Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Crime (Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery, #2) by Tamar Myers

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Crime (Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery, #2) Reviews

• 
  Julie

  Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Crime by Tamar Meyers is a 1996 Signet publication. This is the second book in the Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery series.
  
  I loved the first book in the series so much, I have decided to attempt reading this entire series from start to finish. These easy to read, cozy mysteries centered around Magdalena Yoder and her PennDutch Inn, set in Hernia, Pennsylvania.
  
  A film crew has arrived at the inn to shoot a film based on the murders that occurred there a little while back. But, another murder cast a pall on the filming, and Magdalena is suspect number one.
  
  This second installment was as hysterically funny as the first one, but the mystery was a little thin. However, since it’s the characters and the humor that has me wanting to read more, that wasn’t a deal breaker.
  
  These stories are quick, easy and fun!
  Can’t wait for the next one!
  
  4 stars
  
• 
  Kim

  Storyline is tired already and it's only book 2. Same Inn, more murder. Main character still abrasive and unlikeable.
  
  Not reading the rest.
• 
  Joy Gerbode

  While I did enjoy the mystery in this one, I really don't care for the characters in this series. I know we're all weird, and for the most part I think weird is good ... but these characters just seem toooo crazy. Still, although this murder was a bit more gory, it was enjoyable to try to figure it out ... and I was waaaaay off base!
  
• 
  Jenn

  This is the second book i read in the Penn Dutch series and really don't care to read another. Magdalena Yoder is a mennonite innkeeper who rents out her inn to hollywood film makers to make extra money till there is a murder on the set. Martha Simms wanted to be an actress like her famous grandmother but was married to a minister and when she wanted a lead role she never got one. Susannah is Mag's sister who is a slut, there is an old doctor who flirts with Mags, Freni and Mose help around the inn cooking and fixing up the place then there is smart ass Mags who i do not care for at all. Throughout the entire book references are made to her mother spinning in her grave and i even remember that in her other book, in this one like 8 or 9 times WTF?
• 
  Erin

  Hilarious!! I'm tearing through this series. When reading them I laugh like I can't remember laughing from reading any other book. The only reason I'm not giving 5 stars is that the sister character is annoying to me. At first the small jokes peppered throughout were jolting me out of the story and I didn't like it but some were so funny I could not stop laughing! That keeps me returning to T. Myers. I will read every one I can get my hands on. Well worth the chuckles. The most hilarious sense of humor ever in a mystery!
• 
  Lynn Townsend

  This was so bad, I didn't even finish it. I didn't even get TO the murder... mostly because I couldn't decide which one of the 15 million boring/obnoxious or unpleasant characters introduced that I wanted to SEE murdered.
  
  So, I think I read about 30 pages and put it away.
• 
  Nell

  2 1/2 stars Liked the protagonist's and her descriptions of Mennonite culture. Interesting romance developing. Mystery itself was weak. I figured out the murderer early and her efforts to harm the protagonist seemed obvious except to her.
• 
  April Ann

  i am saying I read this...but didnt finish it. not my cup of tea
• 
  Gloria

  After the events of the first book, Hollywood comes knocking. Magdalena Yoder, proprietress of the Penn-Dutch Inn, agrees to reschedule all her guests and rent out the premises for a movie.
  
  The director, asst. director and location scout descend on the Penn-Dutch, along with people from the community who want to be in the movie. The Asst. Director was found pitchforked to the wall in the barn..... The local police chief wants Magdalena to confess and she staunchly stands by the fact that she did not do it.
  
  Mags also ventures into the dating scene, but has no luck until Aaron Miller, the son of the neighbor and her childhood playmate comes back to Hernia. The Presbyterian minister and his wife try extending the hand of friendship, but Mags is ambivalent about taking it - what with her sister marrying a Presbyterian all those years ago.
  
  Mags investigates the door opening on her six-seater outhouse, gets trapped inside, and is eventually rescued by the fire department, and ends up in the hospital. While there, she is nearly poisoned and the person who murdered the Asst. Director confesses.
  
  The murderess is Martha Sims, the Presbyterian minister's wife. She had a desire to go into the movie business but felt she had to set a good example as a minister's wife so she could not be an actress. The movie being made in her backyard (so to speak) would have been her debut, but they cast Magdalena instead!
  
  Recipes:
  Freni Hostetler's recipe for Shoofly Pie
  Grandma Yoder's Secret Corn Chowder
  Doc Shafer's recipe for Green-Tomato Pie
  Freni's Super-Duper Company Meat Loaf
  Freni Hostetler's version of Beef Yum Yai (Thai Cold Beef Salad)
  Freni Hostetler's rendition of Tom Yam Goonk
  My Own Version of Peanut Butter Apple Cake
• 
  Knight

  This book was ok. The murder and identity of the murderer didn't really make sense. I think it would take a lot of strength to pin a body to a post with a pitchfork. Melvin Stoltzfus, promoted to Police Chief since book 1, refuses to consider any suspects other than Magdalena; in an attack of obsessive stupidity, which became boring very quickly. The character Susannah is even more irritating than she was in book #1. Maybe you are just supposed to read these books for the witticisms.
  
  I was thinking of not reading any more of these books, but the author did something so interesting, that I will give the series one more try. Magdalena had her first kiss.
  
