Customer Reviews

Hell Hath No Curry: A Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery

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

 

 

I picked "Hell Hath No Curry" out of force of habit more than anything else. I discovered Tamar Myers in an airport where I picked up "Just Plain Pickled to Death" and the Den of Antiquity mystery--the one about the silver tea set-- that actually involves Abby & Co. traveling to Magdalena's hometown. At first I loved Ms. Myers' offbeat sense of humor and even the little self-deprecating self references and the occasional self promotions. Somewhere along the way, the tone of the books changed and I have not enjoyed the last several entries in either series. Again, I read them out of habit but I didn't enjoy them nearly as much I had enjoyed earlier entries.
That being said, I had fun reading "Hell Hath No Curry". It *sounded* more like the earlier books, although I wish Freni, Mose, and Susannah had more active roles. I love the original secondary characters. I even missed Melvin the teensiest bit.
If you're a die-hard Mags fan, definitely read this book. If you're a semi-fan, well, if nothing else, you can always amuse yourself by playing a drinking game--take one shot every time you come across the phrase "sturdy Christian underwear".

I just discovered this series about 7 months ago and have now read every book in order. Ms. Myers started off with a good idea, some clever writing, fair to middling plots and a few interesting recipies. Over the series everything has declined to the point that by this book, which may (or should) be the last in the series that there are no ideas, the barest of plots, and poor writing. The recipies remained interesting, but Ms. Myers acknowledges that they all come from another source. I actually had to hunt to find any reference (other than the recipies) to "curry" in this book to at least explain the title. There isn't one.

By reading the entire series in a short time span I was able to note that the author favors repeating jokes in each book and does not favor reviewing her past efforts for continuity. Characters' names change, others are introduced and then dissappear. Plot elements, e.g. a new familial relationship, are presented and then left dangling, One sub-plot (Custard's Last Stand) even hinged on the dissapperance of a character some years prior to the book's start even though that character was alive and well in the immediatly preceeding book the events of which supposedly took place three months earlier.

Its time to stick a fork in the series--its done.

After reading the first couple of pages, I wondered if the publisher had put the wrong cover on the book? The "voice" of Magdalena sounded completely off! Myers does get back into the more familair Mags, but never completely so. There are enough of Myers' own touches that I'll discount the possibility of a ghostwriter, although the thought did occur to me. Her sister makes a token appearance or two; Zelda Root is referenced a couple of times.
If I had to guess, I'd say Myers summoned up just enough interest to push through this book to fulfill her contractual obligation. To be honest, if that contract has another book or two remaining, she and the publisher ought to work out a deal - she's pretty clearly not interested, which shows, so readers might be leery of reading the series further. I know I am.
I want to emphasize that I still believe Ms. Myers to be a great writer. I'd love to see a completely new series for her.

Magdalena Yoder is back and is investigating the death of Cornelius Weaver, the town's most eligible bachelor. Despite the fact that he was engaged to be married, Cornelius was carrying on affairs with several women in town. Magdalena interviews each of Cornelius's girlfriends in an attempt to find out who murdered him. The dialogue in this book is pretty silly and the repetitive jokes become tiresome. The "mystery" gets lost in the silliness and by the end, the reader won't really care who dunnit. It may be time for this series to come to an end.

I was fearful that Tamar Myers was losing the oomph to this series of mysteries that feature Magdalena Portulaca Yoder, the Mennonite innkeeper, detective, mayor, and wealthiest resident of Hernia, Pennsylvania. But this offering far exceeded my hopes and expectations. This book is the very best of the lot.

The plot is almost unimportant. Sure, there's a murder, but it occurs early and we never meet the victim. The atmosphere is no better than okay. What makes this book really fun to read is the central character, as she goes about trying to find who murdered the local lothario who was having affairs with any number of Hernians. Magdalena has a curious world view, one that I like very much. She treats the reader to a running commentary on religion, language, plastic surgery, modesty, physiques, literature, child rearing, food, oh, just any number of things--and they are all funny, often with an underlying layer of truth. It's that truth that makes them funny. Magdalena is not nearly so naive as she would have us believe at times. She's horny. She's greedy. She's willing to bend a principle if it serves her purpose. She's extremely human, in other words.

Tamar Myers is in rare form with this book. I recommend it highly.

It seems that with each Magdalena novel, the writer gets more over the top. Magdalena gets sillier and the dialogue gets more ridiculous.

I have gotten very tired of things such as Magdelena's description of the restaurant owner who has had a hotdog buried in her hairdo for twenty years.

Maybe it's time to back off on the cutesy repetitious character descriptions and have more of the mystery. I love the stepdaugther and some of the Amish stuff, but I would like to see more focus on what could be very good mysteries.

I picked this book up after reading The Grilling Season by Diane Mott Davidson, thinking it would the same sort of mystery book with food recipes worked into the story. However after reading first few chapters it was apparent the recipes had nothing to do with the story!! there was a 'chapter' that had a recipe and some information on curry and seemed like it was printed in the wrong book. completely random. I felt the author was trying to be funny when it wasn't funny, and if something mentioned was suppose to be funny mentioned once, it quickly lost it's humor after the 5th time of being mentioned! I kept asking my self why in the world is there so much attention being paid to her asking others if she was beautiful? A little self absorbed? Hello! some dood just got offed by some 'Hoochie-Coochie' did you forget? Some of the terms used in this book seemed silly (matress mambo, hoochie coochie, stiff christian panties etc) and just not funny. I found myself getting annoyed at how the book just came across as a bit narrow-minded and judgemental and a waste of time to read. Characters were unbelievable undeveloped and unlikable. I figure I have better books to read rather than waste my time trying to plow through the entire book. If I could I'd give it no stars.

Tamar Myers...I just love her books. Magdalena is such a funny character. If you like light-hearted funny mysteries, then you will love these books.

I have been a fan of this series from the beginning but this one seems slightly "off". There are way too many silly Magdelena jokes even for us die hard fans. They appear in nearly every line of dialogue. Also, the many "lovers" of the victim are running together each more unbelievable than the one before. Not her best work by a long shot. I will probably get around to finishing this book on a cold, rainy day.

This is the 15th in the Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery series, and every bit as tasty as the previous books! The curry recipes in this book are authentic, from Myers' friend Shabnam Mahmood.

Mennonite Magdalena Yoder runs the PennDutch Inn, a bed and breakfast in Hernia, where she is also the mayor and often called on to solve crimes. This crime is a humdinger. The new chief of police Olivia Hornsby-Anderson was 'with' the most eligible bachelor in Hernia, Cornelius Weaver (wealthy and a lothario, despite being married in three days) when he died of a heart attack. Magdalena is called on by police Sergeant Chris Ackerman to use her considerable powers, her access to gossip, and her knowledge of the community to find the killer. She quickly uncovers a network of unusual lovers--and also questions Cornelius' hippie stepmother.

Could any of them have poisoned him with Elavil, the drug that turned up in the autopsy, sure to have been fatal, considering his weak heart? She has to overcome several personal crises in this installment as well as solve the crime.

Yoder is known for her witty, pun-laced banter...at times driving her conversational victims to madness, or confessing, whichever comes first.

Armchair Interviews says: Another yummy Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery.