Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Crime: A Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery with Recipes (Pennsylvania Dutch Mysteries with Recipes)

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Linda Shelnutt, April 21, 2006 (view all comments by Linda Shelnutt)
Magda?s Spyglass Focuses Inward With Wide-Eyed, Grinning Honesty, as well as Outward With All In Fun Observations.

Magdelana?s snap, cracke & pop descriptions of people in her world drives a quick, delightful read, so much so that it?s easy to miss some of the constant and intriguing, worthy cultural messages.

What I enjoyed most in the opening chapters of this 2nd novel in the PenDutch series was the point at which Magdalena first turned her snappy spyglass onto her foibles, focusing a schooldays shadow as brightly as the dim wittedness she?d been observing outside herself. After establishing her humorous disgust of the reportedly lacking mental capacities of Susannah?s boyfriend and Hernia?s chief of police, Melvin Stoltzfus, Magdalena noted her collection of ?DUH? brain cells by confessing to the reader that it was Melvin?s paper she chose to copy that one-and-only time she ever cheated on an exam.

I enjoyed the fact that Bugsy, in the first scene, wasn?t at all put off, insulted, or deterred by Mags?s clear and constant rips on his person, character, and apparent con-artist intentions. Be sure to spot the whitehead on his nose, which changes sides from day to day, and never escapes Mags?s focus.

The humor in this series is fast, deep, and complex. I love it when a fictional female (or male, for that matter) actually spouts in public a few choice descriptions which I?d love to open mouth to but wouldn?t dare, for fear of either being stomped out of existence, or hurting someone I would never want to hurt.

Magda periodically confesses that she?s living dangerously when she out pops with something most of us couldn?t get out of the voice-box outside the safety of paper and print.

Usually, my take on this type of daring (fictional) humorous release is, that?s what novels are for?

Magda?s scenes with doc bring out her sensitive side, in those precious moments when she relates to him with compassion, without comic cover (which can become a high-grade, sophisticated emotional firewall).

Magda?s moxie hides the hugely sensitive, warm heart of a sometimes frightened woman, as evidenced by many subtle scenes, but especially in the first serious exchange and its culmination, between Magda and Arthur when her acting Voice finally lets go with a boom, and surges Arthur to utter his first speaking part in the plot, cancelling his prior grunting/muttering mode.

Each time Magda turns her spyglass inward, to ferret foibles or vulnerability; in ?after-the-purge? scenes, she refreshes the reader with slips of warmth and generosities of spirit extended to some of her story mates. What her sarcastic edge might secret is that she loves her people and they love her, and the snipping wit is taken as moxie, charisma, a ?presence? worthy of a great actress.

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Product Details

ISBN:

9780451182975

Subtitle:

A Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery with Recipes

Author:

Myers, Tamar

Publisher:

Signet

Location:

New York :

Subject:

General

Subject:

Fiction

Subject:

Mystery & Detective - Series

Subject:

Detective and mystery stories

Subject:

Mystery & Detective - Women Sleuths

Subject:

Women detectives

Subject:

Pennsylvania

Subject:

Adult

Subject:

Hotelkeepers

Subject:

Mennonites

Subject:

Pennsylvania dutch

Subject:

Women detectives -- Pennsylvania -- Fiction.

Subject:

Yoder, magdalena (fictitious character)

Subject:

Mystery & Detective - General

Edition Description:

Paperback

Series:

Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery

Series Volume:

104-427

Publication Date:

19960701

Binding:

Paperback

Grade Level:

General/trade

Language:

English

Illustrations:

Yes

Pages:

272

Dimensions:

6.86x4.16x.76 in. .30 lbs.