena. I have read the earlier ones, saw this in the new book section, and thought, OK. But Magdalena's descriptions of herself have become ridiculous. How did she marry a handsome Jewish Dr.? I can't believe I kept reading it, but she didn't find the murderer until the last few pages, and those pages were ridiculous!!
November 28, 2024
DNF.
Saying "did not finish" would be generous to this book, which I COULD not finish.
A cozy murder mystery set in Pennsylvania, the mood is all over the place, the writing bad, and the humor (which massively dominates any attempt to tell the mystery) ranges from dull to mean-spirited.
With some odd non sequiturs and what felt like a veiled reference to masturbation on the first page, I had hopes this would be a fun book; or at least a 'so bad it's fun' book. But a few pages later the main character, Magdalena, talked about her parents' violent death like they were involved in a goofy pratfall, and then grossly abuses and shames her (then 18 year old) sister for reacting to these tragic deaths by getting drunk and hooking up with strange men. Whereas SHE goes on to be a colossally successful millionaire, and the combined self-insert ego and vulgar biases are really hard to read. Even if that's your thing (ew), I don't know who in their right mind would try to make this funny.
If I didn't make it clear, the whole book is the MC talking directly to the reader. And after the first chapter of her just going on and on about herself, we get to the mystery in chapter two. Specifically, we find out that the murder has already happened, and Magdalena was witness to it, but we (the readers) aren't going to actually see it. Just hear it second-hand. Yeah, with another writer I might sarcastically say "that was an odd choice," but I am too exasperated with this writing to bother. This is a terrible choice, and other than an attempt at Avant garde writing or laziness, I cannot imagine why a writer would take it.
Not a page went by that I didn't want to yell out to my wife, "you wouldn't believe the s**t that is happening now!" It's a non-stop stream of nonsense and bad jokes. I felt my patience was over when Magdalena hissed something, and then specified that it was okay for HER to hiss it, because she had a soft 's' in the sentence, not like those plebian authors who hiss all kinds of consonants. Tamar Myers, bad enough you are interrupting your fiction with a micro-rant about your personal pet-peeve, but you have a lot of damn goal to be telling anyone how to write a book! I struggled on, perversely. Then in chapter three comes a joke about someone's deceased parent spinning in their grave fast enough to generate electricity for the whole town, and it is the EXACT same tepid joke as was told in chapter one. Yeah, put that in your "here's how to write a sentence" pipe and smoke it. Your jokes are bad, your editing is bad, and your ego is the worst.
This book feels like someone read some mysteries and some Dave Barry style humor, and thought that they could smash the two together, without having any actual ability to write either. The flood of jokes totally distracts from the mystery, and the low quality, mean humor distracts from... I don't know, the 1% of humor that could be generously called "adequate"?
I cannot finish this book, it was fun analyzing the absurdity, but not fun enough to do for free. I see that some of the writer's other books had much better ratings than this one, but I'm not going to give her a second chance after this cesspit.
Saying "did not finish" would be generous to this book, which I COULD not finish.
A cozy murder mystery set in Pennsylvania, the mood is all over the place, the writing bad, and the humor (which massively dominates any attempt to tell the mystery) ranges from dull to mean-spirited.
With some odd non sequiturs and what felt like a veiled reference to masturbation on the first page, I had hopes this would be a fun book; or at least a 'so bad it's fun' book. But a few pages later the main character, Magdalena, talked about her parents' violent death like they were involved in a goofy pratfall, and then grossly abuses and shames her (then 18 year old) sister for reacting to these tragic deaths by getting drunk and hooking up with strange men. Whereas SHE goes on to be a colossally successful millionaire, and the combined self-insert ego and vulgar biases are really hard to read. Even if that's your thing (ew), I don't know who in their right mind would try to make this funny.
If I didn't make it clear, the whole book is the MC talking directly to the reader. And after the first chapter of her just going on and on about herself, we get to the mystery in chapter two. Specifically, we find out that the murder has already happened, and Magdalena was witness to it, but we (the readers) aren't going to actually see it. Just hear it second-hand. Yeah, with another writer I might sarcastically say "that was an odd choice," but I am too exasperated with this writing to bother. This is a terrible choice, and other than an attempt at Avant garde writing or laziness, I cannot imagine why a writer would take it.
