The Hand That Rocks the Ladle

Tamar Myers

I'll get this out of the way first and foremost: I like the Den of Antiquity novels better than I like the Pennsylvania Dutch novels. But it's hard to turn down any book that has recipes as a part of its plotline, isn't it?

Myers brings back indefatigable Mennonite heroine Amada Yoder, owner of the Penn Dutch Inn and the most unreliable narrator outside the autobiographies of some of those she reports have stayed at her inn. In this episode of her escapades, her cook, Freni, has a daughter who's pregnant with triplets, a husband who's feeling sympathy pains, and a cadre of evil doctors straight out of a Robin Cook medical thriller. When Freni's daughter gives birth to twins, everyone is quick to blame it on her old doctor, who has something of a fondness for the bottle, and probably miscounted the heartbeats. Right? But Freni knows different, and she ropes Amanda into finding baby number three, despite Amanda having an innful of very odd guests, no cook, and a mysterious stranger she is convinced is Michael Jackson.

The main problem I have with the Penn Dutch mysteries is that the narrative tone just gets under my skin for some reason. The Den of Antiquity books are narrated pretty much like any other novel, but Myers has infested Amanda Yoder with a voice that stops just this side of annoying; imagine Frances MacDormand's character in Fargo, but with a rural Pennsylvania accent, and I think you'll understand what I'm getting at. It's n full steam here, and undercuts the otherwise fun book (and wonderful recipes for things like Toad Stroganoff. I kid you not). The other problem with it is that one of the main clues to what's going on comes in the first couple of chapters, and might as well have “I'M A CLUE” stamped on it in big red letters, so when you get to the big twist ending, you've seen it coming for the last two hundred pages. Those problems aside, the book is well-plotted and well-paced, and the nutzoid quality of the characters makes it as interesting a read as any of the other Penn Dutch books; still, if you're a Myers newbie, you might want to head for the Den of Antiquity mysteries first.