Monsters in the dark

By Ande Jacobson

Breaking Silence is the third book in Linda Castillo’s Kate Burkholder series, and it’s another fast-paced thriller with plenty of twists and turns. This one again exposes some of the ills plaguing the local Amish community. To start, both parents and a visiting uncle are found in a manure pit by their four children. There’s a frantic attempt by Kate and company to rescue the victims, but by the time they eventually get the people out of the pit, none survive. Two were already dead, and the third was too far gone to save. Kate and team initially think an accident caused them to fall into the pit. Noxious gases that emanate from the pit can collect in an enclosed space that isn’t properly ventilated and that can cause someone to lose consciousness or worse. Their initial theory is that one of the men was overcome by the gases and fell into the pit. They think the other two suffered the same fate as they tried to rescue the first man. Further investigation shows that wasn’t the case, and that at least one of the men was struck in the head before he either fell or was pushed into the pit. So begins a grueling investigation to determine who would commit such a heinous crime leaving four Amish children orphaned.

The kids from eldest to youngest are Moses (Mose – 17), Salome(15), Samuel(12), and Ike(10), and they awaken something in Kate that makes her slightly less than objective in handling this case. There are of course complicating factors such as another uncle who left the plain life who is the last blood relative the children have and wants to see to their care. Mose seems to despise this uncle for some unknown reason going beyond the fact that he’s no longer in community, and because he is an outsider, the Amish are loath to allow such a thing which sparks a nasty fight over who will get custody of the kids.

When the initial tragedy is discovered, there is no shortage of community members who immediately come to care for the kids and protect them from outsiders. While Kate doesn’t want to intrude more than she has to, she knows that she’ll need to bring in state agencies like Children Services to settle the dispute at some point. She tries to be gentle with the kids, but she knows that the affected family is also a key source of information in any investigation, although she isn’t quite prepared for where this case eventually takes her and the team.

Along the way, there are several hate crimes committed against the Amish in the area, both in Painters Mill and in surrounding towns bringing the county sheriff’s office into the investigation. Kate also seeks John Tomasetti’s help from the BCI, although he’s only helping unofficially because he’s facing a bit of a personal crisis of his own.

As with earlier books in the series, Castillo delves deeply into the workings of the Amish community bringing to light their reluctance to help the police because the police are outsiders. Even with Kate having grown up in the Amish community, they are skeptical. There are also further complications as they get deeper into the investigation that show that the family facing the tragedy has secrets and that the Amish are not immune to challenges stemming from normal curiosity that can sometimes grow into deviant behavior within a household. Not all is at it seems at the outset, but then it wouldn’t be a Castillo murder mystery without such complications.

Castillo’s descriptions show that the Amish live a difficult life. Without modern conveniences like electricity, modern transportation, and various other things that most of us take for granted, theirs is a harsh existence devoted to hard physical work, family, community, and prayer. Given the restrictions, it’s slightly surprising that so far in the series, the Amish readers have met generally do have running water. Castillo hasn’t discussed this particular aspect of Amish life yet, but perhaps she will in later books.

Through the course of the investigation, the team tries to connect the hate crimes to the murders, but things just don’t add up. They confront numerous potential suspects, but while some even admit to a few of what the perpetrators consider pranks, they don’t add up to murder. Kate also takes a bit too personal an interest in the kids. The two younger boys become very attached to her, and she really empathizes with them and with Salome who seems particularly fragile in all of this. Mose has a dark secret from his past, and so it turns out does Salome. Kate gets a bit overwhelmed as she uncovers disturbing layers in the family’s history. When she eventually puts all the pieces together, she ends up in a difficult situation that further scars her, but readers know that Kate will survive. She’s tough and will do what she must for justice even if she hurts herself in the process. She also has to come to terms with the reality that monsters come in all shapes and sizes and often lurk in the dark when you least expect them.

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
Breaking Silence, by Linda Castillo