Not a page went by that I didn't want to yell out to my wife, "you wouldn't believe the s**t that is happening now!" It's a non-stop stream of nonsense and bad jokes. I felt my patience was over when Magdalena hissed something, and then specified that it was okay for HER to hiss it, because she had a soft 's' in the sentence, not like those plebian authors who hiss all kinds of consonants. Tamar Myers, bad enough you are interrupting your fiction with a micro-rant about your personal pet-peeve, but you have a lot of damn goal to be telling anyone how to write a book! I struggled on, perversely. Then in chapter three comes a joke about someone's deceased parent spinning in their grave fast enough to generate electricity for the whole town, and it is the EXACT same tepid joke as was told in chapter one. Yeah, put that in your "here's how to write a sentence" pipe and smoke it. Your jokes are bad, your editing is bad, and your ego is the worst.
This book feels like someone read some mysteries and some Dave Barry style humor, and thought that they could smash the two together, without having any actual ability to write either. The flood of jokes totally distracts from the mystery, and the low quality, mean humor distracts from... I don't know, the 1% of humor that could be generously called "adequate"?
I cannot finish this book, it was fun analyzing the absurdity, but not fun enough to do for free. I see that some of the writer's other books had much better ratings than this one, but I'm not going to give her a second chance after this cesspit.
December 27, 2019
So, with a new Publisher, based in Britain, Tamar Myers has to write a story that ret-cons some of the previous works, specifically mentioned: Butter Safe than Sorry, written by the author Ramat Sreym (author's name backwards), and that book is in-world of this story.
Someone has poisoned the author of the book who came back to judge a pie-eating contest and died face-first in Miss Yoder's apple pie.
The new Chief of Police, Toy Graham, asks Miss Yoder to help find the culprit and gives her a list, including Doc Shafer and Agnes Miller.
Through Magdalena's investigation, Agnes and Doc Shafer get together, the readers find out that Jacob (Mags' son) is still a year old, that she is still married to Gabriel Rosen, and Abigail is still a pre-teen.
Eventually, the villain kidnaps Magdalena and Alison, going to dispose of them later. They are arrested and shipped off - the story will probably never be the same.
Since the publisher changed, there are a lot of either British spellings or explanations about Americans and more references to Europe and European countries with their inhabitants.
Recipes
Freni Hostetler's Recipe for Shoofly Pie
Brown Sugar Pie (Milche Flichte)
Doc Shafer's Recipe for Green-Tomato Pie
Freni's Butterscotch Chiffon Pie
Someone has poisoned the author of the book who came back to judge a pie-eating contest and died face-first in Miss Yoder's apple pie.
The new Chief of Police, Toy Graham, asks Miss Yoder to help find the culprit and gives her a list, including Doc Shafer and Agnes Miller.
Through Magdalena's investigation, Agnes and Doc Shafer get together, the readers find out that Jacob (Mags' son) is still a year old, that she is still married to Gabriel Rosen, and Abigail is still a pre-teen.
Eventually, the villain kidnaps Magdalena and Alison, going to dispose of them later. They are arrested and shipped off - the story will probably never be the same.
Since the publisher changed, there are a lot of either British spellings or explanations about Americans and more references to Europe and European countries with their inhabitants.
Recipes
Freni Hostetler's Recipe for Shoofly Pie
Brown Sugar Pie (Milche Flichte)
Doc Shafer's Recipe for Green-Tomato Pie
Freni's Butterscotch Chiffon Pie
January 23, 2024
I tried to finish it, but at page 106 I was done. The beginning had me so confused that I had to check the book order to see if I read one out of order. I didn’t. In this book, we find that the last book wasn’t real. It was written by the victim in this book. What the heck?!
I used to love this series, but the main character has gotten so far away from being a conservative Mennonite that it’s ridiculous. I felt like I was reading a Harlequin the way she described her time in her hot tub.
Multiple times, the author talks about the Amish being related to each other. I got it the first time. She went into overdrive with her use of alliteration. There was absolutely no plot development. The characters are getting stale. After a while, I felt like I was listening to Charlie Brown’s teacher talk waa-waa-waa. The main character just blabbed on and on about stupid stuff. The entire idea of her driving around in the police car in a “pseudo uniform” is just stupid.
It was almost like someone entirely different is writing the book. Fun fact, this book takes place in America. We don’t use kph for speed limit. We use mph. This is a new publisher based in Great Britain, so I’m guessing someone there changed it.
I used to love this series, but the main character has gotten so far away from being a conservative Mennonite that it’s ridiculous. I felt like I was reading a Harlequin the way she described her time in her hot tub.
Multiple times, the author talks about the Amish being related to each other. I got it the first time. She went into overdrive with her use of alliteration. There was absolutely no plot development. The characters are getting stale. After a while, I felt like I was listening to Charlie Brown’s teacher talk waa-waa-waa. The main character just blabbed on and on about stupid stuff. The entire idea of her driving around in the police car in a “pseudo uniform” is just stupid.
It was almost like someone entirely different is writing the book. Fun fact, this book takes place in America. We don’t use kph for speed limit. We use mph. This is a new publisher based in Great Britain, so I’m guessing someone there changed it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 19, 2024
I’ve read and loved all of the books in this series up until the last couple which suddenly took a downward nosedive in quality. I could NOT finish this one! I got about 15% into it, and it felt like this former English major was tortured by a book made up of one run-on sentence. Said sentence could not be conjugated either, because I couldn’t even figure out what was going on. Add to that the fact that apparently the last book in the series was suddenly supposed to be a fictional book written by the murder victim of this book. I hadn’t read the last book in a while, but I know she left her husband, but now he’s back? I was completely confused, and I just could NOT finish. Keep in mind I have maybe only NOT finished 4 books since I retired 4 years ago out of hundreds. It has to be really, really bad for me to give up on it!
One thing for sure, I will not spend another penny on buying books in this series…if I give them a chance, I’ll get them at the library. It is not worth what they are trying to charge for them, not even close. Plus the last few don’t seem to be part of the original series on Amazon, so that is totally confusing.
I would suggest to anyone looking into this series that they read the earlier books in order, and stop at about 15 or 16. Time to retire this series.
One thing for sure, I will not spend another penny on buying books in this series…if I give them a chance, I’ll get them at the library. It is not worth what they are trying to charge for them, not even close. Plus the last few don’t seem to be part of the original series on Amazon, so that is totally confusing.
I would suggest to anyone looking into this series that they read the earlier books in order, and stop at about 15 or 16. Time to retire this series.
August 26, 2023
1 1/2 stars rounded up. Oh bless poor Tamar. I think she’s starting to hate this series as much as I do! Writer Ramat Sreym dies and face plants in Magdalena’s pie (all this before the story even starts), so we are forced to spend the rest of the book listening to Magdalena’s bad puns and sarcasm IN EVERY SINGLE THING SHE SAYS while she bumbles around, trying to find the murderer. I couldn’t even tell you anything else that happened in this book. Magdalena was so irritating that I couldn’t concentrate on anything else. I’m going to have to give up this series. It started out so strong! I hate that it’s gotten so, so bad.
April 30, 2018
These mysteries are great and lots of dry humour thrown in, along with super recipes that can be tried out.
In this novel Magdalena is asked by the young and inexperienced Chief of Police to help investigate the death of a local author who had once stayed in Magdalena's Inn. The author dies whilst judging a local pie contest and this has really upset Magdalena as it was her pie the author fell into when she died.
In this novel Magdalena is asked by the young and inexperienced Chief of Police to help investigate the death of a local author who had once stayed in Magdalena's Inn. The author dies whilst judging a local pie contest and this has really upset Magdalena as it was her pie the author fell into when she died.
June 2, 2017
So this book was really weird because the last book didn't actually happen apparently. And this really really needed a good editing because there were tons of continuity errors. People's names were different, situations were told differently than what they happened in earlier books. I only gave it 3 stars because there were some really funny moments. Other than that I was really confused.
July 15, 2019
Truly love all The Pennsylvania Dutch mzstery books and look forward to the next one!
I have enjoyed the Amish humour in this book and highly recommend it for a great chuckle.
I read many paragraphs to my very sick friend, who is an Amish descendant, to make her smile.
Great thanks!
I have enjoyed the Amish humour in this book and highly recommend it for a great chuckle.
I read many paragraphs to my very sick friend, who is an Amish descendant, to make her smile.
Great thanks!
January 4, 2020
I read this one- painfully. I was a fan of the earlier series but this book was drawn out, cheesy, and just not good. It feels like a dead horse was taken out back and beaten some more. I never want to hear the words sturdy underwear or brogans again. I am disappointed that a series that started so strong has to be drug across the finish line.
