Review of "The Dead Will Tell: A Police Chief Kate Burkholder Novel" by Linda Castillo

In this sixth book in the 'Kate Burkholder' series, the Police Chief investigates when a murderer targets pillars of the community. The book can be read as a standalone.



*****

The book starts out with a horrific crime: a 1979 home invasion of the Amish Hochstetler farm in Painters Mill, Ohio. A group of teens break in to steal cash and the night ends with a family slaughtered, a mother abducted, and a lone survivor - a 14-year-old boy. Fast forward 35 years and the perpetrators of the crime, now respected members of the community, start to get threatening letters.



Soon afterwards, the killings start - with one after another of the original perpetrators brutally murdered by what appears to be a ghost.

When Chief of Police Kate Burkholder and her detectives investigate, they learn that the murder victims have been phoning each other and having clandestine gatherings.



These 'bad guys,' of course, admit nothing. They make up spurious reasons for their phone calls and meetings, and claim to be bewildered by the murders. Nevertheless, they're terribly frightened: they wore masks during the home invasion and later killed and disposed of Mrs. Hochstetler - so who knows who they are?

Evidence at the crime scenes provides a connection between the Hochstetler tragedy and the current crimes, and Kate and crew proceed to ask questions of the surviving son, the Amish bishop, other people in Painters Mill, and so on.



Kate gets some information that leads her to visit a fading Amish community in Pennsylvania, and the investigation proceeds.



I always enjoy the peek into the Amish community that Burkholder includes in her books; good people with simple lifestyles who cherish their families and want to please God.

In Kate's personal life she's now living with her boyfriend, State Agent John Tomasetti.



Though Kate and Tomasetti are happy together the agent is still torn up by the murder of his wife and daughters three years ago. In this book one of his family's murderers gets off on a technicality and Tomasetti is furious and seems to have some nefarious plans for the freed man - but it's not clear what. Kate is unhappy about this, wanting Tomasetti to let go of the past and move on.

As usual in Burkholder's series there are some complicated family doings connected with the crimes, and Kate and her deputies are eventually able to unearth everyone's secrets. I enjoyed the book, but not as much as the previous entries in the series. For me there's getting to be too much similarity from book to book. Nevertheless this is an enjoyable mystery book.

Rating: 3 stars