Fowl Play

Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery #25

by Tamar Myers

Murder is on the menu at Magdalena Yoder’s dinner party when a guest dies after devouring a chicken samosa.

Octogenarian Mennonite widow Magdalena Yoder Rosen has sold the PennDutch Inn and moved into a luxury cottage in Heaven’s Gate, a genteel retirement community close to Hernia, with her old friend, Agnes.

Mags is keen to settle into her new surroundings, but when she beats undefeated Scrabble champion Marion Simpson, she quickly creates enemies—and chaos! Surely hosting a scrumptious dinner party will help Mags curry favor with her neighbors?

Unfortunately Mags' plan backfires when Marion is poisoned by the chicken samosa starter with its delicious dipping sauce, drawing Mags into another murder investigation. Can the newly crowned Scrabble queen outwit a fowl killer?

This wickedly amusing culinary mystery series featuring an array of outrageously eccentric characters is perfect for fans of Joanne Fluke and Dianne Mott Davidson.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Cozy

256 pages, Hardcover

Published November 4, 2025

About the author

Tamar Myers was born and raised in the Belgian Congo (now just the Congo). Her parents were missionaries to a tribe which, at that time, were known as headhunters and used human skulls for drinking cups. Hers was the first white family ever to peacefully coexist with the tribe, and Tamar grew up fluent in the local trade language. Because of her pale blue eyes, Tamar’s nickname was Ugly Eyes.

Tamar grew up eating elephant, hippopotamus and even monkey. She attended a boarding school that was two days away by truck, and sometimes it was necessary to wade through crocodile infested waters to reach it. Other dangers she encountered as a child were cobras, deadly green mambas, and the voracious armies of driver ants that ate every animal (and human) that didn’t get out of their way.

In 1960 the Congo, which had been a Belgian colony, became an independent nation. There followed a period of retribution (for heinous crimes committed against the Congolese by the Belgians) in which many Whites were killed. Tamar and her family fled the Congo, but returned a year later. By then a number of civil wars were raging, and the family’s residence was often in the line of fire. In 1964, after living through three years of war, the family returned to the United States permanently.

Tamar was sixteen when her family settled in America, and she immediately underwent severe culture shock. She didn’t know how to dial a telephone, cross a street at a stoplight, or use a vending machine. She lucked out, however, by meeting her husband, Jeffrey, on her first day in an American high school. They literally bumped heads while he was leaving, and she entering, the Civics classroom.

Tamar now calls Charlotte, NC home. She lives with her husband, plus a Basenji dog named Pagan, a Bengal cat named Nkashama, and an orange tabby rescue cat named Dumpster Boy. She and her husband are of the Jewish faith, the animals are not.

Tamar enjoys gardening (she is a Master Gardner), bonsai, travel, painting and, of course, reading. She loves Thai and Indian food, and antique jewelry. She plans to visit Machu Pichu in the near future.

Series:
* Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery
* Den of Antiquity Mystery

Reviews

[Cozybooklady · Rating 5 out of 5]

#FowlPlay #NetGalley is the latest book in this Penn Dutch cozy mystery series, featuring Magdalena Yoder.
Magdalena and her best friend Agnes have moved into Heaven's Gate, a retirement community that sounds well, heavenly, until it isn't.
They live in a unit, specifically cloud 2, and once they begin to meet their neighbors, their troubles begin.
Gladys and Abner Kravitz (lol!) are the first to arrive, and Gladys is a huge gossip. She tells them all about their neighbors and leaves nothing out!
When Magdalena and Agnes find themselves the champions of a cutthroat scrabble competition, things take a downward spiral and they try to make amends.
The friends host a dinner party, very fancy, complete with delicious food. The events go awry when one of the guests drops dead, and everyone starts pointing fingers.
Magdalena is befriended by another resident, Andy, who seems to have her best interest at heart, or does he?
I can honestly say I laughed so many times reading this book, Magdalena and Agnes are fantastic characters and their personalities really make this story pop.
I can't wait to see what happens with Magdalena and Dimitri! As for Agnes, lol, I can't even imagine!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for selecting me to read an advanced copy of this book.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fowl Play by Tamar Myers is a Pennsylvania Dutch mystery featuring Magdalena Yoder Rosen and her best friend for eighty-five years, Agnes Miller Shafor. She had sold the Pen Dutch Inn which she had run for many years and purchased a cottage in a Christian old folks’ settlement that featured cottages, assisted living, nursing home, and end-of-life care. She was a Christian, well, a conservative Mennonite; Agnes’ Mennonite church was a little more liberal. Neither of them fit into their new circumstance. She was footing the bill as it was beyond Agnes’ reach. She had purchased a comfortable sofa set including two chairs, all in the most beautiful color blue as a gift to herself. In her bedroom was the old rocker that contained the ghost of her great-grandmother. It was the only thing she’d brought from her old home beside Agnes. The there was a murder, on her sofa. It got soiled and would never be the same.

