Hell Hath No Curry: A Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery with Recipes by Tamar Myers

From the Publisher

Three days before he's due to tie the knot with Priscilla Livengood, eligible bachelor Cornelious Weaver suffers a massive heart attack-in another woman's bed. The scandal is about as good as television for the insular citizens of Hernia, Pennsylvania, and it gets even spicier when the coroner's report reveals possible foul play: Cornelious's curry was spiked with a stimulant. As the mystery heats up, Magdalena discovers that the old adage about women scorned may be truer than she thought.

Publishers Weekly

In Myers's over-the-top 15th crime caper starring Amish-Mennonite sleuth and innkeeper Magdalena Yoder (after 2006's Grape Expectations), the corpse du jour is the once-handsome scoundrel Cornelius Weaver, who may have been murdered by any one of seven women-his lovers. Familiar cast members provide the usual foils to Magdalena's running (and often very tired) jokes and too-breezy banter as she worries about her looks and upcoming mixed faith marriage to Dr. Gabriel Rosen more than she does about her investigation of Cornelius's killer. The thin plot is so improbable and haphazard, it's a relief but no great surprise when Magdalena closes that case and solves another murder as well. Cornelius's death-by-painkiller-laced Indian dish inspires the curry-themed recipes sandwiched between chapters. Maybe it's time to close the kitchen and order takeout? (Feb.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

More mirthful murder for Mennonite Magdalena Yoder, the leading citizen of Hernia, Penn. (Grape Expectations, 2006, etc.). Wealthy, handsome playboy Cornelius Weaver dies in the bed of Hernia Police Chief Olivia Hornsby-Anderson three days before his wedding to Priscilla Livingood. Even more scandalous, the autopsy reveals that his heart attack was helped along with Elavil. Priscilla is testament to the talent of her plastic-surgeon boss Jimmy Skinner, Magdalena Yoder's schoolgirl crush, who's changed her life by diagnosing this ugly duckling with dysmorphic body disorder and making her realize she's really a beauty. In addition, there's no dearth of other suspects, since Cornelius slept his way through most of the eligible women in town and promised to marry quite a few of them. Meanwhile, Magdalena's Mennonite beliefs clash with her love life, forcing her to cancel her engagement to Gabe Rosen, aka the Babester-no loss to Gabe's overprotective Yiddishe Mamma. Magdalena forges on, interviewing all the ladies who were doing the mattress mambo with Cornelius but not making any new friends with her sarcastic manner. At length, she outwits the handpicked minister who's blackmailing her for a larger salary, saves the Beachy Grove church from a takeover, discovers who murdered Cornelius and carries Gabe off in triumph. A masterful Mennonite mystery marred only by curry recipes that don't seem right for Hernia.

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