Puddin' on the Blitz

May 1, 2016

Thanks to an ad placed in an English newspaper by her best friend Agnes, innkeeper Magdalena Yoder's newest guests are the Earl and Countess Grimsley-Snodgrass, accompanied by their obnoxious children. Soon the disappearances begin. Another silly romp from Myers (The Death of Pie).

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 28, 2016
In Myers’s rambling 20th Pennsylvania-Dutch mystery (after 2014’s The Death of Pie), Magdalena Yoder’s recently widowed best friend, Agnes Miller, has decided it’s time to attract a better clientele to Magdalena’s PennDutch Inn in Herina, Pa. To the surprise of both, they succeed in luring a titled family from England. When the Earl and Countess of Grimsley-Snodgrass and their three nearly grown children arrive, Magdalena has her hands full providing the advertised authentic Mennonite/Amish experience. Things take a turn for the worse when a body is found on the premises, and Magdalena is forced back into sleuthing mode to solve the crime. Filled with the author’s trademark double entendres and bawdy humor, this tale of deceit, revenge, and murder is sure to please fans of willful, wordy, and winsome Magdalena. Quirky characters, religious lore, and tasty recipes help compensate for the laborious pace. Agent: Nancy Yost, Nancy Yost Literary Agency.

November 1, 2019
Cantankerous, self-deprecating Mennonite Magdalena Yoder starts a new trend when she opens Hernia, Pennsylvania's newest restaurant?Asian Sensations, Amish-Chinese fusion. When the editor of a conservative homemaker's magazine, A Woman's Place, wants to do an article on the restaurant, Magdalena foolishly agrees, lured by the free publicity. Then, after one of the magazine's staff members is murdered at Magdalena's bed-and-breakfast, she is arrested for the crime. Luckily, Magdalena is quickly released on bail, so she is able to investigate the murder and identify the killer before someone close to her is injured. Complicating matters are Magdalena's rebellious teenage daughter and her interfering mother-in-law, Mother Malaise, who runs a cult located just across the street from the inn. Then Mother Malaise drives a wedge between Magdalena and her physician husband, Gabe (aka the Babester). This offbeat cozy, filled with laugh-out-loud humor, is distinguished by its numerous quirky characters (led by the strong-willed Magdalena), the beautifully described Pennsylvania Dutch setting and culture, and the unlikely but richly evoked Mennonite-Jewish relationship between Magdalena and Gabe.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

May 1, 2016
Without the knowledge of her friend and owner of the PennDutch Inn, Magdalena Yoder Rosen, Agnes Miller advertises Magdalena's inn as a vacation destination for the nobility to experience American life. Soon the Earl and Countess Grimsley-Snodgrass and their adult children arrive and are none too happy with their accommodations. While entertaining the often rude Grimsley-Snodgrass family, Magdalena must also deal with the mummified corpse of Yoko-san, a former guest, found in the inn's elevator shaft; her brother-in-law, a serial killer on the loose; and her irritating mother-in-law, Mother Malaise, founder of her own religion, the Sisters of Apathy. Then one of the Grimsley-Snodgrasses jumps off of Lover's Leap. It's almost more than one woman can take. Magdalena balances her life as a good Mennonite woman with the evil in herself and the world around her, as she solves several mysteries while supporting the town of Hernia, Pennsylvania. Quirky characters, including the ghost of Grandma Yoder, abound in this mystery in which the acerbic, opinionated Magdalena's first-person account drives this at-times laugh-out-loud cozy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

October 21, 2019
In Myers’s labored 21st Pennsylvania Dutch cozy (after 2016’s Tea with Jam and Dread), Conservative Mennonite Magdalena Yoder, who lives with her husband, Gabriel Rosen (aka the Babester), and their two children in Hernia, Pa., receives a surprise visit from Hortense Gelato Hemphopple, the daughter of Wanda Sissleswitzer Hemphopple, who’s in jail for trying to kill Magdalena. Hortense wants to reopen Wanda’s now defunct restaurant, the Sausage Barn, and needs Magdalena’s help. In the end, the two open Asian Sensation, with an eclectic menu of separate Amish and Asian cooking. The restaurant fails, but not before their signature pastry, Blitz Torte, poisons a guest staying at Magdalena’s PennDutch Inn. Discovering that the poison pastry was meant for the Babester sends Magdalena out sleuthing. Page after page of caricatures, stereotypes, and bad puns pad the thin story line. Those who like broad humor (“what goes ‘clop, clop, clop—bang—clop, clop, clop?’ The answer: an Amish drive-by shooting”) will best appreciate this one. Agent: Nancy Yost, Nancy Yost Literary.

October 1, 2019
More murder among the Amish and Mennonites, who live in what must be among the most homicide-prone communities in America. Magdalena Yoder-Rosen, a Conservative Mennonite woman with a poor body image, a weird sense of humor, and a knack for solving murders (Tea With Jam and Dread, 2016, etc.), has been arrested for the murder of Sarah Conway, one of her guests at the PennDutch Inn, where she charges city slickers big bucks to muck out stalls, clean bathrooms, and eat yummy but heart-clogging Amish cuisine. Sarah was the assistant to Gordon Gaiters, editor of the wildly popular Woman's Place magazine, and Mags, always hoping to garner favorable publicity for the inn, had agreed to bar all other guests during their visit--so there are very few other suspects when Sarah winds up dead. Mags' husband, Gabe, aka the Babester, is a retired heart surgeon who struggles to keep the peace between his wife and his mother, a floridly stereotyped Jewish mama who's launched a convent for depressed women. Mags, who uses her wealth to help many in the little southwest Pennsylvania town of Hernia, had already agreed to help Hortense Hemphopple--the neighbor whose mother, Wanda, is in prison for trying to kill Mags and her daughter Alison--reopen The Sausage Barn restaurant so that Hortense can pay her college tuition bill. Mags' surprisingly successful fusion of Chinese and Amish cooking is complemented by the skills of Barbara Hostetler, whose desserts are to die for. And Sarah very possibly did die from eating one of the desserts brought from the restaurant to the inn. Luckily, Mags is a friend or relative to just about everyone in Hernia, and the judge, an old school pal, lets her out with a $1 bail, giving her plenty of time to track down the real killer with a little help from her friends and a goat. As usual, the mystery plays second fiddle in an over-the-top tale laced with sarcasm and malapropisms.

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