Down a Dark Road by Linda Castillo

 

First Lines: Two years earlier. He waited until the children slept.

 

Two years ago, Joseph King was sent to prison for the brutal murder of his wife. A known drug user, King's violent temper was no secret, and the entire Amish community around Painters Mill, Ohio, breathed a sigh of relief when this "fallen" Amish man was imprisoned.

But Joseph King escaped, got a gun, and kidnapped his five children. Painters Mill Chief of Police Kate Burkholder knew Joseph King when they were children, and when the alert goes out about the hostage situation, Kate springs to action. In that house with five small children, Joseph demands that Kate look into his case. He insists that he's innocent; that he did not kill his wife. All the evidence points to his guilt, but Kate leaves the house feeling that something is not right. 

Is she really looking for a killer, or merely feeling sorry for someone she had a school girl crush on so long ago?

~

This third audiobook that I've listened to was another good experience. I've long known that Linda Castillo knows how to write a compelling story, and now I know that series narrator Kathleen McInerney is a talented storyteller. Now if only Down a Dark Road hadn't been so predictable!

Castillo does an excellent job of showing readers how precarious the job of a female chief of police can be. One slip-up, one photograph taken out of context, and fellow law enforcement and the town council rush to judgment and start looking for her replacement. It doesn't matter how long she's been doing an excellent job. Yes indeed, reputations are so easily ruined-- and I'm not just talking about Kate's.

There's an ex-cop who shows up in the last quarter of Down a Dark Road that I'd really like to see again, and the relationship Kate had with Joseph King when they were children proves why she's so willing to swim against the current in an attempt to prove that he was innocent. But. I knew Joseph's fate. I knew where Kate should have started looking for the real murderer. And I had an eye-rolling episode when, at the end of the book, Kate gets one of those weird 3 AM calls and doesn't tell anyone where she's going. I am most definitely not a reader who approves of characters who are TSTL (Too Stupid To Live), and Kate stomped right into that mud hole at book's end.

Even though I felt Down a Dark Road was predictable, it was fast-paced, exciting, and still a good listen. If I'd been reading a physical copy of this book, I might not have finished it, but Kathleen McInerney's voice persuaded me to stay with her to the end.

Down a Dark Road by Linda Castillo

Narrated by Kathleen McInerney

ASIN: B071L72QKF

Macmillan Audio © 2017

Audiobook. 9 hours, 58 minutes.

 

Police Procedural, #9 Kate Burkholder mystery

Rating: B

Source: Purchased through Chirp Books. 

Her Last Breath by Linda Castillo

First Line: The clip-clop of the standardbred's shod hooves against asphalt echoed within the canopy of the trees.

In moments, an Amish family's lives are shattered by a hit-and-run driver. Kate Burkholder races to the scene and finds it very difficult to maintain any sort of composure. This man... this father... and his three children are the family of Kate's very best childhood friend. That friend, the breathtakingly beautiful Mattie, may never recover from this horrendous loss. And it gets worse. As the evidence begins to be pieced together, what at first seemed to be an accident is now seen to be deliberate. Who on earth would want to kill an Amish father and his children?  Burkholder wants answers, and she wants them now. What she doesn't want is for old history-- in the form of old bones-- to be uncovered at the site of an old grain elevator.

The first part of this book concerning the hit-and-run and its aftermath had my heart in my throat and tears in my eyes. Having grown up close to an Amish community, I was there as those pages turned. The world could've come to an end, and I would not have been able to stop reading Linda Castillo's words. If the book had been able to maintain that pace, I wouldn't be able to recommend this book highly enough. But it did taper off a bit.

Kate's relationship with John Tomasetti is evolving at a faster rate than she'd like, but she worries too much and is too afraid, so I like seeing her shaken out of her comfort zone. Characters who grow and change are the best characters of all. However, I wish the one element from Kate's past that hasn't been resolved will be soon because her knee-jerk reactions are growing a bit old. Kate, tell 'em the truth, and face the music. If you're thrown out of the police chief's job, set up as a private investigator with Tomasetti. (Those of you who've read the previous books in the series will know to what I'm referring.)

As to the identity of the killer... I hate to say that I wasn't surprised about that either. I'm inherently suspicious of particular situations and certain people. It's just the way I'm wired. Another way that I'm wired is to enjoy a good read. This book had an absolutely fantastic beginning, and even though I deduced what happened and was somewhat disappointed that Kate's past was rearing its ugly head again, I still found a great deal to enjoy-- and I'm looking forward to the next in the series.

Her Last Breath by Linda Castillo

ISBN: 9780312658571

Minotaur Books © 2013

Hardcover, 320 pages

Police Procedural, #5 Kate Burkholder mystery

Rating: B

Source: Amazon Vine

Gone Missing by Linda Castillo

First Line: Becca had always known her life would end in tragedy.

From its heartbreaking beginning to its chill-inducing ending, this book is all about "kids, our most precious resource, and the way we treat them." 

Once Amish herself, Painters Mill, Ohio, Police Chief Kate Burkholder is a perfect choice to act as a consultant with the Bureau of Criminal Investigation as they look into the disappearances of two young Amish girls. Not only will she be able to work with John Tomasetti again, but the case will hopefully put her out of range of the town mayor. (He wants Kate to turn a blind eye to the extremely illegal things for which his son was arrested.)

As Kate and Tomasetti start looking into the lives of the missing teenagers, they begin to discover links to cold cases that go back several years. Bodies also begin to turn up, and the investigation becomes a race against time to save those young girls who are still missing.

