Assault and Pepper by Tamar Myers

I've been reading Tamar Myers' Magdelena Yoder mysteries for about two years now (or is it 3?) and this one blew me away, mystery wise. I always enjoy these books, they're short, very witty, and Mags is a hilarious character to read about. She owns a lucrative inn in the PA town of Hernia, where the population tends to be either Amish, like Mags' ancestors or Mennonite, like Mags herself.

In this book, I would say that Myers really shook up the town of Hernia in a really big way. Normally the murder mysteries that occur are related to inn guests or other outsiders, so that the town characters themselves remain fairly unchanged. But in this book, Myers drastically changed the lives of four of the "regulars" in her books.

The mystery revolves around the murder of Mags' minister, Rev. Shrock. Magdelena always liked her Rev., although his wife Lodema was her nemesis. In this book, the Rev. is dead, Lodema goes off her rocker and is institutionalized, and the killer revealed was a huge surprise.

Unfortunately, my desire not to give the book away will lead to the fact that this review is suddenly cut a little short, since talking much about it will no doubt give it away to someone who likes Myers and hasn't read this one in the series yet.

Suffice it to say, I found the ending a big surprise, something that doesn't happen much in low key mystery series like this one. I don't always figure them out, but it usually isn't quite so shocking as this particular book. But yay for Tamar Myers! As I've said before, I like the series that go forward in time the best, and the deaths and arrests in this book will give some fresh blood and new plot lines to the series that should really shake things up and make it more interesting to read future volumes!

The Covenant by Beverly Lewis

So it looks like the Amish book won out over the Flower Shop book in terms of which one I finished first.

I have tons of friends who read every book Ms. Lewis publishes, and I am intrigued by the Amish culture like a lot of people, so I gave this one a try. I have also read the first in another of her Amish series. This book is the first in the "Abram's Daughters" series.

Bookwise, this is a decent read. Not setting my soul afire or anything, though. It's kind of like a grown up Christian Sweet Valley High kind of thing. I could see the plot items coming a mile or two away, which was a touch annoying. Like the fact that the mother is pregnant--but she doesn't "get it" right away. She's had 4 kids. I don't buy not recognizing pregnancy. And the fact that her teen aged daughter is also pregnant--um, you both have the EXACT SAME SYMPTOMS and when it finally dawns on Mama that she's in the family way, why the heck didn't she turn to her daughter who's been sneaking out every night during Rumspringche (or however you spell it) and say, hmmm...wonder if she's also knocked up?

I guess I'll keep reading these, they're a little break from mysteries and sometimes I like that. I blew through pages 80-320 in about 2 hours minutes, it is not a real brain teaser. Definitely one-sitting books.

I will add the caveat that my personal opinions about the Amish are very strong--I don't like them. I think they're really screwed up from their theology on down to the way they treat their families. They're a glorified cult, if you ask me. The way they won't let kids be educated past 8th grade, the way that women are treated is appalling, and the fact they're discouraged from personal relationships with Jesus are all way wrong in my book. So I don't find their culture charming or romantic in spite of the nifty clothes and back to nature ways. I mean, I love the movie Witness as much as the next person, but over all, the Amish are pretty close-minded, intolerant, and cold hearted folks with the shunning and the hateful way they just slam the door on family members.

So I read the Amish books with a very different POV than some of the friends I know that like them. I do think that Lewis is honest about their lifestyle and mores, though. I didn't feel she pushed the Anabaptist life as ideal, she's just setting her story in their culture. So I see part of the conflict in these stories coming from the way the society is structured and I think that Lewis is doing the same, but I can't be totally sure. At any rate, she certainly isn't trying to convince her reader that Amish life is normal or sunshine and daisies 24-7. There is a heavy darkness that I get a feeling for when I read these books--that is a world that is super hard to function within.