Eat, Drink, and Be Wary: A Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery With Recipes [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Tamar Myers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2001

When Magdalena Yoder, proprietor of the PennDutch Inn, reluctantly agreed to her cook's request to host the East Coast Delacacies Bake-Off, she never thought it would turn into a recipe for murder. When the sponsor of the contest is found with a paring knife in his back, and the Inn's cook is named the number-one suspect, it's up to Magdalena to solve the crime--before the killer stops her first!.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 375 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press (September 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786234555
• ISBN-13: 978-0786234554
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,580,351 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

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AS GOOD AS EVER, July 29, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Eat, Drink and Be Wary (Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery) (Paperback)

Still recovering from the trauma inflicted upon her by Aaron, Magdelena Yoder foolishly agrees to let her cook, Freni, host the East Coast Delacies cooking contest at her place of business, The Penn Dutch Inn. The top prize is one hundred thousand dollars. Entries are by invitation only and Freni is one of the contestants.

Obviously, all the contestants badly want to win. However, the sponsor, George Mitchell, is not a friendly person and is actually held in utter distaste by almost everyone involved in the contest. Someone either needed to win more than anyone else or intensely loathed George because the obnoxious sponsor is murdered. Local police chief Melvin Stolzful leans towards Freni being the culprit. This forces Magdelena to do her own sleuthing in order to prove her chef is innocent.

The rich and famous who have stayed at this inn are quite a droll group in terms of their relationship with the proprietor, who finds them very under-whelming and amusing! ly English. Tamar Myers is back on the right buggy with this humorous culinary mystery that adds an authentic feel to the Pennsylvania-Dutch country. The meticulously researched insight into the Amish and Mennonites brings alive these cultures to the reader better than any travelogue could ever do. The who-done-it is a well cooked puzzler. Interestingly, the heroine is a better, more rounded character since she lost her love interest (see the previous book). The book includes recipes from local cuisine that are delicious. However, before readers eat and drink, they should be wary that these recipes come with a high fat content (that why this reviewer tested them on her spouse), but like the novel the are delicious.

Harriet Klausner

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's Probaby Better to Eat and Drink, October 17, 2003

By 

S. Schwartz "romonko" (alberta canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eat, Drink and Be Wary (Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery) (Paperback)

This book started out a bit better than the previous ones, but I found it got quite stale pretty fast. Part of the problem is that Ms. Myers has to repeat everything with every new installment in the series. Then the little comments don't seem so funny anymore. For example we've heard how Magdalena's parents died in every single book, and I'm sure it will be in every other one in the series. Magdalena has some original funny moments in this book, and that's what keeps me reading. I will try to persevere with the series, but it's hard slogging. In this book the Penn Dutch Inn is being used to host a cooking show. Magdalena's cousin Freni is entering her unbeatable bread pudding into the contest, and things start really cooking when the owner of the company who is sponsoring the contest is found dead in Magdalena's barn.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cooking contest at the PennDutch Inn, June 29, 2001

By 

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

This review is from: Eat, Drink and Be Wary (Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery) (Paperback)

Much to Magdelena Yoder's surprise, her cook Freni Hostetler has arranged for a cooking contest to be held at the PennDutch Inn. Freni is one of the contestants and hopes to use the prize money to bribe her daughter-in-law Barbara to divorce her husband (Freni's son.) Enter a group of interesting guests, all of them either contestants or judges in the cooking contest. When one of the guests is killed, everyone else becomes a suspect. Each guest has a reason to hate the murder victim and this creates some red herrings for the reader. The person who is eventually revealed as the murderer has the weakest motive of the group, but regardless the book provides some light and enjoyable reading.