Tamar Myers Books in Order
Explore Tamar Myers books in order, with quick summaries, series guides, and easy where-to-start help for Magdalena Yoder, Abigail Timberlake, and more.
Last updated: June 11, 2026
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Publication Order
49 books
Too Many Crooks Spoil the Broth
by Tamar Myers
1993
Magdalena Yoder's PennDutch Inn is already in chaos with clashing guests, a missing cook, and nonstop demands. Then one visitor dies, and another soon follows, forcing the no-nonsense innkeeper to start asking dangerous questions.
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Crime
by Tamar Myers
1995
Magdalena wants the murders at her inn to stay in the past, but a film crew arrives to recreate them on location. When the assistant director turns up dead, she finds herself the prime suspect in another messy case.
Gilt by Association
by Tamar Myers
1996
Abigail Timberlake thinks she scored big when she buys a gorgeous French armoire at auction. Then it arrives with a corpse inside, shutting down her shop and pushing her into a tangle of family secrets and murder.
Larceny and Old Lace
by Tamar Myers
1996
Recently divorced antiques dealer Abigail Timberlake is drawn into murder when her aunt Eulonia is killed with an elegant antique bell pull. Missing lace and a threat against Abby's son make the case suddenly very personal.
No Use Dying Over Spilled Milk
by Tamar Myers
1996
A trip to Ohio for her unpleasant cousin's funeral turns into an investigation when Magdalena learns his death was anything but ordinary. The trail leads straight into dairy-country secrets and a business called Daisybell Dairy.
Just Plain Pickled to Death
by Tamar Myers
1997
Magdalena is dealing with wedding plans and a houseful of impossible people when a corpse turns up in a barrel of sauerkraut. To save her future happiness, she has to sort through family grudges and catch the killer.
The Ming and I
by Tamar Myers
1997
A woman tries to sell Abby an ugly old vase, then dies in a hit-and-run minutes later. When the vase proves to be valuable Ming, Abby follows the mystery into plantation history, family pride, and long-buried Southern secrets.
Between a Wok and a Hard Place
by Tamar Myers
1998
When an Asian tourist is found strangled and then run over by a horse and buggy, Magdalena is pulled into a darker side of Amish country. The case forces her beyond the inn and into a tightly guarded community.
Eat, Drink and Be Wary
by Tamar Myers
1998
Magdalena reluctantly hosts a big East Coast bake-off at the PennDutch Inn, expecting stress but not murder. When the contest sponsor is stabbed and her cook becomes the main suspect, she has to save both the inn and the cook.
So Faux, So Good
by Tamar Myers
1998
Abigail heads to Pennsylvania Dutch country to track down a source of fake antique tea services. What starts as business quickly turns deadly when she gets pulled into the suspicious death of a local auctioneer.
Baroque and Desperate
by Tamar Myers
1999
Abby and her friend C.J. arrive at a wealthy family's mansion and walk straight into murder. With a maid stabbed to death and C.J. treated as the obvious suspect, Abby has to find the truth before her friend takes the fall.
Estate of Mind
by Tamar Myers
1999
A church auction seems harmless until Abby unknowingly buys a lost art treasure. Soon she is neck-deep in scandal, greed, and a string of murders tied to a prize far more valuable than anyone expected.
Play It Again, Spam
by Tamar Myers
1999
Magdalena is reeling from a bigamist husband and a tornado that wrecked her inn when a reunion of World War II buddies turns deadly. An old vendetta comes roaring back, and murder lands right on her doorstep.
A Penny Urned
by Tamar Myers
2000
Abby unexpectedly inherits a distant relative's estate and heads to Savannah to settle matters. A fake urn, a rare 1793 penny, and hints of a hidden fortune convince her that her aunt's death deserves a much closer look.
The Hand That Rocks the Ladle
by Tamar Myers
2000
Barbara Hostetler is certain she was supposed to have triplets, not twins, and she hires Magdalena to find the missing baby. What sounds impossible soon turns into a very real case of abduction and deception.
