Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Crime

by Tamar Myers

A Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery with Recipes.

It's been awhile since I posted a book review, and I'm sad to say that today's review is not a great one. If you look back at my past reading list, you will find that I do enjoy reading books about the Amish and Mennonite people. So when I stumbled on a whole series of books by Tamar Myers that are set in Pennsylvania Dutch country, I was a little excited. So I picked up this book with relish and dove in, and was sorely disappointed.

I can't speak for the rest of the series but this surely was a dud. First off, the Amish and Mennonite aspect of the book is sorely lacking. Our heroine is supposedly a non-practicing Mennonite, and she is very inconsistent. This is very evident as we see the story from her point of view, and many of her viewpoints contradict each other. One minute she is chastising another person for being prideful, and the next minute she is thinking some horrible thoughts about another person. Just very inconsistent in general, and surely not consistent with Amish and Mennonite beliefs. My second beef with this book is that the whole thing was very easy to figure out. It was so contrived, that I knew quite often what was going to happen before it happened. If I had to give it a term, it is very formulaic, and not very well done at that. And thirdly, this series is promoted as being set in Pennsylvania Dutch country with recipes. I found none of the recipes in this book even remotely appealing, and furthermore, one of the recipes called for several cans of cream soups and such, and I surely know that Penn-Dutch recipes do not rely on such convenience items.

After reading this book, I will most definitely not read another by Tamar Myers. What a disappointment, and I cannot believe that she actually wrote over 2 dozen books, including about 15 of these Pennsylvania Dutch mysteries with recipes! They certainly won't be going on my must-read list anytime soon.