Criminal acts can haunt multiple generations

By Ande Jacobson

Linda Castillo’s sixth Kate Burkholder novel is The Dead Will Tell. This time, Castillo takes readers on a different kind of journey. It still heavily involves the Amish community, and the crimes are serious involving a mystery that at first appears to be almost supernatural. It’s not, but that makes the perpetrator even more disturbing.

The book starts in the past, introducing readers to the Hochstetler family. One fateful night, a horrific crime that wasn’t planned takes place. The planned crime was supposed to be a quick robbery, and nobody was supposed to get hurt. As with many Amish families, the Hochstetlers kept a large amount of money in their home, proceeds from their furniture business. The eldest son, fourteen-year-old Billy, was bragging about their practice one day to a local Englischer teen trying to sound cool. The other boy then tells his friends about what Billy told him. What was initially just joking around became a plot that went horribly wrong. Instead of just taking the money and getting out, the intruders ended up killing the father, trapping the kids (all five of them) in the basement, and kidnapping the mother. As a further complication, the house catches fire from a lantern, though it takes some time before the cause of the fire is revealed. Billy is the only survivor. He’s taken in by the Yoders, another Amish family who adopts him, and he changes his name to Hoch Yoder to keep some remnant of his original surname intact.

In the present, Hoch is all grown up, married, and seemingly living his life, although he’s haunted by what happened to his original family. His wife is supportive, and they seem to be happy. Castillo introduces several prominent people in town, all successful, but something is off. One such individual is found dead by his adult daughter in an old barn. As the police begin their investigation, it initially seems like a suicide, but the coroner’s report belies that impression, and the Painters Mill police are now dealing with a fresh murder. Around this time, a group of friends meets for an uncomfortable discussion, and it’s clear they have more than a passing familiarity with the murder victim. It takes a while for Castillo to disclose everything, but it eventually becomes clear that these successful, middle-aged individuals were the kids who committed the horrific crime at the Hochstetler’s home that fateful night thirty-five years earlier, and they are in danger. The question is from whom? Before the case is solved, it becomes a serial murder case.

Kate’s investigation takes her to the past and back to the present to eventually put all the pieces together, and the turn of events is shocking as the full story unfolds. Castillo again probes some of the uncomfortable aspects of Amish culture, including introducing the previous bishop who is far harsher in his adherence to the less accepting aspects of Amish life than his successor. While Kate had her troubles with Bishop Troyer as a child, as an adult she has grown to appreciate him and respect him for his fairness and his staunch support of the community. When she meets and interviews his aged predecessor as part of her investigation, while she learns some important information that helps her to solve the case, she also learns just how harmful his rigidity was and that it in fact contributed to the series of murders that Kate is now investigating.

In showing readers the ramifications of a group of teens engaging in what they envision as a simple, harmless crime with fast payoff only to dig themselves a lifelong hole they can never fully clear, Castillo weaves a compelling, if difficult story. Through this, Castillo again explores the effects of trauma, both on those who inflict it, and on those who survive it. Survivor’s guilt is real, and that too is a part of the story. Revenge as a motive along with family dysfunction in a particularly gruesome way are also involved. Parts of this story are grim and graphic, but they are necessary to give readers a full understanding of the eventual resolution which is unsettling yet complete. Kate’s determination to get to the truth allows her and her team to survive their own trauma in dealing with the fallout from this case, although it’s clear that this one will haunt the members of her team for some time to come. Kate especially gets too emotionally entangled in the case, in part because of her own complicated history with the Amish community. That’s a theme that runs through the series and part of what makes Kate such a compelling character. She’s flawed but with extremely good intentions despite her early personal introduction to the trauma that results from violence. Her own history could have turned against the community entirely, but instead, she admires their fortitude and wants to help in her own way.

As for the initial supernatural misdirection, that is the stuff of an active imagination and nightmares.

Kate’s team 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 (2012)
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
Gone Missing, by Linda Castillo
Her Last Breath, by Linda Castillo
The Dead Will Tell, by Linda Castillo