  There are some puzzlers in the plot:
  At one point it was established that the murderer was unlikely to be a woman because it would take extraordinary strength to kill someone like that. But Melvin still considered Magdelena the chief suspect and it turned out that the murderer was a woman but that issue was never addressed. Martha Sims invites Magdalena to lunch and poisons her. Was she immune because she had taken Pepto Bismol that morning? An icky plotline was Susannah's dog Snokums falling into a pan of food; I couldn't even read all of that part.
• 
  Nd

  A goofy little gift book that I didn't expect much from but had a great time reading. Magdalena Yoder, who is supposed to be Amish/Mennonite, is having a tough time making ends meet at her family's PennDutch Inn in Hernia, PA, Amish country. A Hollywood director named Bugsy showed up in the middle of the night offering to buy the inn, which she had no intention of selling. With much naivete on Magdalena's part and after much wrangling (Bugsy: "Playing hardball, eh?" Magdalena, "I don't even play Ping-Pong with strangers."), they made a deal whereby she had veto control of the movie-making, as she was determined nothing that her (deceased) grandmother wouldn't approve of would be filmed in or in the inn. It became a bit of a free-for-all when the wide-eyed townspeople wanted to get into the movie. Shortly after the obnoxious Don Manley insisted on directing a scene with the minister's wife naked in a bathtub, he is found pinned to a post in the barn with a pitchfork. Magdalena's cousin Melvin, the sheriff suspects her of the murder.
• 
  Janet

  I am ambivalent about Magdalena Yoder. I really enjoy her as a character (with a capital "C"!) and the stories and mysteries are pretty good. But I just have to wonder if a Mennonite would be as wise-cracking and abrasive as she is. Maybe the author knows more about the Plain People than I do...or else it's those Pennsylvania Amish/Mennonites rather than the Ohio ones I have known and interacted with. I also know that they hold their religion very closely and seriously and Magdalena seems to take nothing seriously and also doesn't seem to treat most people very well. Yes, a lot of the characters that inhabit her world are pretty unlikable and I do appreciate her come-backs when these nasty folk treat her badly. Still, I'm still not sure if I like her or if she's going to make me go running for the Ohio border!
• 
  Lauri

  Hilarious! Menonite innkeeper, Magdalena Yoder, keeps a lovely, clean inn -- except for the occasional murder! In this 2nd book, a Hollywood movie crew shows up to make a lurid B movie on the site of the first murder -- Magdalena's beloved Penn Dutch Inn! After refusing to sell the inn outright to the "English," she accepts a huge amount of money to allow the production to take place on her property and they write her and some other locals into the script! Everything seems to be going smoothly until one of the outsiders is found impaled in the barn and Magdalena is the prime suspect! A crazy set of supporting cast members and lots of local color put Hernia, Pennsylvania on the map!
• 
  Allison

  Despite Magdalena still being the rude, sassy, and somewhat self-righteous character she had been in the first book of this series, I think I'm growing more fond of her. I'm not sure how much I'd like her as a person, but her personality is becoming more entertaining to me than annoying. Maybe it's just that I now know that these are light mysteries, not the intense thriller-style I had (for some reason) been thinking of when I initially started reading.
  A fun, light read that makes me wish I had more than 3 books of this series - maybe I'll be able to find the rest somewhere.
• 
  Lisa Anybookanytime

  When I started this, I thought it was excellent. The first 20 pages seemed innovative, funny and witty. Unfortunately, reading the whole book felt like being forced to watch a skit show that's non-stop sarcasm and snark over and over again. The author is obviously clever and the individual lines were funny but I finished feeling like I'd been hit over the head with a rubber chicken repeatedly by a toddler screaming "look how funny this is!" And it was funny at first, just too much and too repetitive. Not for me.
• 
  Karen

  This is book two in the series and Magdalena is not nearly so obnoxious.
  
  The title comes into play only as a clue that parsley is purchased at a store when it grows in the yard at the Pennsylvania Dutch Inn.
  
  The Inn is invaded by Hollywood and the film that is made there results in a death and several attempts at murder. Locals are hired as extras and the competition is robust.
  
  This is a very quick read.
  
  I borrowed a copy from the public library.
• 
  Monica Albright

  So much better than the first book in this series. It was a fun easy read. I got to know the characters more this time around. I laughed out loud at the way the Presbyterian church is portrayed. The mystery had me working to figure out the killer before it was revealed on the pages. I haven't tried any of the recipes yet.
• 
  Chaitra

  She's gone and grown on me, has Magdalena Yoder. She's salty, and hilariously self-righteous, but she's fine making fun of herself when she feels like it. I like the setting quite well. The mystery is fine also.
• 
  Rebecca

  I can't wait to order the rest of this series! Magdalena Yoder reminds me very strongly of one of my great-aunts. Now, Addie wasn't Menonite OR Amish, she was a good Methodist girl from South Georgia, but OH MY, were their characters similar!
• 
  Janet

  An easy read that cozy mystery fans will enjoy.
• 
  Dennis Phillips

  I really liked the first book in this series. This goofy entry was even better.
• 
  Sheri

  Enjoyed this LOL mystery series about a Pennsylvania Dutch Bed & Breakfast