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Jul 13, 2011BPLNextBestAdults rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
This is the second in a new mystery thriller series to feature police chief Kate Burkholder and State Agent John Tomasetti. What makes this novel most interesting is the Amish element. Set in Ohio’s farm country, in the village of Painter’s Mill where a third of the population is Amish, an entire Amish family of seven is murdered one October night. The crime seems to centre around the sixteen year old daughter found hanging and horribly mutilated in the barn. Told in the first person with very graphic description, this mystery takes a lot of twists, as the female chief of police searches for motive and suspects. She learns more than she ever wanted to know about disturbing abuses endured by the victim leading up to the night of the killings. Kate herself is Amish, although she walked away from that life as a teenager; events in her past form an interesting side story and deepen her character. She understands the deep divide between the Amish and English, and the resulting mistrust that makes the crime more difficult to solve. The characters are well developed with a natural chemistry between the two detectives carried over from the author’s first novel. The action has an immediacy that keeps you fully engaged to the violent, but satisfactory conclusion. I am looking forward to a third book which is in the making.