Childhood impressions stick around

By Ande Jacobson

Linda Castillo’s ninth Kate Burkholder novel is Down a Dark Road. This time, Kate finds herself face-to-face with an old childhood friend in a desperate situation. The Prologue starts out two years earlier detailing the commission of a horrific crime. Kate’s childhood friend, Joseph King, was tried, convicted, and sent to prison for the crime of brutally murdering his wife, Naomi. Joseph was Kate’s neighbor for a time during their childhood. She and her siblings were close to Joseph and his family enjoying various summer adventures together. Kate really liked Joseph, and it was reciprocal, although neither expressed anything more than youthful friendship at the time. As a kid, Joseph was responsible, imaginative, and had an easy, carefree manner. Everyone liked him. That all changed when his father died in an accident when he was a teenager. He struggled with that loss, became somewhat distant, and the family moved away to be closer to extended family. Kate hadn’t thought about him for many years until she gets a call from the deputy warden at Mansfield Correctional Institution notifying her that Joseph has escaped and is at large.

Joseph claims he didn’t commit the crime for which he was accused, although most cons make that claim, and his reputation as an adult was less than stellar. After he was sent to prison, his kids were sent to live with his sister-in-law and her husband back in Painters Mill, so Kate suspects that while he shouldn’t, he might be headed there. It turns out that she’s right, and she’s taken prisoner by Joseph when he ambushes her just outside the farm late at night while she’s on patrol. He’d sent his sister-in-law and her husband away and is holed up in the house with his kids. So begins a harrowing situation where Kate has to keep her wits about her. She’s suspicious, but Joseph wants his kids back and wants to clear his name. He begs her to help him. Unfortunately, the standoff takes a bad turn, and although Kate is released, things don’t end well for Joseph. Still Kate promises she’ll look into things, and what she discovers shakes her to her very core.

Castillo delves deeply into Kate’s past, and into how the Amish react to violence within the community. With exception of his younger brother, the community has written Joseph off, but as Kate digs into the case, what she finds shatters what everyone thinks they know. Castillo handles Kate’s inner conflict well as Kate tries to reconcile her memories of Joseph with everything she learns in her quest to find the truth. Eventually, the evidence against Joseph begins to unravel. As usually happens in this series, Kate scours the community and beyond seeking the truth, and she eventually pieces together an alternate theory, one that she hopes she can prove. She talks with former members of the police involved with the case and with various members of the community who knew both Joseph and Naomi. While initially not very forthcoming, that changes. As also usually happens in this series, Kate ends up chasing a lead that puts her life in imminent danger. The climactic confrontation is harrowing, but given there are additional books in the series, the reader knows that somehow Kate will survive.

Castillo is good at building suspense to a fever pitch, and at a certain point, the book is difficult to put down. Her dips into the inner workings of the Amish community are again educational. The tenet of separation from the Englischers doesn’t work in Joseph’s or Naomi’s favor. When things start to spiral out of control for both of them, they don’t realize the dangers they face, and more to the point, the danger they are potentially creating for their children, something both are loath to do intentionally. They love their kids and wouldn’t harm them intentionally. And as it happens, Joseph wouldn’t intentionally harm his wife either despite all the evidence against him. For Kate, the story told by Sadie, Joseph and Naomi’s five-year-old daughter who was only three at the time her mother died, is what eventually brings things into focus. It’s why Kate keeps digging despite hitting far too many roadblocks to the truth along the way. She makes good on her promise to Joseph eventually, and she’s relieved that the boy she knew was still in the man he became. He didn’t deserve what happened to him, but because of it, Kate manages to uncover a conspiracy that has done a lot of damage not only to Joseph and his family but to the community at large. Her solving this case allows her to bring some truly evil people to justice and help the greater community in the process although the events will surely haunt her for some time to come.

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

After the Storm, by Linda Castillo

Among the Wicked, by Linda Castillo

Down a Dark Road, by Linda Castillo