Magdalena is a character and she always has been. It has been years since I have read one of this series and it makes me laugh, as always. She misunderstands and misuses words. I never have been sure if this happens on purpose as she is an educated woman, but it is hilarious. She had a reputation as a detective at home and it looked like she would have to use her skills on this murder. The detective in charge didn’t do much more than laugh. I can’t begin to tell you how convoluted and hilarious this book is. The killer is a surprise and his reason even more surprising as is the conclusion. I recommend it to anyone who has a taste for the truly quirky.

I was invited to read Fowl Play by Severn House. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #SevernHouse #TamarMyers #FowlPlay

[Drebbles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read a lot of Tamar Myers’ books in the past but lost track and thought she had stopped writing so I was surprised to see “Fowl Play” was a new addition to her Pennsylvania-Dutch series. This book was full of changes – Magdalena (Mags) is now 85, a widow, and has sold the PennDutch Inn and moved into a retirement community with her best friend Agnes. This was startling to me at first but I do like the fact that it introduced an entire set of new characters for Mags to befriend (and fight with). Mags is pretty much the same character that I remember from the earlier books – reminding people that she is Mennonite not Amish (a recurring joke in this book), outspoken, bossy, smart, irrepressible. As in past books this book is heavy on humor and unfortunately that’s where I feel the book falls apart. To be sure parts of the book are laugh out loud funny but at other times the humor is crude and unnecessary (Mags may be a Mennonite but surely as a college graduate and someone who ran an Inn she’s heard of a Volvo before) and at times mean. Because of the focus on humor, the murder mystery tends to get lost during the course of the book – it does have a nice if implausible (if you think about it for too long) twist. The book ends in a way that has me thinking that there will be at least one more book in the series – I’m curious to see how a few things work out but not sure I want to invest much more time in this series.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley.

[Joy · Rating 1 out of 5]

What. Gibberish hell did I just attempt to read ?! There I NO plot till 60% of the book is done and even then almost nothing happens.

Negative five stars ! HOW the bloody hell is this a series and people actually BUY them ?!

3 part drinking game:

1.take a shot everytime she mentions that hideous blue couch.

2 take a shot everytime she mentions a psalm and interprets it wrong. & low browed.

3 take a shot everytime she insults / berates her " best friend " that she has money & she has none.

If you're masochistic enough to read the whole mess..you'll be plastered.

What an idiotic horrible sanctimonious , gossiping witch , judgemental horrible human is Magdalena .

Both the writer and the reviewers seem to think all that and the demented insulting and screeching gibberish about nothing that has to do with what the scene is about = "quirky andwitty and clever " or "laugh out loud cozy".

My brain wanted to strangle me for attempting this nonsense.

They truely must be blind or drunk .

PS the cold cocking ending giving her a man 40 years younger ..just disgusting and has nothing yo do with anything .

I thought I tried to read horrible books .This just moved into my top 3 worst ever .

[Anne · Rating 1 out of 5]

I liked this series when it first came out. Magdalena came off a bit harsh, but was amusing. The same bits were used book after book and Magdalena just became mean and unpleasant. I think I gave up right before or after she and Gabe married. I think that was when she was no longer plain, but supposedly supermodel beautiful.