Nightmare in Shining Armor
by Tamar Myers
2001
Abby's Halloween party ends with a fire, panic, and a grisly surprise delivered to her home. Stuffed inside a suit of armor is her ex-husband's current wife, and Abby must brave a strange world of collectors to catch the killer.
The Crepes of Wrath
by Tamar Myers
2001
Everyone in Hernia agrees that Lizzie Mast is a terrible cook, but nobody expects her to die from poisoned crepes. Magdalena takes on the case and finds that even a small-town kitchen can hide a very determined killer.
Gruel and Unusual Punishment
by Tamar Myers
2002
An escaped convict samples one of Magdalena's famous dishes and promptly dies, dropping her into another ugly investigation. What looks absurd at first becomes a serious mystery with dangerous consequences.
Splendor in the Glass
by Tamar Myers
2002
Abby thinks brokering a fine Lalique collection could raise her standing in Charleston society. Instead, the collection's owner dies, Abby becomes the top suspect, and she has to piece together a shattered case fast.
Custard's Last Stand
by Tamar Myers
2003
A flashy developer wants to plant a giant hotel in the middle of quiet Hernia, and the whole town is furious. When he turns up dead at the PennDutch Inn, Magdalena has to save both her town and her reputation.
Tiles and Tribulations
by Tamar Myers
2003
Abby would rather avoid a séance altogether, but her friend's old Charleston mansion may be more than just drafty. When the psychic known as Madame Woo-Woo dies, Abby realizes the real threat is human, not ghostly.
Angels, Angels Everywhere
by Tamar Myers
2004
This short inspirational collection gathers stories about guardian angels appearing in moments of danger, fear, or need. It is a gentler side of Myers, centered on comfort, faith, and unexpected help.
Statue of Limitations
by Tamar Myers
2004
When a bed-and-breakfast owner is killed with a tacky garden statue, Abby's friend Wynnell winds up in jail. Convinced the case is far uglier than it looks, Abby starts digging into guests, widowers, and bad taste.
Thou Shalt Not Grill
by Tamar Myers
2004
Hernia's bicentennial barbecue should be good for business and town spirit. Instead, one of Magdalena's guests is murdered, and she has to keep the celebration from collapsing while she grills a long list of suspects.
Assault and Pepper
by Tamar Myers
2005
At the church chili supper, Reverend Schrock drops dead after someone slips peanut butter into a bowl he should never have eaten. Magdalena sorts through grudges, old accusations, and a congregation full of motives.
Monet Talks
by Tamar Myers
2005
Abby buys a jeweled birdcage and inherits a loud mynah bird named Monet, then wishes she hadn't. When the bird is kidnapped and her mother is snatched too, she has to chase down a bizarre ransom plot.
Grape Expectations
by Tamar Myers
2006
Outsiders move to the edge of Hernia with plans for a vineyard and winery, a direct insult to the local teetotaling Mennonites. When the vineyard manager is found buried in cement, Magdalena has to uncork the truth.
The Cane Mutiny
by Tamar Myers
2006
Abby wins a sealed storage locker and hopes for antiques, not evidence. Inside the canes and clutter she finds a human skull, launching a case that reaches into smuggling, counterfeiting, poaching, and murder.
The Dark Side of Heaven
by Tamar Myers
2006
A naive Amish woman is banished from her community and pushed into a world she barely understands. Her struggle to live with hard choices gives this standalone novel a more serious, inward-looking tone than Myers's mysteries.
Hell Hath No Curry
by Tamar Myers
2007
Three days before his wedding, a local bachelor dies in another woman's bed, and scandal sweeps through Hernia. When the coroner finds his curry was spiked, Magdalena goes looking for a killer among the angry women he left behind.
As the World Churns
by Tamar Myers
2008
Married life barely slows Magdalena down when a Holstein competition fills Hernia with visitors and trouble. After the event's founder is attacked and her husband Gabe and stepdaughter Alison disappear, the case turns frighteningly personal.
Death of a Rug Lord
by Tamar Myers
2008
Abby spots a priceless Persian rug in a struggling discount store and brings it home feeling lucky, until the owner is found dead the next morning. The case leads her into fake carpets, stolen value, and real danger.
