By Ande Jacobson

Linda Castillo’s seventh Kate Burkholder novel is After the Storm. In a sense, this book feels like a brief respite from the shocking crimes that Castillo has brought forth in the series so far, at least early on. Of course, when Kate Burkholder is involved things get complicated rather quickly. The book starts out with a celebration with Kate and John enjoying the company of Kate’s family for a change. Before the afternoon is out, a massive storm and tornado descends upon the little town of Painters Mill. Some areas are hit harder than others, and Kate and John attempt to help where they can. In the immediate aftermath, they attempt to rescue a young woman and her infant from a mobile home that has been ravaged by the storm. Another part of the cleanup involves a troop of Boy Scouts cleaning out the remains of a barn that was a storm casualty when they discover some bones. Continue reading →

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. Continue reading →

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. Continue reading →

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. Continue reading →