From the TBR Pile: Mrs. Kaplan and the Matzoh Ball of Death by Mark Reutlinger

Monday, November 10, 2014

Mrs. Kaplan and the Matzoh Ball of Death by Mark Reutlinger

Author: Mark Reutlinger
Publisher: Alibi
Date of publication: November 2014

Everyone knows that Rose Kaplan makes the best matzoh ball soup around—she’s a regular matzoh ball maven—so it’s no surprise at the Julius and Rebecca Cohen Home for Jewish Seniors when, once again, Mrs. K wins the honor of preparing the beloved dish for the Home’s seder on the first night of Passover.

But when Bertha Finkelstein is discovered facedown in her bowl of soup, her death puts a bit of a pall on the rest of the seder. And things go really meshugge when it comes out that Bertha choked on a diamond earring earlier stolen from resident Daisy Goldfarb. Suddenly Mrs. K is the prime suspect in the police investigation of both theft andmurder. Oy vey—it’s a recipe for disaster, unless Rose and her dear friend Ida can summon up the chutzpah to face down the police and solve the mystery themselves.

I was looking forward to an amusing and cozy read with Mrs. Kaplan and the Matzoh Ball of Death. It started out promising. I initially liked the narrative and the characters. The idea of a suspicious death by matzoh ball in a retirement community was an amusing one. Sadly, the book ended up being a DNF for me. I had a hard time keeping my interest in it.

The problem for me was that I felt it was too loaded with Yiddish terms. The characters in the home live in a Jewish retirement community, but I felt like they were almost caricatures of themselves. Like the author was trying to constantly remind me that they were Jewish. It got a little much after a while. I did skip to the end to see the solution and I think had I read the whole thing, I probably would have felt cheated with the explanation for Bertha's death.

I think lovers of this type of mystery will love this book. I normally do like a good cozy mystery, but it just wasn't for me.

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About the author:

Mark Reutlinger is the author of the novelMade in China and a professor of law emeritus at Seattle University. Born in San Francisco, Mark graduated from UC Berkeley and now lives with his wife, Analee, in University Place, Washington.

Purchase Links

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble

Mark Reutlinger’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:

Monday, November 10th: From the TBR Pile

Monday, November 10th: Vic’s Media Room

Tuesday, November 11th: 2 Kids and Tired Books

Wednesday, November 12th: A Book Geek