Author Tamar Myers prose begins to grate on me after a while, and I cringe at her pun-laden titles, but her books are certainly popular. I've just checked out her website and learned her biography, which is pretty interesting. Her parents were missionaries in the Belgian Congo, where she was born and grew up for the first 16 years of her life. So when she talks about culture shock (having never driven, never used a phone, never used a vending machine, she knows what she's talking about! She's been in the US since 1964. http://tamarmyers.com/bio.htm
So, to the plot of Between A Wok and A Hard Place:
Ever since her brand new husband flew the coop, Magdalena Yoder, owner of the quaint Penn-Dutch Inn, has had time to kill. And now the local Amish commmunity has a murder in its midst: an Asian tourist found strangled and run over by a horse and buggy. It isn't a crime Police Chief Melvin Stoltzfus can easily handle; after all, he was once kicked in the head by a bull he was trying to milk. But he's smart enough to deputize Magdalena.
Soon Magdalena is off visiting the neatly kept farms of the Plain People, in search of the truth. Although not an outsider, she's about as welcome as a fox in a henhouse. Something dangerous is being concealed behind their dour faces and determination to protect their own. And as for Magdalena, finding a killer may just put her between the rock of faith and a hard place called justice....
Opening paragraph
I was a virgin until I married at age 46. Use it or lose it, my sister Susannah always said. Maybe she was right.
Of course this is none of your business. I am a God-fearing womanvand I certainly do not intend to discuss my sex life with you. It is imperative, however, that you understand that I was still in a state of shock when the events I am about to relate happened. After all, I had been married only a month, and what Mama had only hinted at paled in comparison with the real thing. I was born and raised on a farm and had seen animals-cows and horses-but never a naked man. How was I to know they looked like that? Thanksgiving is forever ruined for me. I can't even look at a turkey neck now without feeling embarrased.
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