Review: Too Many Crooks Spoil the Broth by Tamar Myers

Are your eggs organic?

I nodded assuringly, which isnt the same as lying. As far as I know, the only inorganic eggs are the marble kind sold in gift shops. . .

You might have realised by now that Im somewhat of a sucker for a pun. I feel a certain sort of solidarity with authors who are absolutely determined to squeeze in a particularly groan-worthy pun regardless of whether it has any place being there at all. And so, happening uponToo Many Crooks Spoil the Broth, I had little choice but to pick it up and read it.

Now, I should admit that Too Many Crooks Spoil the Broth was technically read in two sittings rather than the breezy single sitting favoured by this blog. This is not at all the fault of the book, but rather that of my boyfriend, who pounced upon this book whilst I was cleaning my teeth and spent the rest of the night reading it. 'Fortunately, I was able to wrench it out of his hands the following morning, wipe a spot or two of drool off it, and finish it myself.

Tamar Myers is an old hand at this cozy mystery business, with two dozen or so titles to her name. Too Many Crooks is the first in her series about morally ambiguous PennDutch Inn owner Magdalene Yoder, who likes to pick and choose her ethical battles. Its a rollicking read, and is a far funnier book than I had expected (even with the flashing warning of the punny title). I admit to giggling aloud a few times, and raising an eyebrow on several other occasions.

The book opens with our hapless heroine (all heroines in these mysteries are hapless, Ive started to find) greeting a motley assortment of guests who are checking in to the PennDutch. Half the group sit happily somewhere on the vegetarian-vegan scale, while the others are very much the huntin and killin type. Magdalena bumbles about committing all sorts of culinary sins (as a vegetarian myself, Im now truly terrified about ever stepping foot in such an establishment) while she tries to mitigate some of the tensions between the group. Of course, shes largely unsuccessful at this, and soon enough, people start dying from ostensibly food related incidents.

Too Many Crooks is generally a vastly silly and fun read, with some entertaining anecdotes and snippets about life in Dutch Pennsylvania. Myers enjoys poking fun at much everyone, including herself, as she and her husband make a small cameo partway through the book. However, the humour does become a little overbearing at times, and it does detract from the pacing of the book. I found myself waiting for the book to get going as it slowly introduced a large ensemble of characters, and then was concerned that Id developed whiplash when it wrapped up more quickly than a shop attending boxing gifts on Christmas Eve. Fortunately, there are a number of delicious recipes included with all of the bumbling humour, and now that I have boiled cookies to add to my baking repertoire, Id feel a bit petty for deducting too many points for some mild pacing issues.

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