MEAN AND SHELLFISH

Gabe, a retired Jewish physician, is married to Magdalena, a conservative Mennonite woman, and while they may have their differences, they both agree Magdalena has serious detective chops.

Magdalena Portulacca Yoder Rosen’s PennDutch Inn in Hernia, Pennsylvania, makes big bucks serving up plain rooms and fattening food and charging guests extra if they help with chores like mucking out the barn. Now that she and Gabe have one daughter studying pre-med and a clever 5-year-old, the only fly in the ointment is Gabe’s mother, Ida Rosen, whose Jewish-mama act is unbelievably over-the-top. When Ida invites Miriam, her niece from Australia, to stay at the inn, she sets a dangerous chain of events in motion. Miriam, who’s used a wheelchair ever since a crocodile bit her leg off, immediately bonds with Magdalena’s sister, Susannah, who was just released from prison after plotting with her boyfriend to kill Magdalena. Meanwhile, Police Chief Toy, who often teams up with Magdalena (whose wealth pays his salary) to solve murders in Hernia, reports that two people have been found dead in a dumpster. Worried about the discovery’s possible impact on the Billy Goat Gruff Festival, a cash cow that draws visitors from a wide area, Magdalena calls on Gabe and her friends for help and soon becomes the killer’s next target.

Depending on your sense of humor, you’ll find Magdalena’s cross-cultural adventures hilariously funny or totally meshuggeneh.