November 23, 2021
Lots of silliness prevails in this book about a death during a pie contest in the village of Hernia. Magdalena Portulaca Yoder Rosen must rise to the occasion and help the police chief solve the murder. The primarily Amish-Mennonite community, Magdalena's faith, and a host of crazy characters permeate this book.
If you need a quick read and some laughter, you might enjoy this book.
If you need a quick read and some laughter, you might enjoy this book.
September 27, 2018
This was simply awful. The books in the series have been getting worse over time. This shows that it is past time to end the series. There are lots of problems. But the worst is that Magdalene is now mean-spirited instead of funny. And funny was the reason to read the books.
August 14, 2017
Funniest books or quirkiest that I have ever read. I love the books and the stories that Ms. Myers has written.
August 14, 2017
Nice to meet you again
I haven't read Tamar Myers in years and forgot how entertaining Magdalena Portulacca Yoder Rosen and the town of Hernia was I'll be visiting again soon
I haven't read Tamar Myers in years and forgot how entertaining Magdalena Portulacca Yoder Rosen and the town of Hernia was I'll be visiting again soon
July 17, 2019
Imaginative, and filled with humor.
Tamar Myers never disappoints. The mystery, the humor, the love of family capture the imagination. Well worth the time to read (or listen to).
Tamar Myers never disappoints. The mystery, the humor, the love of family capture the imagination. Well worth the time to read (or listen to).
April 13, 2020
The recipes that are scattered throughout the book are fun, but the writing is fairly rudimentary.
March 5, 2017
She should not have tried to continue the series after ending it in the last book.
July 8, 2014
http://openbooksociety.com/article/th...
Brought to you by OBS reviewer JoAnne
Magdalena Yoder is the Mennonite owner of the PennDutch Inn, where guests can pay upwards of $400 a night to have a “real Amish experience.” She is married to a Jewish doctor (retired), and mother to one-year-old Jacob and thirteen-year-old Alison. She is also the town’s mayor and a millionaire. She has engaged a police chief, Toy, and paid for his salary, office, and uniforms herself. She also owns quite a bit of the town she lives in, Hernia, herself.
Therefore, when Ramat (the novelist) is killed, Toy goes to Magdalena and asks if she will help him investigate the murder. He has a list of suspects, but since they are all friends of hers, he wants her to approach them, figuring that she’ll have better luck than he will. In order to sweeten the deal, he offers to deputize her and let her drive the police cruiser (that she bought), since he purchased a nice Mercedes for himself and had it “decked out.”
Well, what woman could resist that? The only thing he asks is that she wear a semi-official outfit, so she wears a navy skirt and white blouse while she goes about her business. However, that business isn’t well-received by her friends as she questions them. While she’s ruffling feathers she’s having to brush them calm at the same time in order to keep everyone happy.
And if that isn’t enough, she has a crazy mother-in-law to deal with, who has started her own cult (although she calls it something else entirely – the Sisters of Perpetual Apathy). The problem is that her mother-in-law, Ida, isn’t apathethic about anything and has no problem showing her dislike of Magdalena while trying to figure out ways to end the marriage.
Her daughter Alison (adopted daughter, but that’s another story entirely) speaks in malapropisms but Magdalena and her husband “the babester” Gabe, completely understand everything she’s trying to say, even if the people around her don’t.
The book is a real page-turner and I had a hard time putting it down (even to sleep). It’s quite amusing to read, the characters truly are characters, and when the killer was revealed, and the reason why the murder occurred, made a kind of wacky sense and increased my thoughts that the people in this town indeed have some problems going on that need to be dealt with. But I definitely enjoyed the book and this newest edition to the Pennsylvania Dutch Mysteries was well worth the wait. Highly recommended.
Brought to you by OBS reviewer JoAnne
Magdalena Yoder is the Mennonite owner of the PennDutch Inn, where guests can pay upwards of $400 a night to have a “real Amish experience.” She is married to a Jewish doctor (retired), and mother to one-year-old Jacob and thirteen-year-old Alison. She is also the town’s mayor and a millionaire. She has engaged a police chief, Toy, and paid for his salary, office, and uniforms herself. She also owns quite a bit of the town she lives in, Hernia, herself.
Therefore, when Ramat (the novelist) is killed, Toy goes to Magdalena and asks if she will help him investigate the murder. He has a list of suspects, but since they are all friends of hers, he wants her to approach them, figuring that she’ll have better luck than he will. In order to sweeten the deal, he offers to deputize her and let her drive the police cruiser (that she bought), since he purchased a nice Mercedes for himself and had it “decked out.”
