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Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries #17
Blessed are the Cheese Makers
Christmas decorations brighten the storefronts of Sugarcreek, Ohio. Cheryl Cooper is visiting Swissters, a cheese shop down the street from the Swiss Miss, when she hears that a local business has burned down. Heini's Cheese Chalet and Factory is a local favorite, and word has it that arson is suspected. Who would want to burn down a cheese factory? And why?
Cheryl's friend Naomi Miller helps her to understand that the ripple effect goes beyond one family. Amish farmers who provided fresh milk to the cheese factory now face the threat of losing their farms. While there is loss for them, there is greater gain for the competition. Cheryl has to get to the bottom of all this to help her friends and the community at large. But what will her sleuthing cost her? Is it worth the risk?
Cheryl's friend Naomi Miller helps her to understand that the ripple effect goes beyond one family. Amish farmers who provided fresh milk to the cheese factory now face the threat of losing their farms. While there is loss for them, there is greater gain for the competition. Cheryl has to get to the bottom of all this to help her friends and the community at large. But what will her sleuthing cost her? Is it worth the risk?
252 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2016
16 people are currently reading
281 people want to read
About the author
Tricia Goyer
163 books1,682 followersTricia Goyer is a busy mom of ten, grandmother of two, and wife to John. Somewhere around the hustle and bustle of family life, she manages to find the time to write fictional tales delighting and entertaining readers and non-fiction titles offering encouragement and hope. A bestselling author, Tricia has published thirty-three books to date and has written more than 500 articles. She is a two time Carol Award winner, as well as a Christy and ECPA Award Nominee. In 2010, she was selected as one of the Top 20 Moms to Follow on Twitter by SheKnows.com. Tricia is also on the blogging team at MomLifeToday.com, TheBetterMom.com and other homeschooling and Christian sites.In addition to her roles as mom, wife and author, Tricia volunteers around her community and mentors teen moms. She is the founder of Hope Pregnancy Ministries in Northwestern Montana, and she currently leads a Teen MOPS Group in Little Rock, AR. Learn more about Tricia at www.triciagoyer.com.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 30, 2017
I really enjoy reading these books from The Sugar Creek Amish Mysteries. I visited this area in 2014 and would love to be able to return again someday . I missed visiting Heini's Cheese factory because I was there for Wanda Brunstetters Fan weekend and had scheduled plans.
In Blessed Are The Cheese Makers someone starts a fire at Heini's and the cheese cultures wind up missing. Without the cultures that have been in the Dauwalger family for years there will no longer be 70 different flavors of cheese to offer the public. The building of course could be rebuilt but it would be a very long time to create and start different cheese cultures. This would have a rippling effect on the community. Employees would lose their jobs. Area farms that sold milk to Heini's would lose their buyer.
Who would want to start a fire and destroy a leading business in Sugar Creek? Who would benefit from this loss to the community?
What can Cheryl Cooper do to help the Amish farmers and unemployed workers in the community? Can she find the lost cheese cultures or solve the mystery of who is behind this fire and why they wanted to destroy a local business that had so much impact on the community .
In Blessed Are The Cheese Makers someone starts a fire at Heini's and the cheese cultures wind up missing. Without the cultures that have been in the Dauwalger family for years there will no longer be 70 different flavors of cheese to offer the public. The building of course could be rebuilt but it would be a very long time to create and start different cheese cultures. This would have a rippling effect on the community. Employees would lose their jobs. Area farms that sold milk to Heini's would lose their buyer.
Who would want to start a fire and destroy a leading business in Sugar Creek? Who would benefit from this loss to the community?
What can Cheryl Cooper do to help the Amish farmers and unemployed workers in the community? Can she find the lost cheese cultures or solve the mystery of who is behind this fire and why they wanted to destroy a local business that had so much impact on the community .
June 23, 2019
It's Christmas time and Cheryl's store is busy. She hears that the main cheesemaker in town has burned down and it is arson. Besides the shock she is worried about her friends and the town. The factory bought the local farmer's milk at a good price and without that they are in financial trouble. Since the cheese cultures are missing it is possible that the cheese factory won't be able to open. A land developer is trying to buy farmer's land and it looks like he will get his way. Cheryl is determined to find the person responsible for taking the cultures and the arson.
September 25, 2024
4.5 stars on platforms that allow for nuance.
Picking up the next book in this cozy mystery series. If we're being honest, I'm not sure cozy is even the best descriptor. This series takes it to a whole different level. I think I'd call it a gentle mystery. Regardless, it's one of my favorites and I was excited to read the next installment.
