Grape Expectations: A Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery With Recipes [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Tamar Myers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2006

A couple of unprincipled outsiders have bought an old farm at the edge of the Mennonite community of Hernia, Pennsylvania. They say they want to grow fruit, but their real plan is to start a vineyard and open a winery. This scheme is a serious affront to the teetotalling Mennonites, so everyone's a suspect when the manager of the vineyard is found entombed in cement. A new and inexperienced police chief can't solve the crime alone, and soon Magdalena Yoder finds herself on the case-risking her neck with her ear to the grapevine.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Myer's disappointing 14th mystery to star Mennonite hotelier Magdalena Yoder (after 2005's Assault and Pepper), Felicia Bacchustelli, a long-legged glamour-puss, arrives in Hernia, Pa., and announces plans to open a spa that will put Magdalena's PennDutch Inn out of business. When Felicia gets herself murdered, Magdalena is suspect "numero uno"—so to save her own hide and satisfy her endless curiosity, our heroine sets out to finger the real killer. Magdalena has never seemed more annoying, or her penchant for attracting sexy bachelors never more perplexing. The recipes shoehorned between chapters are superfluous. And when the real killer confesses, the solution seems improbable rather than surprising. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Review

A delicious treat. (Carolyn Hart)

Bubbling over with mystery. (Dorothy Cannell)

Rollickingn suspense. (Washington Post) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 399 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press (April 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786284641
• ISBN-13: 978-0786284641
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 1.2 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: #3,088,588 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

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mystery lite!, April 6, 2006

By 

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

This review is from: Grape Expectations: A Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery (Pennsylvania Dutch Mysteries with Recipes) (Hardcover)

Magdalena Yoder is back with the verve and over-the-top humor which characterize this series. This time, one of the citizens of Hernia, Pennsylvania, has sold his land to a group who plan to build a winery called Grape Expectations. Of course this does not go over well in this ultra-conservative Amish community, and the outraged citizens look for ways of heading off this potential catastrophe. Someone, however, carries the anger too far when one of the developers of the winery is killed. For some obscure reason, the local sheriff decides that Magdalena is her #1 suspect. As usual, the book is full of madcap jokes, and several past indiscretions come to life which seem at odds with the supposed clean-living Mennonite and Amish citizens of Hernia. The book is mildly amusing, but the oft-used formula in this series may be wearing a little thin.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too much background information, March 16, 2007

By 

Julie Jones "juliann" (Hamilton, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grape Expectations: A Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery (Paperback)

I believe I have read all of the Pennsylvania Dutch mysteries and have been a big fan, but this one fell very flat. There was entirely too much background information included/required. If anyone had picked this up and tried to read it without having read the other mysteries first, I doubt it would have made any sense. Myers explains the whole background of each character, such as Melvin Stoltzfus, who isn't even a character in this book, but whose background is included. It's very cumbersome and difficult to follow the present story.

I think there comes a time when an author needs to just let go of a character's background and let the present circumstances speak for themselves. Now's the time!!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not the best!, May 22, 2011

By 

Avid Reader (Lakeland, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grape Expectations : A Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery (Pennsylvania Dutch Mysteries with Recipes) (Hardcover)

I have read other book series and the characters have developed as the books went along. For some reason Magdalena hasn't. Each book you know she is going to say something about her big feet, having small breasts,and her bigamist ex husband etc. If you have read the earlier books you know about her ancestry. Why does she have to keep bringing it up over and over. I am wondering if Tamar Myers is just trying to add filler in the books because there isn't much of a story. When I got to the recipe area at the end of the book, I couldn't believe the errors I found. In the first one for Cornish Game Hens 2 ingredients were left out of the ingredients list but were mentioned in the instructions. Also the last recipe for the Concord Grape Cake called for a 10 inch tube pan but said the recipe makes 1 inch cake. It also said to cook the cake for 15 minutes on a rack instead of cool. Guess the editor was sleeping on the job.