Assault and Pepper

Tamar Myers. New American Library, $19.95 (240pp) ISBN 978-0-451-21394-5

A fiery red dust jacket fittingly adorns Tamar Myers's Assault and Pepper: A Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery with Recipes, her muddily plotted 12th culinary cozy (after 2004's Thou Shalt Not Grill) to star Magdalena Yoder, the Mennonite proprietor of PennDutch Inn. Magdalena pursues the convoluted truth behind the poisoning of the seemingly beloved Reverend Schrock, who topples ""face forward, into a pot of chili"" in front of his congregation. Agent, Nancy Yost at Lowenstein Yost. .

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