Well, what woman could resist that? The only thing he asks is that she wear a semi-official outfit, so she wears a navy skirt and white blouse while she goes about her business. However, that business isn’t well-received by her friends as she questions them. While she’s ruffling feathers she’s having to brush them calm at the same time in order to keep everyone happy.
And if that isn’t enough, she has a crazy mother-in-law to deal with, who has started her own cult (although she calls it something else entirely – the Sisters of Perpetual Apathy). The problem is that her mother-in-law, Ida, isn’t apathethic about anything and has no problem showing her dislike of Magdalena while trying to figure out ways to end the marriage.
Her daughter Alison (adopted daughter, but that’s another story entirely) speaks in malapropisms but Magdalena and her husband “the babester” Gabe, completely understand everything she’s trying to say, even if the people around her don’t.
The book is a real page-turner and I had a hard time putting it down (even to sleep). It’s quite amusing to read, the characters truly are characters, and when the killer was revealed, and the reason why the murder occurred, made a kind of wacky sense and increased my thoughts that the people in this town indeed have some problems going on that need to be dealt with. But I definitely enjoyed the book and this newest edition to the Pennsylvania Dutch Mysteries was well worth the wait. Highly recommended.
August 29, 2014
Magdalena Portulacca Yoder Rosen is back in a new book set at her Pennsylvania Mennonite Bed and Breakfast. Soon after the book opens, Ramat Sreym, a character from a previous one in the series, appears on the scene, but not for long. When she was a guest in the B & B, she observed the community rather closely, then wrote a tell-all, exaggerate somewhat best seller about the people. She was invited back, before the locals had read the book, to judge the annual pie baking contest. Before she could declare the winner, she landed on her face in Magdalena’s Peach Pie, totally dead. The cause of death was poison and the new police chief, Toy Graham, asked Magdalena to talk to the townspeople to help him find the killer.
Magdalena talks to a lot of the community members, the questions about Sreym are superficial. The main emphasis of the book is an introduction of the characters, some of whom are not actually on the scene, and light references to incidents in previous books in the series. Perhaps that is because this book was published in England and the United States and appears to be introducing new readers to the series. It includes comments about England, especially food and language, as well as Myers’ traditional sneaky ribald comments.
Myers enjoys words and twisting them to get interesting, off-beat meanings. Among my favorites: “Then with all the authority bestowed upon me vis-a-vis the status of a pretend police woman, a counterfeit cop and an invertebrate investigator (I have been called spineless, mind you)....” “Like every female, everywhere, she had been born knowing how to manipulate her father. (Surely, this is the reason why the word ‘manipulate’ begins with the word man.)”
There is a bit of repetition, (“Mennonites of Amish derivation feel more guilt than Catholics and Jews combined....” and the deaths of her parents) something I don’t remember from her other books.
There are four pie recipes.
As a long-time Tamar Myers fan, I was disappointed in THE DEATH OF PIE. I hope it encourages new readers to check some of the previous books in the series to flesh out some of the tidbits. For example, she briefly mentions her first marriage but doesn’t mention the hilarious wedding cake story. I wish it had included endnotes or footnotes specifying which previous book carried the entire referenced incident. I hope she is back to her wonderful stories in future books.
Magdalena talks to a lot of the community members, the questions about Sreym are superficial. The main emphasis of the book is an introduction of the characters, some of whom are not actually on the scene, and light references to incidents in previous books in the series. Perhaps that is because this book was published in England and the United States and appears to be introducing new readers to the series. It includes comments about England, especially food and language, as well as Myers’ traditional sneaky ribald comments.
Myers enjoys words and twisting them to get interesting, off-beat meanings. Among my favorites: “Then with all the authority bestowed upon me vis-a-vis the status of a pretend police woman, a counterfeit cop and an invertebrate investigator (I have been called spineless, mind you)....” “Like every female, everywhere, she had been born knowing how to manipulate her father. (Surely, this is the reason why the word ‘manipulate’ begins with the word man.)”
There is a bit of repetition, (“Mennonites of Amish derivation feel more guilt than Catholics and Jews combined....” and the deaths of her parents) something I don’t remember from her other books.
There are four pie recipes.
