FOWL PLAY

The octogenarian Mennonite murder maven gets to work in a new milieu.

Born Amish and raised Mennonite, Magdalena Portulaca Yoder Rosen has sold the PennDutch Inn in Hernia, Pennsylvania, and moved to a fancy retirement home in Pittsburgh. Her lifelong best friend, Agnes Miller Shafor, is sharing her expensive cottage at Heaven’s Gate, but as usual with Mags, things don’t always go as planned. For one thing, and much to Agnes’ dismay, Mags has brought along the ancient rocking chair that houses the ghost of Granny Yoder. For another, Mags is nothing if not plainspoken, a trait that doesn’t endear her to her new neighbors, who aren’t entirely pleasant people. She gets off to a bad start with the Heaven’s Gate director, Rev. Pole, who teaches classes on speaking in tongues. Agnes makes a bet with Marion Simpson and Virginia MacTavish, a couple who are the residence’s Scrabble champions, that she and Mags can beat them. The competition rules are strict, and the crowd watching the game insults their intelligence, but Mags wipes the floor with her opponent, Marion, who accuses her of cheating and sets up an even more difficult game, which Mags again wins. Now that everyone’s angry with them, Mags decides to throw a fancy dinner party. Unfortunately, Marion drops dead after eating a chicken samosa. Enter Det. Dimitri Balanitis, who flirts with Mags despite the vast difference in their ages. Aware of her record as a detective, Dimitri teams up with Mags to uncover a killer.

Another hilarious adventure in this long-running series.