By Ande Jacobson
Sworn to Silence is the first book in Linda Castillo’s Kate Burkholder series and was first released in 2009. Kate is the chief of police in the quaint, fictional Ohio town of Painters Mill, a small, rural community. About a third of the town’s residents are Amish, and the rest are what the Amish refer to as English, or non-Amish. They had coexisted for centuries until a series of brutal murders occurred. Since that time, the Amish and the police suffer from mutual suspicion. The killer wasn’t caught, but eventually life went on, until, sixteen years later at the time of the current story the killings begin anew with the same signature. A lot changed in that time. For one thing, Kate lived through the first killing spree and has since harbored a secret. Although most Amish children commit to their church and community when they reach 18, Kate took a different path.
Raised in an Amish family in Painters Mill, Kate broke from her family and community when she reached the age of majority and pursued a life outside the plain life. She had been a rebellious teen, in part due to the dark secret she hid. When she was 14, she was the victim of a brutal rape and killed her assailant in self-defense thereby committing an act that is normally unforgivable. Her family shared her secret and all were sworn to never speak of it again. Sixteen years prior after she’d killed her assailant the killing spree stopped. She and her family thought that she’d killed the killer, in self-defense, before he could kill her after raping her. Now, sixteen years later, she’s faced with something she thought could never be. In light of the new murders, she questions what really happened sixteen years ago after her assault. Did she kill her assailant, and more importantly, if she did, was he actually the killer sixteen years ago or are they searching for somebody else entirely?
Kate was brought in as police chief two years before the current crisis in part to help bridge the gap between the Amish and the English. Having grown up in the Amish community, she’s fluent in Pennsylvania Dutch, the German dialect spoken by the Amish, and she understands their ways even though she no longer lives that life. Prior to returning home, she’d served as a police officer and then as a detective in the big city, so she’s seen her share of disturbing cases.
Castillo’s first novel in the series is intense, and it is truly a page turner. The action is palpable. The scenes are vivid depicting not only the beauty of the rural landscape but also the grisly crime scenes. The emotions of the characters run high, and the twists sometimes come out of nowhere.
Although Castillo grew up in Ohio, she wasn’t particularly familiar with the Amish before beginning to research their ways for her books. She provides readers with a quick primer of the Amish way of life along with a glossary of a few common terms used by the Amish before launching into the story. She not only researched their ways for the books. She developed some deep friendships within the community that she studied and continues to spend several months a year now living with her friends enjoying the simple life they lead. She admires their community, and she gives readers a good feel for how that town functions. The town in the story is fictional, but it’s based on various small farming towns in Ohio where there is a large Amish community.
The story is fairly focused as a mystery suspense thriller, but it has some lighter moments with a budding romance and comradery among the principals. Kate has a small team consisting of a few officers, a couple of dispatchers, and the local coroner who is also a practicing physician in town. Aside from the trouble sixteen years prior, the town is relatively quiet with only minor skirmishes for the police to address. The most common calls concern things like cows that have strayed from their fields because a fence was in need of repair or an infrequent bar fight on a particularly rowdy Saturday night. Once in a great while, there’s some mischief from some Amish teens running a little wild during their rumspringa, a period of freedom from the restrictions of the plain life before they choose whether to commit to their church and community or leave.
Kate’s local team includes:
- Mona – the night police dispatcher
- J. Banks – a young police recruit with good potential who recently joined the force
- Rupert “Glock” Maddox – a former Marine and Kate’s most experienced officer
- Chuck “Skid” Skidmore – another veteran police officer
- Ludwig Coblentz, the local coroner and physician
- Roland “Pickles” Schumacker – a retired officer who serves as an auxiliary officer and brings a wealth of experience and expertise to any case
Although Kate is loath to admit defeat, and because of the secret she hides, she resists calling in extra help from either the Sheriff’s Department or the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation which is essentially a state version of the FBI. Along the way, the town council usurps her authority and brings in reinforcements in part because some of the council members want to undermine her, and in part because the town is terrified that the murders have begun anew. While several characters are introduced between the council and other two law enforcement agencies, the most crucial is John Tomasetti, a BCI agent whose superiors want him gone and assign him the case in hopes that he’ll give them reason to fire him. Instead, he becomes an indispensable asset to the investigation, and the interplay between him and Kate is dramatic. Suffice it to say that he too becomes a series regular.
Castillo doesn’t skimp on the details in any aspects of the story. Her character development is interesting, and readers will enjoy them more as they get to know them. Kate isn’t perfect by any means, and while she’s written as an astute investigator, she has a few dangerous habits, one of which is that doesn’t always wait for backup when she should. John too is flawed, but he has good reason, and he’s still an excellent investigator. Kate’s and John’s pasts while very different in many ways overlap in that they’ve both suffered serious, violent traumas that color their views of the world and their ability to trust others. They each have a lot to overcome, but somehow their flaws make them better at their jobs.
Castillo keeps the adrenaline flowing until, finally, they solve the case but not without some damage along the way. It’s clear that there’s more to come in future cases, and this series will hook readers who enjoy a true thrill ride.
Reference:
Sworn to Silence, by Linda Castillo
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