What I liked about Blessed Are the Cheese Makers:
Cheryl's character development - There are times in previous books where Cheryl's lamenting of certain situations borders on whiny, but this book really showed some maturity beginning to surface.
Series plot advancement - After some stagnating for a stretch, I love that the overarching plot is moving forward in a very believable fashion.
Christmas! - I have sung my praises of Sugarcreek as a setting countless times, but visiting this little town during the Christmas holidays brings with it an extra dose of charm. I may have read it in September but it still managed to make me feel festive.
Clever mystery - It would be a safe wager that I'd mention this in every review of this series, but it remains true: with so many mystery series focusing solely on murders to solve, I find it refreshing to have a series that sleuths anything but murder. There are an endless array of types of crime to solve and this series continues to showcase that by not once encountering a corpse. I was thoroughly engaged in this mystery from start to finish.
Cohesive storytelling - I particularly enjoyed the way there were threads from both the case and Cheryl's personal life that played off one another in a very organic way. In addition to that, I didn't detect any inconsistencies between the book and the series.
What I didn't care for:
Kindle formatting - Not at all reflective of the writing, and therefore had no effect on my rating, there were issues with the Kindle editing that I find worth mentioning. On more than one occasion, editing notes were left in the context of the text rather than being executed and deleted. One wasn't initially obvious and read awkwardly into the sentence where it appeared. Another was clearly editing notes and proved to be distracting. Minor annoyance.
Worth noting:
Faith-based - In addition to its non-murder-y mysteries, this series weaves in faith as an ongoing theme throughout, and this book is no exception.
You'll want to read in order - While each mystery can certainly stand on its own, there is a lot of plot that leans on a series story arc. If you want to invest in that aspect, reading out of order will certainly play spoiler to most of the non-mystery plot.
This the third book penned for the series by Tricia Goyer, the second when she's paired up with Cara Putman. I am not sure what the writing split looks like for them but I do know that I have enjoyed all three installments contributed by one or both of these authors. They have an engaging and comfortable writing style and keep an enjoyable pace.
Picking up the next book in this cozy mystery series. If we're being honest, I'm not sure cozy is even the best descriptor. This series takes it to a whole different level. I think I'd call it a gentle mystery. Regardless, it's one of my favorites and I was excited to read the next installment.
What I liked about Blessed Are the Cheese Makers:
Cheryl's character development - There are times in previous books where Cheryl's lamenting of certain situations borders on whiny, but this book really showed some maturity beginning to surface.
Series plot advancement - After some stagnating for a stretch, I love that the overarching plot is moving forward in a very believable fashion.
Christmas! - I have sung my praises of Sugarcreek as a setting countless times, but visiting this little town during the Christmas holidays brings with it an extra dose of charm. I may have read it in September but it still managed to make me feel festive.
Clever mystery - It would be a safe wager that I'd mention this in every review of this series, but it remains true: with so many mystery series focusing solely on murders to solve, I find it refreshing to have a series that sleuths anything but murder. There are an endless array of types of crime to solve and this series continues to showcase that by not once encountering a corpse. I was thoroughly engaged in this mystery from start to finish.
Cohesive storytelling - I particularly enjoyed the way there were threads from both the case and Cheryl's personal life that played off one another in a very organic way. In addition to that, I didn't detect any inconsistencies between the book and the series.
What I didn't care for:
Kindle formatting - Not at all reflective of the writing, and therefore had no effect on my rating, there were issues with the Kindle editing that I find worth mentioning. On more than one occasion, editing notes were left in the context of the text rather than being executed and deleted. One wasn't initially obvious and read awkwardly into the sentence where it appeared. Another was clearly editing notes and proved to be distracting. Minor annoyance.
Worth noting:
Faith-based - In addition to its non-murder-y mysteries, this series weaves in faith as an ongoing theme throughout, and this book is no exception.
You'll want to read in order - While each mystery can certainly stand on its own, there is a lot of plot that leans on a series story arc. If you want to invest in that aspect, reading out of order will certainly play spoiler to most of the non-mystery plot.
This the third book penned for the series by Tricia Goyer, the second when she's paired up with Cara Putman. I am not sure what the writing split looks like for them but I do know that I have enjoyed all three installments contributed by one or both of these authors. They have an engaging and comfortable writing style and keep an enjoyable pace.
December 9, 2019
This book was fun. It's part of a series called Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries put out by Guideposts, and I've not read any of them before, but I think I'll check the library to see if they have others. I liked the main character in this one, Cheryl, and would like to read others about her.
