Customer Reviews

In Dutch Again (Amish Country Mystery Series #1)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Granny Hanny,is a spirited, can-do woman despite her adherance to her Amish faith. She is a reknown quilter, a closet mystery reader and knows everyone in the PA Amish area where she lives. When her nearest neighbor is murdered, Hanny finds the body. The police regard the killing as a break-in, and say the killer is probably miles away, Hannah decides, with the help of her formerly Amish, attorney granddaughter, Caroline, to investigate. Before long a second body is found and Hanny realizes she and Caroline may be next. This Book cannot be put down until the end. I loved it! Great story and unique setting.

What a super surprise to find this new book. Granny Hanny is an Amish Miss Marple with spunk and brains. This mystery, which is sweet and sassy is a fast paced ride though Pennsylvania Amish country. Hannah Miller, an Amish quilter, and a closet mystery fan, finds the body of a murdered neighbor and the hunt begins for the killer. Along with her formerly Amish granddaughter, now a local attorney, Hannah begins to piece together the clues which will solve the mystery. When the killer discovers Hannah's involvement, only her perceptiveness and intellegence can stop her from being the next to die.
I loved the Amish setting and the knowledgeable details about the Amish. The contrast of the peaceful Amish country and the hunt for a killer intensifies the already fast pace and makes this an exciting story.

What a lucky find this delightful mystery was! The Pennsylvania Amish area is clearly and knowingly pictured, and it against this canvas, the engrossing mystery plays out. The characters are unique and intriguing. In Dutch Again is a thoroughly enjoyable read and I would recommend it highly.
Granny Hanny and Caroline are two people this reader can't wait to know more about. I look forward to the sequel in this original, spirited series.

In this book, author Barb Workinger visits the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country to show that even secluded Amish communities can't escape conflict and crime. The characters of Carolyn and Granny Hannah are as interesting a contrast as Lancaster itself--the traditional and contemporary side by side. Infused with touches of humor, interesting facts about "plain people," and intriguing mysteries, this book multitasks for readers everywhere.

I have read several books by Barbara Workinger, and love her mysteries. The Amish Country is such an interesting area, and she has them down to a "T". I am so happy she has kept on writing since she has moved and am looking forward to more of her books,

It is well written and flows smoothly. Once you start reading it is hard to stop. The author makes all of the people come alive as if you were really there. I love Granny Hanny. She is someone I would like to have for a friend.

The murder in this novel comes up in the first scene, with a simple realism which is sometimes lacking in cozy mysteries due to their style of underplayed viscera, a simple realism which is sometimes strangely unsuccessful in true crime novels due to overdone, exaggerated gore. Working from the murder scene, the book moves forward through a natural intimacy among characters, allowing a warmth to develop without discounting the chilling essence of death by malice and violence.

The style of Workinger's storytelling maintains a shifting balance between the boundaries of cozy Vs crime novels, a balance which gives a more engrossing reading experience that either style could accomplish within its separate, defined bailiwick.

Natural, real, warm, and engrossing are the best words I can use to describe the reading experience of Barbara Workinger's IN DUTCH AGAIN. Only half-through the reading of IDA, I found that these qualities had seeded a growing desire to continue reading many more books in this Amish setting of Granny Hannah & Granddaughter Carolyn. The shoop sisters were also creating a presence which seemed to want to move forward in future plots.

The flow of composition in IDA gave me several indications that Barbara Workinger is a born novelist. A prejudice exists (though it's not often stated this way) that sometimes professional journalists (which Barbara has been in spades) or established nonfiction writers don't have the natural Right Brain flow to ride the sometimes terrifying creative chaos of characters in a novel taking over their own parts and personalities, and sometimes the plot.

My review (post date 10/13/05) on Stephen King's ON WRITING discusses R/L Brain stuff a bit, but I could write a nonfiction book on that subject, probably a series of books on creative writing.

Returning to my preliminary discussion of IDA...

The personality, age difference, and background contrast between Carolyn and Hannah works very well. Workinger's characters, even the less involved, "single-story" ones, have life in them, the lack of which is an indication of a nonfiction writer trying to be a Good Frankenstein but not possessing whatever it is in the brain, heart, and soul which gives the born-author-gene-pool, or however you want to bill it.

It was easy for me to live in this story. Each time I picked up the book to begin reading, the settings came to mind easily, effortlessly, and stayed as a backdrop for character movement. Sometimes a novel forces me to painfully read and reread setting descriptions, in order for them to seat and stay, and without that fiction-reality-foundation, the characters seem to be trying unsuccessfully to move in a molasses tinged fog, which, strangely, doesn't stick, doesn't do the job.

Nettie's new/old farmhouse and 2 acre grounds is particularly well set, probably because of the way Workinger plotted Hanny going there and opening the bloody murder scene (with the lovely white-on-white quilt described so gorgeously in contrast), all of which was very well done; actually it was excellently executed, with just the right amount and type of detail. The description and use in setting (and upsetting) of the deep, wrap-around-front-porch symbolism was particularly effective. And Hannah's dealing with, reacting to and taking action relative to that front porch scene; her studying and getting around the alarm system, provided great character development and a perfect means of sliding the reader('s own bloody footprints) into the story.

As noted above, I enjoyed the gestalt and main characters enough in this mystery pilot that only a few short scenes into the book I was feeling compelled to continue reading more there and to pick up the next books in series. I'm also wanting to review additional books in this series, as long as I'm able to continue my current efforts of posting on Amazon.com (until I get my mystery pilot with its own brand of lively, author manipulating characters a worthwhile contract). One step, page, at a time?

Mentioned periodically in IDA is a prior mystery Hannah had solved, related to her grandson, Josh, as the seeding of the characters' disdain of the police presence in the Lancaster area, focusing on the lack of knowledge, experience, aptitude, and natural detecting talent in acting chief, Benton. Does Workinger have an earlier pilot offering for this series, or is she using reference to that situation as a foundation from which to work IDA as the pilot (which would be a brilliant ploy).

Or...

Is she consciously or unconsciously doing a Star Wars type of sequencing deal of going back in time as well as forward for future sequels in the series? (Which would also be an intriguing plotting, time-sequencing, which I'm toying around with in my mystery series.)

So, in this pilot we have a heightened issue which is common in amateur sleuth offerings, that of how the sleuth gets around and/or works with and relates to official police proceedings and character presences. It seems that Workinger may be working from a personal or professional experience of distaste of the controlling police persons' aura. Yet, her natural soul generosity of not wanting to condemn any human being once he's become somewhat known to her (even in fiction), seems to be automatically giving Benton a warm, likable side. It feels to me like the author is trying to make him a negative, almost villainous character, yet he continues to be too human to trash or bash, except to say he's lazy, and to play on what she sees as a general desire/habit of police people to jump quickly to conclusions and get a case wrapped up without actually doing any true investigating.

Of course not all of police professionals do this, but some do, and many amateur sleuth and PI mysteries use this too-quick-to-conclude attitude to justify their actions in criminal investigations.

Based off the kingpin of fictional homicide inspector Paavo Smith, Joanne Pence's Angie Amalfi series is uncannily true to life in dramatizing the very real split in the police bailiwick between the dedicated (burning midnight oil 24/7, not just at midnight) and the lazy (or push-hurry-to-any-conclusion tendencies). See my Listmania and reviews on that series, or visit Pence's official web site to read a beautifully condensed presentation of my reviews, which Pence titled, "A Treatise on Angie Amalfi."

There's LOTS I could say about these issues, not only from my years as an English teacher, and my extensive reading and reviewing of novels from many sides of the detective fiction genres, but also from my background in police workings, several years worth, having been married to a Multnomah County Deputy Sheriff in Oregon, and having worked for the City of Portland Police Bureau. I've also lived in a few small town communities in which the police presence is as different as you could get (pro and con) from the experiences and people I worked with in the Portland, OR area (and for a very short time in NJ & NYC). There's lots of true heroic glow as well as a presence of horribly ugly corruption to be found in most realms of criminal control, investigation, etc. Having been immersed in the dark and bright angles from both outside and inside this realm ...

Also have to say that I'm thoroughly disgusted with whoever told Workinger that an Amish setting is too localized to work with the general mystery audience!!?? Don't they know of the popularity of Tamar Myers's PenDutch Inn series?? (See my Listmania's and reviews on Myers's two great mystery series.)

One of the most successful "reader-live-in" techniques in this novel is the contrast in lifestyle of the Amish (wedding celebrations) Vs the English (murder & mayhem), as it plays around two intriguingly intertwined murders and their resolution.

The resolution of this mystery was fascinating and perfect from the perspectives of all issues, angles, and culprits brought to justice. Half way through the read, I had a culprit and conclusion in mind. Mine was way darker than the one Workinger brought through the portal of plot perfection, and mine would have required a mindset closer to that of Stephen King. (Don't ask me where THAT came from; my novels are the essence of ethereal effervescence compared to the Master of Horror.) Workinger's wrap was just right for her voice, talent, background, characters, setup, and setting. Yeah, it was. Chust. Right. Already.

This author is not only a natural born novelist, she's a master of maneuvering the convolutions of mystery to her own ends as a writer. What more could you want? Look for more from this author. There's a reading richness here that's not to be denied, not found elsewhere, and which will flourish in its own course.

I'm sold.

Linda G. Shelnutt

I got this book through Santa Thing on Library thing. My Secret Santa, Joe was great at picking out an Amish book that was also a mystery. I was amazed as I never thought there were any out there.

Hannah or better known as Granny Hanny, is the Amish grandmother to Caroline. She left the amish ways and came back as a lawyer to help maintain their way of life. Nettie a amish friend of Hannah's is murdered. Hannah takes on the case of figuring out who killed Nettie. She helped in the last case and wants to on this one. Caroline helps which leads to some funny not to mention interesting things happening.

Nettie has a Twin Jennet who comes for the funeral and tries to help as well, but does she have something to hide? What about Nettie's daughter Kaitlin, who can not stand Nettie. Then there is the ex husband Bob Adams could he have killed her?

I did not figure out who killed Nettie till the end and that makes a good mystery for me.

I am an avid reader of Amish fiction and read some Amish non-fiction. This book is like nothing I have ever read. The details concerning the Amish ways sounded to me like it was taken straight from the pages of research.
The story of Granny Hanny as an Amish detective bordered on ridiculous. Amish women are dedicated to home and family, it's inbred in them from childhood. Granny Hanny was much to knowledgable for a mother and homemaker with an 8th grade education to be the saavy detective she was protrayed to be.
The convenience of the granddaughter Carolyn, the attorney, was just a bit too conveinent for me. She was the mother of a small child she was never with through out the book, the child was always with the English housekeeper of the estranged husband. Really, this is way out there for all the Amish fiction I have read.
Oh, the ending was confusing as well. In the films that showed the earrings, was the camera shooting Nettie from the backside of her ear! How would you do that?
Maybe is was just me but this isn't a book I could ever reccommend for a reader of Amish fiction. I didn't read the sequel. country home body