Custard's Last Stand (Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery) [Paperback]

Tamar Myers (Author)

Book Description

Series: Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery | Publication Date: January 6, 2004

When Colonel George Custard decides to build a glitzy new hotel in Hernia, outraged residents protest the project. Soon after, the colonel is found shot to death at the PennDutch Inn. Now Magdalena Yoder must find out who caused Custard's last stand-and save her beloved town...

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Signet (January 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 045120848X
• ISBN-13: 978-0451208484
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #957,776 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tamar Myers, who is of Mennonite background, is the author of the Pennsylvania Dutch mysteries and the Den of Antiquity series. Born and raised in the Congo, she lives in North Carolina.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This series is just plain fun, February 22, 2003

By 

Corinne H. Smith (Athol, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Custard's Last Stand (A Pennsylvania Dutch Mysteries with Recipes) (Hardcover)

Mennonite B&B proprietor Magdalena Yoder defies stereotype. She possesses a wry wit, a caustic tongue, and a mind for metaphor. Yet she's not above allowing her thoughts to dwell on people doing "the horizontal hootchy-kootchy" or "the mattress mambo." She knows her Bible and the commandments through and through, but she's got enough common sense to know when circumstances demand that the rules be bent a little. That's always the case whenever she stumbles upon a murder and feels the need to find the perpetrator.

In this episode, millionaire Colonel George Custard comes to the PennDutch Inn in his limo, accompanied by two servants. The bad news is, he has plans to build a huge hotel that will destroy small-town Hernia's ambiance. The good news is, he's soon murdered, and Magdalena leads the investigation. She *has* to, doesn't she? The local law officials -- her dim-witted brother-in-law and his Tammy-Fay-Mimi-Bobeck-clone sidekick -- are clueless and useless. And they're just two of the many unique characters that pepper this community.

I wouldn't want to meet Magdalena Yoder in person. (If any of us did, we'd miss out on all the wonderful thoughts zipping around in her noggin.) I might want to be a small mouse instead and watch her from a distance ... though I'd surely be in trouble if she spied me and raised a size-eleven Brogan to my body.

Another fun addition to a entertaining series.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars All in good fun, June 10, 2003

By 

Karen Potts (Lake Jackson, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Custard's Last Stand (A Pennsylvania Dutch Mysteries with Recipes) (Hardcover)

Magdalena Yoder is back with another interesting guest, Colonel George Custard, at her inn. She finds him an attractive man until she discovers that he plans to build a 5-star hotel which will be in direct competition with her PennDutch Inn. When the colonel is found dead, there are no end of suspects in Hernia, because many of the townspeople opposed the new hotel which they felt would change the slow pace of the town which they had always enjoyed. Interspersed with the mystery are humorous interludes with a 25-foot snake and Magdalena's intrepid fiance,
Gabe. As usual, it is up to Magdalena to solve the mystery because the town's policeman, her brother-in-law, is not up to the task. This book will not disappoint Tamar Myers' fans.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The series is improving as time goes on., June 28, 2004

By 

Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Lakewood, OH) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Custard's Last Stand (Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery) (Paperback)

Tamar Myers, Custard's Last Stand (Signet, 2002)

It's nice to know Ms. Myers listens to her reviews. There's a line buried in this book that sums up every review of every other Magdalena Yoder novel: "It came out as a whine, but my whining is one of my more endearing qualities, don't you think?"

Thankfully, Magdalena whines a lot less in this novel (though the repeated-word thing does show up here with a few other terms), and that certainly makes the eleventh novel in the Pennsylvania Dutch (with recipes!) series all the more readable. (Note: the first was published in 1995. That's eleven novels in seven years... and all the while she's also been putting out the Den of Antiquity mysteries, of which the ninth was released in 2002. That's twenty novels in eight years. Mull that over.)

This time, Magdalena is confronted with one Colonel George Custard, who plans to build a five-star hotel in Hernia, Pennsylvania, that threatens to put Magdalena out of business. All is well and good, and the townsfolk look forward to a nice big brawl, until Custard turns up dead, with a bullet hole in his head and a few cracked ribs. Magdalena, of course, is on the case.

Myers' comedic timing has improved gradually over the years, and there are some unexpected whings in here that actually get the reader to the point of laughing out loud. As with most series fiction, the characters are already drawn, and there are a good number of in-jokes, but Magdalena and company are well-enough portrayed that after about fifty pages, you'll get the in-jokes as if you've been with the series all along.

A worthy addition to the series. Now if only Magdalena will stop whining. *** ½