In this 11th book in the 'Kate Burkholder' series, Kate - the Chief of Police of Painter's Mill, Ohio - is searching for a killer and a kidnapped child. The book can be read as a standalone.
*****
Sixty-year-old Mary Yoder is a well-liked Amish woman who lives with her daughter and son-in-law, Miriam and Ivan Helmuth, and their eight children.
The family loves Mary's walnut layer cake, so when walnut season rolls around, Mary takes her granddaughters Annie (5) and Elsie (7) down the road - to the abandoned Schattenbaum farm - to collect walnuts for the winter.
When Mary notices movement in the dilapidated Schattenbaum farmhouse, she goes in to take a look. Shockingly, the grandmother confronts a man lurking there, who viciously stabs her to death, then abducts 7-year-old Elsie. Later, when Chief of Police Kate Burkholder speaks to Annie, the child says 'Da Deivel' (the devil) took her sister.
Miriam and Ivan Helmuth beg Kate to find their beloved Elsie, a special needs child who is particularly delicate and vulnerable. Elsie has Cohen Syndrome, a genetic disorder that's more prevalent among the Amish than the general public. The Amish consider children a gift from God, and think of special needs youngsters as an especially great blessing.
Mary's murder and Elsie's abduction lead to a large police operation in which Kate, along with the Sheriff's Department and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (OBI), desperately search for the killer and the child. Kate's boyfriend, John Tomasetti, who's an agent with the OBI, is especially helpful in speeding up analyses of blood and DNA.
Of course inquiries begin at the Helmuth home, and when the parents are asked if they know anyone that would want to harm Mary - or if they have any information that would help the investigation - they seem oddly reticent. Even Kate, who was Amish before she left the fold and speaks fluent Pennsylvania Dutch, can't get them to open up.
In time, Kate's probe steers her to Bishop Troyer, who leads the Amish community of Painter's Mill.....
.....and then south to Crooked Creek - where Mary Yoder had relatives.
Almost everyone Kate speaks to, however, is hiding something. Sadly, more murders occur before Kate can get a line on the perpetrator.
Kate's small stable of detectives, Pickles, TJ, Glock, and Skid, assist with the investigation, working overtime as needed. In addition, Kate's dispatcher, Mona - who yearns to be a real police officer - becomes a cop-in-training.
As always, it's fun to visit with these recurring characters.
A central tenet of the Kate Burkholder series is the Amish tendency to be secretive, solve their own problems, and not interact with 'Englishers.' This almost always slows down Kate's investigations and makes her job that much harder.
In this book, however, this plot point REALLY doesn't make sense. 😏 The 'secret', if revealed, would speed up Kate's investigation exponentially, and would help her find the kidnapped child MUCH more quickly. Who would keep mum in these circumstances? I don't buy it.
Nevertheless, I like police procedurals and enjoyed the novel. I'd recommend the book to readers who enjoy mysteries, especially Kate Burkholder fans.
Thanks to Netgalley, the author (Linda Castillo) and the publisher ( Minotaur Books) for a copy of the book.
Rating: 3 stars
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