Marriage Can Be Mischief

Amish Matchmaker Series Book 3

Amanda Flower

Kensington Pub. 

Nov 30, 2021

Marriage Can Be Mischief is a cozy mystery in the small town of Harvest Ohio.  It features Amish quilting matchmaker crime solver Millie Fisher and her English friend Lois Henry. 

“There have been so many murders in Harvest.  Because both series are doing well there will be more killings. I wanted a cold case.  It works out for it to be in the Matchmaker series because Lois and Millie are in their sixties, which means they would have been around forty years ago as adults, when the murder took place. I also want to build a case around an Amish restaurant.”

This installment has Millie’s childhood friend, Uriah Schrock, returning to Harvest to find out what happened to his sister, Galilee.  Forty years ago, her abusive husband Samuel was found dead, and she has disappeared.  But now a film crew doing a documentary on this cold case find a human skull and bones.  After a DNA test the skeleton is found to be Galilee.  The Sheriff who dislikes the Amish quickly determines that there is no new evidence to reopen the case and rules that she had killed her husband.  But Millie realizes things do not add up and she agrees to find out the truth. 

“I put in the book this Amish proverb, ‘A house is made of walls and beams; a home is made of love and dreams.’  The crime that happened is really based upon spousal abuse. It is usually very hushed. I did not want to ignore it as a problem.  I used this quote because the victim had a house, but it was not a real home for her since it was not a loving place. I just made the connection of the Barbra Streisand song, “A House is Not a Home.” Samuel, the abusing husband, and his wife, Galilee were never in love.  Theirs was a marriage of convenience.  Most Amish marry for love, but land and property were sometimes considered.  If a man wants something monetary, they will marry for that reason.  He did not love her and emotionally/physically abused her.”  

Always present to help Millie is her best friend, Lois.  They are as opposite as can be.  Millie is a widow who still mourns her late husband, while Lois is a three-time divorcee. Millie is reserved and Lois is flamboyant. Lois has purple/black spiked hair and Millie dresses in her Amish clothes.  Even with these differences they are inseparable except for going to Church.  Both spend their spare time trying to solve the murders in Harvest.  Now they are trying to clear Galilee’s name and prove that someone else committed the murder.  But it could be costly since the killer will do anything to make sure Lois and Millie are stopped.

Per usual, Amanda Flower does not disappoint.  She consistently has likeable characters, charming settings, and engaging mysteries with plenty of humor to go around.

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