I decided to give the series another go to see what had changed in about 8 books. Was surprised she is now in her 80's, but a good way top revive the series and bring in freshness. Magdalena is a little, just a little, nicer. I still didn't really enjoy the interactions (every one is unpleasant) and the whodunnit is absolutely preposterous and Magdalena never asks the murder one question which would have been vital (but Magdalena is always about Magdalena which makes her such an unpleasant protagonist).

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

[Cass Chloupek · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book a fair bit. Magdalena was quite the character and had a sharp tongue and a quick whit which was nice. I did feel like the book lacked direction at times though. The crux of the book was the murder and yet it took almost halfway into it to get to the murder and even after it happened it took the scene route to get to the final unveiling of who the murder was and then it wasn’t even one of the core characters which would have been the most interesting. Fine concept but stumbled a bit on execution.

[Amary Chapman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Senior Sleuth Crazy Christian Cozy
Ms. Myers has created an engaging hilarious senior citizen christian cozy set in a 'religious retirement village' one must buy into at a luxury cost. It's full of eccentric characters, the most eccentric being the lead, Mennonite Magdaleena, who has a colorful history, present and judging by the end, it looks like future. This book was a delight to read.
I requested and was granted a NetGalley ARC to peruse gratis and offer my opinion in the same.

[LittleRead · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hadn’t seen an entry in the series for a while, so I thought it was over. And then the author releases a new entry on the series. Why sad me to see that Magdalena had aged and where she was now, she still doesn’t disappoint.

Solving a murder in her retirement community and flirting with a much younger hot cop? Signed me up for becoming Magdalena Yoder 101. I’m in. I love Magdalena’s wet and everything about this serious. I really do wanna be Magdalena when I grow up.

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a funny, cozy mystery! While this is the 25th in the series, this was my first one that I have read in the series and it was so cute! I loved the personalities of each of the characters--what a hoot! I look forward to reading more in this series. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4. *I received a complimentary e-ARC from the author/publishing company via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts & opinions are my own.

[JXR · Rating 4 out of 5]

well-done and fun cozy mystery with a great plotting. our protagonist was a bit annoying at times (more of an Agatha Raisin-like character) but it worked. I did feel like I needed to read the other books in the series to understand parts, especially the twist, better, but still I liked it a lot. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.

[Patti · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not much happens, just mostly mean, sarcastic comments which wouldn’t be so bad if it were just one person, but it’s everyone! Conversations are nonsensical. And this is not once in awhile, it’s constant. Im actually a fan of sarcasm but this goes way too far. Main character is mean.

[Belle · Rating 2 out of 5]

No mystery whatsoever until about halfway. By that time, I was really starting to get weary. One can only take the back and forth bickering for so long before it becomes exhausting. The entire cast is insufferable. DNF 50%

[Miranda Cope · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read this entire series, this is just more of the same. There wasn't much actual story here. Instead, a lot of Magdalena talking, not listening, and being incredibly unobservant. I will probably continue to read this series if more are written, but, in my opinion, it has probably run its course.

[MARY L · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious book about two 85 year old Mennonite friends that move into a cottage at Heaven's Gate in Pittsburgh. At a dinner party a guest is poisoned in their home. Will the investigation find the real killer?

[Barondestructo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little too cutesy for this reader. 3/5

[Paige Harrington · Rating 1 out of 5]

I kept waiting for it to get better and it didn't... Maybe it's just not my style as someone under the age of 80?

[Liz V. · Rating 2 out of 5]

p. 82 line 1 : “anything” not “nothing”
p. 85 line 6 : “although” not “because”

[Sara Goldenberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely terrific! One of her best!

[Terese · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read #1 Too Many Cooks a while ago, quite enjoyed it. A quirky cosy read. So when I saw this on the library shelf, it was an impulse borrow. This means I’ve jumped the whole series and maybe that’s the problem.
As the MC says midway through the book: ‘While I have, on occasion, subjected you to longer run-on sentences, the one before this was of sufficient duration to give me a headache…..’
some funny moments but in the end too many words, I found myself skimming whole paragraphs