As a long-time Tamar Myers fan, I was disappointed in THE DEATH OF PIE. I hope it encourages new readers to check some of the previous books in the series to flesh out some of the tidbits. For example, she briefly mentions her first marriage but doesn’t mention the hilarious wedding cake story. I wish it had included endnotes or footnotes specifying which previous book carried the entire referenced incident. I hope she is back to her wonderful stories in future books.
April 17, 2014
This author has a talent for comedic wit and she isn't afraid to use it. And then use it again, and again, and even yet again. Unfortunately for me, the witticisms and the sarcasm and the self-abasement went much too far when they took up about 95% of the novel and the mystery took up the slim remainder. I started out thinking that I was really going to enjoy the novel once the introduction of the characters (and the humor) had leveled off and the investigation into the death of the famous author, Ramat Sreym, began in earnest because the premise for the novel sounded quite good and made me choose to read the book in the first place. The investigation didn't happen at all as a logical progression of uncovering facts. Instead Magdalena Yoder suddenly disclosed the one vital clue which had never even been hinted at and - bingo - crime solved.
If you are already a fan of this series, you know that residents of Hernia, Pennsylvania, seem to all have an eccentric bent and you will welcome them back with open arms. Their eccentricity is fine with me as long as they are allowed to also have times of being just plain, levelheaded folk so that the mystery aspect of the novel can be addressed. I didn't get that in this novel. Since this is my first foray into the Amish-Mennonite community in this part of Pennsylvania, I have to say I found their depiction slightly odd, yet rather endearing and I learned some valuable information about the Amish and the Mennonites. For those reasons alone I think the book was worth the time it took me to read it. As for the mystery aspect, a whole lot more attention needed to be paid to that. By the way, there are pie recipes interspersed throughout the novel. Chapter Five is Freni Hostetler's Recipe For Shoofly Pie, Chapter Ten is Brown Sugar Pie (Milche Flichte), Chapter Fifteen gives Doc Shafer's Recipe For Green-Tomato Pie, and Chapter Twenty contains Freni's Butterscotch Chiffon Pie. When tomato season hits in this part of the country I will definitely be trying the green tomato pie.
I received an ARC of this novel through NetGalley. The opinions expressed are my own.
If you are already a fan of this series, you know that residents of Hernia, Pennsylvania, seem to all have an eccentric bent and you will welcome them back with open arms. Their eccentricity is fine with me as long as they are allowed to also have times of being just plain, levelheaded folk so that the mystery aspect of the novel can be addressed. I didn't get that in this novel. Since this is my first foray into the Amish-Mennonite community in this part of Pennsylvania, I have to say I found their depiction slightly odd, yet rather endearing and I learned some valuable information about the Amish and the Mennonites. For those reasons alone I think the book was worth the time it took me to read it. As for the mystery aspect, a whole lot more attention needed to be paid to that. By the way, there are pie recipes interspersed throughout the novel. Chapter Five is Freni Hostetler's Recipe For Shoofly Pie, Chapter Ten is Brown Sugar Pie (Milche Flichte), Chapter Fifteen gives Doc Shafer's Recipe For Green-Tomato Pie, and Chapter Twenty contains Freni's Butterscotch Chiffon Pie. When tomato season hits in this part of the country I will definitely be trying the green tomato pie.
I received an ARC of this novel through NetGalley. The opinions expressed are my own.
February 15, 2017
This book follows Butter Off Dead in the Penn-Dutch series. The events and timeline of Butter off Dead were confusing to say the least. I thought I had missed some books in the series but other events seemed to happen right after the previous book and a few even prior to the previous title. Then along comes, Death of Pie, to explain that the last book was a tell-all about the townspeople from a mystery novelist who was a guest at the Penn-Dutch Inn. This book is supposed to be the mystery of who killed the author to get even. But it meanders badly, the limited clues are all there in the first few chapters.
My guess is that the author had grown tired of this series and was trying to end it with the Butter Off Dead wrapping up the main characters personal lives and then for some reason the author or the publisher changed her mind and then she had to explain away the previous book. Had I known I would definitely have skipped Butter Off Dead and maybe this one too.
My guess is that the author had grown tired of this series and was trying to end it with the Butter Off Dead wrapping up the main characters personal lives and then for some reason the author or the publisher changed her mind and then she had to explain away the previous book. Had I known I would definitely have skipped Butter Off Dead and maybe this one too.
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