Assault and Pepper: A Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery with Recipes by Tamar Myers

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
The 13th installment in Tamar Myers's Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery series is most definitely unlucky for the saga's protagonist, devoted Mennonite innkeeper Magdalena Yoder. After the sudden and inexplicable resignation of the local police chief, Magdalena must find out who murdered the beloved Reverend Schrock at the congregation's annual chili cook-off.

When the head of the Beechy Grove Mennonite Church does a face plant into a pot of chili and dies, his ill-tempered wife, who has the personality of a "flea-bitten badger," begs Magdalena to find out who the killer was. Although it was common knowledge to most everyone living in and around Hernia, Pennsylvania, that the reverend was highly allergic to peanuts, someone mixed a lethal dose of peanut butter into the chili with full knowledge that the reverend would be consuming it. When Magdalena begins investigating, however, she is shocked to discover that the much-admired pastor had more than a few jaw-dropping secrets -- and plenty of unlikely enemies. But the more Magdalena digs into the reverend's sordid past, the more she unexpectedly uncovers about herself…

Aside from having some of the best tongue-in-cheek titles in serial mystery (Play It Again, Spam; The Crepes of Wrath; Thou Shall Not Grill), Myers's Pennsylvania Dutch sequence is -- like her "sturdy Christian underwear"–clad protagonist -- one of the funniest and most endearing mystery sagas around. In a word: delightful. Paul Goat Allen

From the Publisher

A tasty mystery-with a side of killer chili

Includes six chili recipes

Magdalena Yoder and her Mennonite congregation gather for the annual chili cook-off, only to have beloved Reverend Schrock fall face-first into his bowl. For his widow's sake, Magdalena begins to look into the victim's death, soon discovering that Schrock wasn't all that well liked by his flock.

Publishers Weekly

A fiery red dust jacket fittingly adorns Tamar Myers's Assault and Pepper: A Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery with Recipes, her muddily plotted 12th culinary cozy (after 2004's Thou Shalt Not Grill) to star Magdalena Yoder, the Mennonite proprietor of PennDutch Inn. Magdalena pursues the convoluted truth behind the poisoning of the seemingly beloved Reverend Schrock, who topples "face forward, into a pot of chili" in front of his congregation. Agent, Nancy Yost at Lowenstein Yost. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Mennonite innkeeper Magdalena Yoder (Thou Shalt Not Grill) readies herself for her church's annual chili cook-off but can't prepare for what happens. Someone laces the severely allergic Rev. Schrock's chili with peanut butter, and he dies on the spot. When Yoder investigates, she finds more enemies than she thought possible. More serial fun. Myers lives in Mt. Pleasant, SC. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

The Beechy Grove Mennonite Church chili cook-off becomes the send-off for Rev. Schrock. Crabby Mennonite innkeeper Magdalena Yoder (Custard's Last Stand, 2003, etc.) thinks the saintly reverend must have fallen dead into a pot of chili, but his wife Lodema believes her hubby, highly allergic to peanuts, was poisoned by the chili's secret ingredient. When pesky Magdalena agrees to investigate, the congregation is only too willing to confide the worst to her: the good reverend tippled a little, enjoyed days at the track and nights at the Happy Back Massage Parlor, and probably raided the church building fund. Was there a sin he didn't indulge in? Probably not, but Magdalena makes little headway in finding his poisoner, stymied as she is by her brother-in-law, stupid Sheriff Melvin Stoltzfus, and his besotted deputy Zelda. Even worse, the reverend's wife, overcome with grief, regresses to childhood, and his sister Catherine is shot to death. Meantime, a little girl with dubious parentage is seen at the Tastee-Freeze guzzling ice cream while blackmail money changes hands and the inn's cook is kidnapped. Is sex or greed at the root of the reverend's demise? The answer is so outlandish readers will be tempted to slip the author some of that befouled chili. A silly plot and forced humor spiced by distinctions between the Amish and the Mennonites. Much spicier are six chili recipes, including such unusual ingredients as dumplings, chorizo and egg. Agent: Nancy Yost/Lowenstein-Yost Associates

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