#15 in the Pennsylvania Dutch Mysteries. This one has Magdalena investigating the death of the local playboy. She investigates his numerous paramours and finally gets to the twist ending. It was all about money after all. This one also has her breaking off her engagement to Gabe and then finally at the end marrying him after all. ( )

Even though he's engaged to Priscilla Livengood, Cornelius Weaver has quite a way with women. In fact, when he dies after eating poisoned curry there are a number of suspects, all women who at one time or another had an affair with Cornelius. Police Chief Olivia Hornsby-Anderson can't investigate the case because she was with Cornelius when he died so she asks Magdalena Yoder to investigate. Mags agrees and soon finds out that Cornelius was a busy man - besides Priscilla and Olivia he was having affairs with a number of other women including Alice Troyer, Caroline Sha, Thelma Unruh and Drustara Kurtz. While Mags is trying to solve the murder, she is also trying to plan her wedding to Gabe Rosen. But Mags is beginning to wonder if the Jewish Gabe will fit into her Mennonite world. Add in a second murder and Mags has her hands full.

Starting with the very first sentence ("It was the best of crimes; it was the worst of crimes") "Hell Hath No Curry" is a very funny if light cozy mystery. The book is filled with humor - lots of puns and double entendres: Priscilla's habit of misspeaking; Freni's cooking; Mags habit of being cheap even when she is extremely wealthy; and the various people of Hernia, Pennsylvania. Some of the humor is filler that doesn't add to the plot like Mags' extremely funny conversation with a telemarketer and some of it does move the story along. Author Tamar Myers also pokes fun at herself yet manages to plug one of her books "The Dark Side of Heaven" at the same time. Myers has a habit of using running gags throughout her books and it sometimes works like Mags asking for hot chocolate and lady fingers at every house she visits. But her decision to have people keep telling Mags how beautiful she is backfires, especially since it goes against her description of Mags in the previous books in the series. It's too bad because Magdalena's growing self-awareness, realizing the fact that she has been living under the shadow of her dead mother, and her worries about her marriage to Gabe made her a deeper character than she usually is and added much to the book. I also liked Mags relationship with her foster daughter Allison (although I'm not convinced teenagers really talk the way she does), but there's far too little Susannah in the book. The mystery itself is light and tends to get lost in all the jokes. There's a second murder in the book for no apparent reason except to perhaps set up yet another running gag in the series.

Readers who like funny but light cozy mysteries will enjoy "Hell Hath No Curry". ( )