"Someone poisoned Clarence Webber in jail. Magdalena brought the gruel but who poisoned it?"

Magdalena Yoder owns and runs the PennDutch Inn in Pennsylvania. She is a God-fearing Mennonite woman who also assists her brother-in-law, Melvin Stolfus to solve some of his more difficult cases. Melvin is the Sheriff and has political aspirations.

Melvin once again asks for Magdalena's help. Clarence Webber died while eating a bowl of gruel in the jail, gruel that Magdalena provided. She brought it, but her cook Freni made it. Freni is an Amish woman in her seventies who is not always easy to get along with, but she would never kill anyone.

Magdalena sets out to discover who put the secret ingredient that killed Clarence into the gruel. She starts by investigating the four females who visited Clarence before he died. Turns out they all claim to be his widow. If that isn't enough, a teenage hellion, Allison, is dumped on Magdalena and spices up things at the Inn. Then there is the Reverend Nixon, pastor of the church with 32 words in its name.

As Magdalena gets deeper and deeper into Clarence's past and his four widows, she finds herself in danger. Can she figure out who the killer is before someone else is killed, namely herself?

This series is always fun to read. It is a fabulous cozy series. Magdalena finds herself in all sorts of amazing predicaments and her Mennonite take on things can turn an ordinary situation into a hilarious one. Her sister Susannah, who is married to Melvin, is a character all by herself, let alone with her dog Shnookums.

I enjoy the different characters, the rich people staying at the inn, as well as the Mennonites and Amish and how they are all related to each other at least once. The author has a wonderful way of telling a story and I constantly find myself reading more to find out what happens next. It's a book you won't want to put down. I highly recommend it and the whole series. Get ready to laugh!

Reviewed by Dawn Dowdle
Posted August 29, 2003

Summary

At Magdalena Yoder's PennDutch Inn, the meals are drop- dead delicious.

When imprisoned con man Clarence Webber meets his Maker after sampling a bowl of gruel laced with arsenic, it's cruel and unusual punishment indeed. And since Magdalena provided the last supper, she's convinced that one of Clarence's many visitors must have added the sinister secret ingredient. With the reputation of her establishment at stake, Magdalena puts on her detective bonnet, determined to discover who in Hernia poisoned the porridge.

But with a quartet of quirky female suspects who all claim to be the victim's widow, a bumbling sheriff with political aspirations, and a young hellion with a ton of attitude who insists she is Magdalena's daughter, this is one grueling mystery the intrepid innkeeper may be sorry she ever tried to solve....

With more than a half dozen tasty recipes!