Batter Off Dead
by Tamar Myers
2009
A church breakfast turns deadly when a woman collapses after eating stacks of pancakes. Very pregnant but still unstoppable, Magdalena follows the clues through another small-town case that quickly adds a second suspicious death.
Poison Ivory
by Tamar Myers
2009
Abby buys a beautiful seventeenth-century chest online as a birthday gift for her mother and winds up arrested for ivory trafficking. Furious and embarrassed, she goes after the smugglers who set her up before they strike again.
The Witch Doctor's Wife
by Tamar Myers
2009
In 1958, young missionary Amanda Brown arrives in the Congo eager to do good and quickly runs into greed, culture clash, and danger. A giant uncut diamond and a murder plot pull her deep into the lives of Belle Vue's residents.
Butter Safe Than Sorry
by Tamar Myers
2010
Magdalena is at the bank with her young son when armed men dressed like Amish burst in shooting and cursing. One sharp detail tells her they are impostors, and she sets out to prove it before they hit again.
The Glass is Always Greener
by Tamar Myers
2011
Abby takes a break from her shop to attend the so-called wake of an eccentric woman who is still alive and enjoying the spectacle. When Aunt Jerry turns up dead in a freezer and a priceless ring vanishes, Abby becomes the suspect.
The Headhunter's Daughter
by Tamar Myers
2011
A white girl raised by the Bashilele headhunters is discovered and brought toward the world she was born into but no longer understands. Amanda Brown and her allies uncover buried secrets as a kidnapping plot flares back to life.
The Boy Who Stole the Leopard's Spots
by Tamar Myers
2012
An accused monsignor, an old crime, and a dangerous secret shake Belle Vue in 1950s Congo. Amanda Brown, a police chief, and a witch doctor's family must work together to clear his name before the truth destroys more lives.
The Girl Who Married an Eagle
by Tamar Myers
2013
Julia Newton leaves Ohio for a mission school in the Belgian Congo and meets Buakane, a young girl fleeing an arranged marriage to Chief Eagle. Their lives collide in a tense story of survival, faith, and freedom.
The Death of Pie
by Tamar Myers
2014
At Hernia's annual pie festival, a bestselling novelist drops dead face-first into Magdalena's prize apple pie. Her sharp tell-all book has offended half the town, leaving Magdalena with suspects everywhere she turns.
Tea with Jam and Dread
by Tamar Myers
2016
Magdalena hopes a visit from English nobility will help move the PennDutch Inn upmarket. Instead, she gets impossible guests, a mummified corpse in the elevator shaft, and a fresh mystery after one aristocrat vanishes over Lovers' Leap.
Puddin' on the Blitz
by Tamar Myers
2019
Magdalena's new Amish-Asian restaurant is drawing attention, and not all of it is good. When a guest dies after eating a slice of blitz torte, she is arrested for murder and has to clear her name fast.
Mean and Shellfish
by Tamar Myers
2021
Hernia's Billy Goat Gruff Festival should be noisy fun, but a gruesome discovery and a string of wild pranks send everything off the rails. Magdalena starts wondering whether the target is the festival, or her.
Death by Tart Attack
by Tamar Myers
2022
Magdalena's ex-husband returns with plans for a huge biblical theme park that could wreck life in Hernia. When he dies after biting into a poisoned tart, she becomes the obvious suspect and has to fight back.
Meat Thy Maker
by Tamar Myers
2023
Investors crowd into Hernia hoping to partner with the famous Schmucker Brothers sausage business. After a tour of the pork factory, one of them ends up murdered at the inn, and Magdalena starts wondering what the sausages are hiding.
The Mermaid Mystery
by Tamar Myers
2024
Reporter Zoe Porter heads to Tidal Shores, South Carolina, to cover a local mermaid craze built on an obvious fake. When the taxidermist behind the scheme is murdered, she has to expose the lie and catch a killer.
Fowl Play
by Tamar Myers
2025
Now living in a fancy retirement community, octogenarian Magdalena throws a dinner party to smooth over neighborhood tensions. Instead, one guest dies after eating a chicken samosa, and murder follows her into her new home.
