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Publication Date:  July 5, 2022 Format:  Audio Genre:   Amish Mystery Narrators:  Kathleen McInerney Publisher:  Macmillan Audio Length:  9 hours 18 min Buy:  Kindle  |  Audio Synopsis Over a decade ago, beloved Amish bishop Ananias Stoltzfus disappeared without a trace. When skeletal remains showing evidence of foul play are unearthed, his disappearance becomes even more sinister. The town’s elders arrive in Painters Mill to ask chief of police Kate Burkholder for help, but she quickly realizes she has a personal connection to the crime. The handsome Amish man who stands accused of the murder, Jonas Bowman, was Kate’s first love. Forced to confront a painful episode from her past, Kate travels to Pennsylvania’s Kishacoquillas Valley, where the Amish culture ...

Release Date:  July 9, 2019 Publisher:  Minotaur books Format:  ebook Pages:  320 pages Genre:   Mystery/ Amish Buy:  Kindle  | Paperback  | Hardcover Synopsis: An Amish grandmother is murdered on an abandoned farm, her seven year old granddaughter abducted. Chief of Police Kate Burkholder plunges headlong into a case that quickly becomes a race against the clock. She knows the longer the girl is missing, the more likely a tragic outcome. The family of the missing girl is well thought of—a pillar of the Amish community. Their pain is palpable and they cooperate in every way, but Kate soon learns they’re keeping secrets... The investigation takes Kate to an isolated Old Order Amish settlement along the river in southern Ohio. At first, the community seems upstanding and helpful. But when Kate starts asking questions, they stonewall her—and the situation soon becomes dangerous. What are they hiding and why? After an attempt on her lif...

Release Date:  July 10, 2018 Publisher:  Minotaur Books Format:  ebook Pages:  312 pages Genre:   Mystery, Crime, Amish Buy:  Kindle  |  Paperback  |  Synopsis:  When a historic barn burns to the ground in the middle of the night, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is called in to investigate. At first, it looks like an accident, but when the body of eighteen-year-old Daniel Gingerich is found inside—burned alive—Kate suspects murder. Who would want a well-liked, hardworking young Amish man dead? Kate delves into the investigation only to find herself stonewalled by the community to which she once belonged. Is their silence a result of the Amish tenet of separation? Or is this peaceful and deeply religious community conspiring to hide a truth no one wants to talk about? Kate doubles down only to discover a plethora of secrets and a chilling series of crimes that shatters everything she thought she knew about her Amish roots—an...

Release Date: July 11, 2017 Publisher: Minotaur books Format: Kindle Pages: 304 pages Genre: Mystery/Amish Buy: Kindle | Hardcover  | Mass Market Paperback Synopsis: Two years ago, Joseph King was convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to life in prison. He was a “fallen” Amish man and a known drug user with a violent temper. Now King has escaped, and he’s headed for Painters Mill. News of a murderer on the loose travels like wildfire, putting Chief of Police Kate Burkholder and her team of officers on edge. But this is personal for Kate. She grew up with Joseph King. As a thirteen year old Amish girl, she’d worshiped the ground he walked on. She never could have imagined the nightmare scenario that becomes reality when King shows up with a gun and takes his five children hostage at their Amish uncle’s farm. Armed and desperate, he has nothing left to lose. Fearing for the safety of the children, Kate makes contact with King only to find herself trapped wit...

Title:   The Dead Will Tell: A Kate Burkholder Novel by Linda Castillo Publisher: Minotaur books 317 pages Genre: Mystery, Amish Synopsis:  Everyone in Painters Mill knows the abandoned Hochstetler farm is haunted. But only a handful of the residents remember the terrible secrets lost in the muted/hushed whispers of time—and now death is stalking them, seemingly from the grave. On a late-night shift, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is called to the scene of an apparent suicide—an old man found hanging from the rafters in his dilapidated barn. But evidence quickly points to murder and Kate finds herself chasing a singularly difficult and elusive trail of evidence that somehow points back to the tragedy of that long ago incident. Meanwhile, Kate has moved in with state agent John Tomasetti and for the first time in so long, they're both happy; a bliss quickly shattered when one of the men responsible for the murders of Tomasetti’s family four years ago is found n...

Title:   Her Last Breath: A Novel (Kate Burkholder Novels) by Linda Castillo Publisher: Minotaur Books 320 pages Genre: Mystery/ Thriller/ Amish Synopsis:   A rainy night, an Amish father returning home with his three children, a speeding car hurtling toward them out of nowhere. What at first seems like a tragic, but routine car accident  suddenly takes on a more sinister cast as evidence emerges that nothing about the crash is accidental.  But who would want to kill an Amish deacon and two of his children? He leaves behind a grieving widow and a young boy who clings to life in the intensive care wing of a hospital, unable to communicate.  He may be the only one who knows what happened that night.  Desperate to find out who killed her best friend’s husband and why, Kate begins to suspect she is not looking for a reckless drunk, but instead is on the trail of a cold blooded killer amid the residents of Painter’s Mill.  It is a search that takes...

Title:   Gone Missing: A Thriller (Kate Burkholder Novels) by Linda Castillo Publisher: Minotaur Books 277 pages Genre: Mystery/Thriller/Amish Synopsis:  Rumspringa is the time when Amish teens are allowed to experience life without the rules. It’s an exciting time of personal discovery and growth before committing to the church. But when a young teen disappears without a trace, the carefree fun comes to an abrupt and sinister end, and fear spreads through the community like a contagion. A missing child is a nightmare to all parents, and never more so than in the Amish community, where family ties run deep. When the search for the presumed runaway turns up a dead body, the case quickly becomes a murder investigation. And chief of Police Kate Burkholder knows that in order to solve this case she will have to call upon everything she has to give not only as a cop, but as a woman whose own Amish roots run deep. Kate and state agent, John Tomasetti, delve into the lives...

Title: Breaking Silence by Linda Castillo Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur 320 pages Genre: Mystery Synopsis: The Slabaugh family are model Amish farmers, prosperous and hardworking, with four children and a happy extended family. When the parents and an uncle are found dead in their barn, it appears to be a gruesome accident: methane gas asphyxiation caused by a poorly ventilated cesspit. But in the course of a routine autopsy, the coroner discovers that one of the victims suffered a head wound before death--clearly, foul play was involved. But who would want to make orphans of the Slabaughs' children? And is this murder somehow related to a recent string of shocking hate crimes against the Amish? Having grown up Amish, Kate is determined to bring the killer to justice. Because the other series of attacks are designated hate crimes, the state sends in agent John Tomasetti, with whom Kate has a long and complex relationship. Together, they search for the link between ...

Title: Pray for Silence by Linda Castillo Publisher: Minotaur Books 322 Pages Genre: Mystery Synopsis: Someone slaughters all seven members of the Amish Plank family at their home in Painters Mill, Ohio. The bodies of the two teenage daughters show signs of torture. At first, it appears the father, Amos, killed his wife and five children, then shot himself. When clues point to a killer outside the family, Kate Burkholder, the local police chief who left the Amish community decades before, zeroes in on 15-year-old Mary, who may have flirted with the idea of living in the English world. Lending a hand is Kate's on-again/off-again boyfriend, John Tomasetti, an agent suspended from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and Identification for failing a recent drug test in the wake of his own family's murder about two years earlier. Review: The grisly murder of an entire Amish family really strikes a cord with Chief of Police Kate.  When she discovers that the daughter...

Title: Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo Publisher: St. Martins Press 336 pages Genre: mystery/thriller Synopsis: Sixteen years ago, a series of brutal murders shattered a peaceful farming community.  A young Amish girl named Kate Burkholder survived the terror of the Slaughterhouse killer....but fled to the safety of the big city. Years later, Kate returns to Painters Mill, Ohio as Chief of Police. She's come to terms with her past - until the first body is discovered in a snowy field. Kate vows to stop the killer before he strikes again. But will she betray both her family and her Amish past - and expose the dark secret that could destroy her? Review:  Kate Burkholder is the Chief of Police of Painters Mill, but she also grew up there on one of the Amish farms.  After surviving a brutal rape at 14 Kate turns her back on her church and decides to go live with the "English" (non-Amish).  After becoming a cop in Columbus Kate finds herself back in Pain...

Title:  Murder in Plain Sight by Marta Perry Publisher: Harlequin 384 Pages Genre: Romance I received this book as an advanced electronic readers copy from the publisher via netgalley.com .  It is due to be released November 30, 2010 Synopsis:  There are secrets buried in Amish country... Did a sweet-faced Amish teenager brutally murder a young woman? To save her career, big-city lawyer Jessica Langdon is determined to defend him—against the community’s bitter and even violent outrage. Yet without an understanding of Amish culture, Jessica must rely on arrogant businessman Trey Morgan, who has ties to the Amish community...and believes in the boy’s guilt. Jessica has threats coming from all sides: a local fanatic, stirred up by the biased publicity of the case; the dead girl’s boyfriend; even from the person she’s learned to trust the most, Trey Morgan. But just when Jessica fears she’s placed her trust in the wrong man, Trey saves her life. And now they must ...