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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780451182968
ISBN number: 0451182960
Label: A Signet Book
Manufacturer: A Signet Book
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 255
Printing Date: August 01, 1995
Publishing house: A Signet Book
Sale Popularity Level: 62466
Studio: A Signet Book
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
PennDutch Inn owner Magdalena Yoder is up to her ears in trouble when her guests include deer hunters and animal-rights activists, the cook quits, and two guest die under mysterious circumstances. Reprint. K.
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Rated by buyers 
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Susannah's screaming at a corpse on a quilt in the opening scene was an effective capture. The plot time regression, backtracking from "murder-up-page-one," trailing events and road-forks which may have contributed to the murder, was a narrative technique of literary lace.
The quilt was Amish and it had been spread, somehow wrongly, across a bed in the PenDutch Inn. Magdalena's detailing the difference between a murdered corpse and a "normal" dead body was an intriguing way to surge depth and reality onto the stage.
As she will do throughout the series, Magdalena Yoder comes grumbling to the rescue. There's a lot to do to clean up a murder or two, not to mention catering to a full house of high brow guests paying hefty prices and expecting the best, even within Magda's ALPO ambiance. ALPO, of course, is the Amish Lifestyle Plan Option at the Inn, which avails guests of a trip into the cultural snootiness of choosing to clean their own rooms and common areas. My curiosity peaks to uncover how and why each guest decides to handle (or not) the broom. ALPO is such a deal for discriminating character nuance with a single sweep.
I enjoyed observing the evolution of Magda's narrative style in this pilot to such an auspicious, long-running series. I had to remind myself that at the point of writing and publishing this novel, Amish mysteries had not yet had the foundation which Tamar Myers brought to this amateur sleuth repertoire.
Speaking (not in vain) of the author's name, I loved the way this author's fictional character bad mouthed the author while elevating her husband, Jeff, dramatizing that Hernia, Pennsylvania Chief-of-Police, Jeff Myers's absence from the murder investigations left Magda in a solitary (except for an amorous octogenarian vet) lurch to carry the story and deal with detecting around Marvin Stoltzfus, Jeff's bumbling underling. A character satirizing the author is one among several techniques to establish intrigue which Tammy Myers (as Magda calls her) uses with panache. Of course Tammy and Jeff aren't story/reality bleed-ins precisely as author and spouse. They're given fictitious positions and cameo appearances within the plot as police chief and wife. All of this serves to smoothly bait & build reader curiosity into a Gordian Twist Collection which demands to be unwound, which promises and delivers high entertainment.
One of my favorite scenes in TOO MANY CROOKS had Susannah step up to the rug and defend her "honor" to Magda in a telling argument which beautifully exposed both sister's sides, in character "combat." I had expected Magda to continue to quilt herself into the design of feisty, yet virtuous, virgin heroine, with Susannah swirling around her maiden image as slovenly slut. But in the argument scene the slut slithers into her own integrity and points precisely to the soils on Magda's heavy skirts.
I enjoy the way Myers toys with the bright/dark balance within each character, including herself. No one gets a free ride outside the box of the PenDutch's sensitive, sagely satiric pen.
Above, I noted appreciating the narrative style evolution in this pilot, but didn't detail from what to what the style developed. Magda has a subtle but solid warmth toward humanity and life which likely arrives through Tamar's own generous and complex personality structure. Most often that warmth megaphones through bubbling sarcasm which, thankfully for my tastes, doesn't have the true edge of most pure and cutting, heavy satire. Which is why I would call this series light satire. Magda's snarly-ness in describing other characters foibles moves between moods of somewhat disguised caring warmth Vs a funny but edgy crispness which can seem cool and once in a while, caustic.
This variety of emotional temperature is what gives this series such mood-rich complexity, such depth under effervescent cover.
When the plot time caught up with the opening scene, I was impressed with the way Myers quilted scene one into the ongoing drama, by picking up a tight thread, repeating one sentence from the opening pages, then quickly paraphrasing the rest of the initiating stage, and moving forward from its solid foundation.
For me one of the most entertaining parts of the plot were the detailed references to finicky screeches of the eating demands and disappointments of various vegetarian venues Vs the carnivores, and more loosely-preferenced munchers who appreciated anything which flavored positively on their palates (I'd be in that wide-tongue group). Of course this situation allowed Freni and her relationship to Magda to root and develop nicely. And it carried through the culinary references with an intensity well able to satisfy the foodie fans of this type of munching mystery.
In conclusion I'll say that the very effective, humorous effervescence in this ... Read More
Rated by buyers -
This author is a stone-cold riot! I have read her other books, Den of Antiquity, and have found the same thing to be true: she knows how to write humor. I find myself giggling throughout most of her books but, at times, I find myself laughing my head off at some scenario or another. Her strong suite is describing those times when screaming begets screaming which begets more screaming which begets even more screaming. She has a style that is rare and I really enjoy reading her. I find myself reading passages over and over to myself and then grabbing my husband to read them to him. He, who is very picky, says she is a good writer. You will enjoy everything about "Mags" and her trials and tribulations. Be ready to giggle.
Rated by buyers -
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 very first three books of the series, I can say they get better and better!
Rated by buyers -
This is the very 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 subsequent one.
Rated by buyers 
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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.
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