Cheryl runs a gift shop called the Swiss Miss in a small Ohio town with lots of Amish people. Cheryl is not Amish, but she's got lots of Amish friends, and she's very interested in an Amish man named Levi. I've never gotten into the whole Amish sector of Christian Fiction, but I liked this book, maybe because the main character was non-Amish like me, so I could see their customs through her eyes.
At the start of the story, someone sets fire to a cheese factory. I love cheese. Living in Wisconsin for four years was heavenly -- we had a cheese factory near us that we visited every few months. Oh my, it was delightful. So I was very invested in finding out who would want to destroy a cheese factory! What sort of an awful person would do that? The mystery unfolds slowly, intermingled with Cheryl's busyness running the gift shop at Christmas time, her mother interfering in her non-existent love life, and Cheryl's attempts to help those affected by the fire. And her attempts to help the police solve the mystery, some of which are actually helpful.
Cheryl's Christian faith is woven throughout the book in a believable, non-preachy way, which I appreciated. This was a solidly enjoyable Christmas mystery.
Cheryl runs a gift shop called the Swiss Miss in a small Ohio town with lots of Amish people. Cheryl is not Amish, but she's got lots of Amish friends, and she's very interested in an Amish man named Levi. I've never gotten into the whole Amish sector of Christian Fiction, but I liked this book, maybe because the main character was non-Amish like me, so I could see their customs through her eyes.
At the start of the story, someone sets fire to a cheese factory. I love cheese. Living in Wisconsin for four years was heavenly -- we had a cheese factory near us that we visited every few months. Oh my, it was delightful. So I was very invested in finding out who would want to destroy a cheese factory! What sort of an awful person would do that? The mystery unfolds slowly, intermingled with Cheryl's busyness running the gift shop at Christmas time, her mother interfering in her non-existent love life, and Cheryl's attempts to help those affected by the fire. And her attempts to help the police solve the mystery, some of which are actually helpful.
Cheryl's Christian faith is woven throughout the book in a believable, non-preachy way, which I appreciated. This was a solidly enjoyable Christmas mystery.
February 24, 2021
Blessed Are the Cheese Makers is a fantastic story written by Tricia Goyer and Cara Pitman in the Sugarcreek Amish Mystery series. This is the 17th book in this series. The authors combined writing talent makes this a very interesting read. When a devastating fire burns a beloved cheese factory and chalet everyone is scrambling trying to determine if this was accidental or arson. The suspect list is long and it takes Cheryl Cooper awhile to start crossing suspects off. With the factory shut down the local Amish dairy farmers stand to loose their farms because their milk is no longer needed to make cheese. With this added information Cheryl must now decide was the fires main purpose to close the business or force the farmers to sell their beloved farms? This story is filled with love, grace, forgiveness, and faith. Will Cheryl be able to unravel the mystery before an Amish family sells out? Will the local landmark cheese factory ever open again?
I was not given a complimentary copy of this book to read and review. I was not approached to post a favorable response and all opinions are my own. I have rated this story with five stars for meeting my expectations of a wonderful story that I can highly recommend to others.
I was not given a complimentary copy of this book to read and review. I was not approached to post a favorable response and all opinions are my own. I have rated this story with five stars for meeting my expectations of a wonderful story that I can highly recommend to others.
October 25, 2018
17th book in series. It's Christmas time in Sugarcreek and Cheryl and Levi have finally told each other that they love each other. Their not sure how to be together as an Amish man and an Englisher, so they have left it to God to show them what to do. Meanwhile, someone has set the Heini Cheese Factory on fire and they don't know what happened to their precious cheese cultures. Seems someone is trying to destroy the Amish cheese line and all the Amish farmers that produce the milk. Cheryl tries to help the chief and the owners of the factory solve this mystery.
August 27, 2019
Another hit
October 24, 2020
Fun book and informative on the cultures & processing of cheese.
June 3, 2022
This was a sweet one. Hopefully the situation with Levi and Cheryl won't drag out much longer. In the meantime I learned some things about cheese making.
November 24, 2022
I love cozy mysteries which usually always include a murder... this series however, have no murder. These have been great books of mysteries.
January 17, 2023
Wonderful book
October 28, 2024
Love this series!!
January 2, 2025
It was a really good book.
January 13, 2023
I loved the book and about Sugarcreek, Ohio and of the cheese.
February 16, 2017
Cheryl helps to unravel the latest mystery in Sugarcreek.
May 1, 2017
The cheese factory burned down and cheese cultures stolen. Levi acting strangely. What is going on this Christmas in Sugarcreek?
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews