How to catch a sociopath

By Ande Jacobson

Pray for Silence is the second book in Linda Castillo’s Kate Burkholder series. This one picks up where the first one left off, and Kate and her team are again faced with a horrible crime against an Amish family in the fictional Ohio town of Painters Mill. This time, an entire family is brutally murdered, and it’s up to the Painters Mill PD, led by Chief Kate Burkholder, to stop the assailants from continuing their spree. For a quiet little town, the murder rate appears to be rivaling that of that quaint fictional Maine village of Cabot Cove, but instead of an amateur sleuth like Jessica Fletcher, Kate is a professional crime fighter. She and her team are faced with seven victims from the Plank family, hardworking Amish farmers with a passel of kids ranging from a toddler to older teens.

The eldest, Aaron Plank, is in his 20s and isn’t there when the assault takes place. Like Kate, he left the plain life when he reached the age of majority, and also like Kate, he is under the bann for leaving. Outsiders view the bann as shunning, but that’s not quite accurate. While those who leave are considered outsiders who are excommunicated from the church and exiled from the community, the rules are in place in hopes that they’ll return and rejoin the church and community one day. The Amish live a simple life separate from the modern world. They just want to be left alone. They have strict rules that they live by, but those within the Amish community choose to live under them. If they don’t wish to follow the rules of Amish life, they are free to leave.

Aaron has secrets, but despite being an early suspect, Kate determines that he isn’t the perpetrator and wouldn’t harm his family. He is horrified by what happened and grief-stricken that he couldn’t have stopped it. Over the course of the investigation, he shares some information that indirectly helps Kate and her team focus their investigation.

The brutality of the murders hits Kate particularly hard in this one bringing back memories of her past including the assault she suffered as a teenager that had been a factor in her leaving the community. It also brings back memories of a secret from that time that she had never shared with anyone. Because of the impact of the case, Kate shares this deeper secret with John as their bond becomes tighter. John has problems of his own, but he still manages to make himself available to help, unofficially. Kate and John haven’t figured out where they are going, but they are good for each other and make one another better both personally and professionally. Kate’s secret closely aligns her with one of the victims, the younger daughter, Mary Plank. The Plank sisters were not only killed but before their lives were taken, they were tortured in horrific ways as opposed to their brothers, their father, and their mother who didn’t appear to be tortured before they were killed.

The mystery surrounds determining who would commit such a horrific crime and of course why. During the investigation, the team comes across some townsfolk who have a particular hatred for the Amish, and yet, it still doesn’t explain the specifics of the crime. It isn’t until they eventually find a witness who saw too much and cook up an elaborate sting operation to catch the assailants that things really get dicey.

Like the previous case, this case stretches the department to its limit. It’s not that they lack expertise. They lack the manpower to follow all of the leads in a timely fashion, so they have to choose carefully. Even so, they are resourceful and effective in their pursuit of justice for the victims. When the victims are within the Amish community, Kate’s familiarity with the culture and the language are invaluable. In general the Amish prefer to remain separate from the English, and they tend not to cooperate or even report crimes committed against them. They see them as internal matters, but this case is far bigger than the Amish community can tackle. Despite being considered an outsider under the bann, Kate gets just enough cooperation to get the job done.

Kate and team eventually solve the crime, although the perpetrator isn’t at all who it seemed to be in the beginning.

Castillo’s series is a bit formulaic, but that doesn’t detract from the impact of the stories. The crime occurs at the beginning, although readers aren’t given much information about who does it or why. The investigations are complex and far-reaching generally going well beyond the initial suspects. Eventually, before the perpetrators are caught (or sometimes killed), Kate puts herself in serious peril, sometimes alone, and sometimes with backup. Along the way Castillo provides a look into the town, into the lifestyles of the Amish and the English (how the Amish refer to outsiders), into some conflicts between the two cultures, and into a raft of townspeople which vary from book to book. The twists and turns are natural and believable and keep readers quickly turning pages. Castillo’s resolutions are satisfying and generally provide an opening for the next book in the series. Most satisfying is that the characters grow as the series progresses. Readers are treated to more nuance and character quirks as well which make them flawed, but interesting.

While still short-staffed, Kate’s local team has grown slightly and includes:

Mona Kurtz – the night shift police dispatcher
Lois Monroe – the day shift dispatcher
Jodie Metzger – the newly hired second shift dispatcher
J. Banks – the youngest police officer on the team
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
John Tomasetti – a BCI officer and Kate’s boyfriend

The primary Kate Burkholder series includes:

Sworn to Silence (2009)
Pray for Silence (2010)
Breaking Silence (2011)
Gone Missing (2011)
Her Last Breath (2013)
The Dead Will Tell (2014)
After the Storm (2015)
Among the Wicked (2016)
Down a Dark Road (2017)
A Gathering of Secrets (2018)
Shamed (2019)
Outsider (2020)
Fallen (2021)
The Hidden One (2022)
An Evil Heart (2023)
The Burning (2024)
Rage (2025)

There are also a few Kate Burkholder novellas beyond the primary series, but they are side stories and break from the formula and tone of the primary series though still involve Kate and company.

References:
Sworn to Silence, by Linda Castillo
Pray for Silence, by Linda Castillo
https://agoodreedreview.com/2026/03/29/book-sworn-to-silence/