Cousins From a Distant Sun
by Tamar Myers
2026
Archaeologist Ruth Baker goes to Peru for a dig and stumbles onto a hidden community of giant supernatural beings living in the Andes. To save them from extinction, she must face secrecy, greed, and the human hunger for gold.
Where should I start?
For classic cozy mysteries: Too Many Crooks Spoil the Broth → Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Crime → No Use Dying Over Spilled Milk
For Southern antiques and family chaos: Larceny and Old Lace → Gilt by Association → The Ming and I
For historical mysteries set in Africa: The Witch Doctor's Wife → The Headhunter's Daughter → The Boy Who Stole the Leopard's Spots
For standalones outside the main series: The Dark Side of Heaven → The Mermaid Mystery → Cousins From a Distant Sun
Author bio
Tamar Myers was born in 1948 in the Belgian Congo, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and she grew up in a world that sounds almost invented until you realize it was simply her childhood. Her parents were Mennonite missionaries, and for a time their family was the first white family to live peacefully among the Bashilele people. She grew up speaking the local trade language, traveling long distances to boarding school, and learning early that daily life could include crocodiles, snakes, driver ants, and a lot of improvising.
That kind of beginning leaves a mark.
When the Congo moved toward independence in 1960, violence and instability changed everything. Myers and her family left, returned, and then finally came to the United States for good in 1964 after several years of unrest. She was sixteen and, by her own account, hit hard by culture shock. She had to learn things many American teenagers took for granted, like using a telephone or crossing at a stoplight. On her first day at an American high school, she met the boy she would later marry, Jeffrey Myers, after they quite literally bumped heads.
She kept moving, in more ways than one. Myers studied at the American College in Jerusalem and later earned a master's degree from Eastern Kentucky University. Long before publication, though, writing had already become part of her life. With no nearby English-language bookstore, no television, and no radio during much of her childhood, she started making her own entertainment. She wrote her first book-length manuscript at ten, began sending work out in college, and then spent twenty-three years collecting rejections before finally selling a novel.
She did not quit.
That persistence paid off with Too Many Crooks Spoil the Broth in 1993. The book introduced Magdalena Yoder, the sharp-tongued Mennonite innkeeper at the center of the Pennsylvania Dutch mysteries, and it set the tone for much of Myers's best-known work: murder, comedy, stubborn women, local feuds, and lots of food. Those books became a long-running series, complete with recipes, and readers still come to them for Magdalena's blunt common sense and the comic chaos of life around the PennDutch Inn.
Myers built another beloved corner of her work with the Den of Antiquity novels, starting with Larceny and Old Lace. These books follow antiques dealer Abigail Timberlake as she gets pulled into crimes involving auctions, family secrets, rare objects, and Southern social drama. The hook is simple and smart. Old things have stories attached to them, and in Myers's hands those stories often come with a body.
She also wrote a very different group of novels set in the Belgian Congo, including The Witch Doctor's Wife, The Headhunter's Daughter, and The Boy Who Stole the Leopard's Spots. Those books draw more directly on the landscape and tensions of the place where she grew up. They are darker, broader, and more historical than her cozies, but they still carry the same interest in cultural collision, community, and women trying to make sense of dangerous circumstances. In The Dark Side of Heaven, she turned to the story of an Amish woman cast out of her community, showing again how interested she is in belonging, faith, and what happens when a person is pushed outside the life they expected.
Across all these books, certain things keep turning up: strong-willed heroines, close communities, clashes between insiders and outsiders, and a deep pleasure in the details of work, whether that means cooking, buying antiques, or running a mission station. Even when the plots get wild, the people in them usually feel practical, funny, and a little worn down by the world. That mix is part of what makes her work easy to sink into.
Myers and her husband moved to the Carolinas in the 1990s, and she has written about feeling at home there. She has also shared that she enjoys gardening, painting, travel, reading, good food, and antique hunting. That sounds right for her books too. They are full of people who notice what things are made of, where they came from, and what they say about the lives around them.
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