Amish areas are small and insular, so I wondered how author Linda Castillo was going to prevent "Cabot Cove Syndrome" (the constant appearance of dead bodies in a rather sparsely populated area). Solution: Loan Kate Burkholder out as a consultant in other areas of the state when investigators need an "Amish expert."  In Gone Missing, this has her working with Agent John Tomasetti-- the spice in her gumbo-- which keeps the romantic tension flowing.

A very likable character, Kate is well-respected in the law enforcement community, but she's also very conflicted about many things in her past and present. Since she's no longer Amish, she has a strained relationship with her family, as well as a tendency to empathize with any rebellious Amish youth.

The beginning chapter, which deals with the heartbreaking suicide of a young Amish girl sets the book up perfectly. The girl says just enough to let us know that there's one Amish homestead that isn't picture postcard perfect. In fact, in that one short chapter, Becca makes such an impression that I kept waiting for the tie-in with these present day disappearances. When that tie-in comes, it's much more than I was expecting-- leading up to a spine-chilling conclusion.

I'd only previously read the first book in the series, but not having the information from books two and three did not prove confusing. Castillo gave me just enough information to fill in the blanks, and to whet my appetite for the two books I have yet to read.

For some reason, the Amish hold a fascination for many of us. I grew up very close to an Amish area and visited often with my grandparents when they'd go to the butcher shop, cheese shop, and a grocery store that sold homemade pies, breads, and jams. Castillo's Amish ring true, and even though you may find yourself wondering if things like this really do happen in Amish settlements, she's such a storyteller that belief is willingly suspended as the pages of the book turn. If you've never read a Kate Burkholder mystery, I highly recommend them!

Gone Missing by Linda Castillo

ISBN:  9780312658564

Minotaur Books  ©2012

Hardcover,  288 pages

Genre: Police Procedural, #4 Kate Burkholder mystery

Rating: A

Source: Publisher

Harmless As Doves by P.L. Gaus

Title: Harmless As Doves
Author: Paul L. Gaus
ISBN: 9780821419670
Publisher: Ohio University Press, 2011
Hardcover, 184 pages
Genre: Cozy, #7 Amish Country Mystery
Rating: B+
Source: The Poisoned Pen

First Line: Well before dawn, Bishop Leon D. Shetler was coaxed from sleep by the whispers of his morning chores, and he rose up and sat on the edge of his bed, honoring his custom of thanking God for the peace that rested over his household.

Bishop Shetler begins his morning chores with a small daydream of taking his beloved wife down to the Pinecraft Amish community in Florida for a vacation to escape the Ohio winter. Buses run down there every week. But that daydream is interrupted when young Crist Burkholder walks into the barn and says, "I just killed Glenn Spiegle."

An Amish murderer is unheard of, but Burkholder insists he hit and killed the man who wanted to marry the girl Burkholder loves. Sheriff Robertson has to take the young man to jail. When Cal Troyer arrives to see if he can  be of help, he cautions Robertson that Burkholder will have no clue about the legal system and that the sheriff needs to proceed very carefully. Troyer also makes sure that the young Amish man has a lawyer.

Robertson seems determined to go his own way in the course of the investigation, so when certain facts don't add up-- and there are two related deaths in the Florida Amish community-- Troyer knows he has to call Professor Mike Branden away from his sabbatical to check things out down in the Sunshine State.

I enjoy this series, not only for the characters and the plots and the process of deduction, but for its depiction of the Amish community from multiple points of view. It was interesting to see how the death in Ohio tied in with the murders in Florida, but even more fascinating to me was how Gaus tells us about life among the Amish in the 21st century. Bishop Shetler is a wonderful man of God regardless of your religious perspective, and through him we are allowed to see how the Amish manage their money and their land-- as well as how the Bishop must face members who mentally abuse their wives and children, who travel in ways that are unapproved, who hide and use cell phones-- and who are led by greed.

Harmless As Doves is an excellent entry in this series, and I look forward to more.

Learn More from Amazon.

Learn More from The Book Depository.

Learn More from an Indie Bookseller.

Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo

Title: Sworn to Silence
Author: Linda Castillo
ISBN: 9780312374976
Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2009
Hardcover, 336 pages
Genre: Police Procedural, #1 Kate Burkholder mystery
Rating: B+
Source: Purchased from Bookcloseouts.

First Line: She hadn't believed in monsters since she was six years old, back when her mom would check the closet and look beneath her bed at night.

Kate Burkholder was born and raised Amish in small Painters Mill, Ohio, but a traumatic event when she was fifteen made her turn her back on her upbringing and leave her home. Now she's back in Painters Mill as police chief, and although her people tend to pretend she isn't there, she's well thought of in the community, and she's hired good people to work with her. Her job is everything to her.

But the nude, tortured body of a young woman throws Kate's life right back into the nightmare that occurred when she was fifteen. The murder has all the earmarks of the Slaughterhouse Killer who plied his horrible trade in the area sixteen years ago. Whispers begin to circulate, but Kate knows it has to be the work of a copycat. Why? She knows why the murderer stopped killing all those years ago. It's a secret that she has to try to keep while she's working this current case.

Convinced that she alone has the solution to the investigation, Kate is slow to ask for help from other law enforcement agencies, so the town politicians take matters into their own hands and set up a multi-jurisdictional task force with the county sheriff and Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation agent, John Tomasetti, lending a hand. The sheriff is all sweetness and light around anyone in a position of greater authority, but his real agenda is to undermine Kate's credibility. Tomasetti, on the other hand, is an entirely different piece of work, called "dead weight" and a "train wreck" by his superiors. Tomasetti has been sent in hopes that he will fail brilliantly and allow the BCI to get rid of him.

So there are all sorts of things swirling around in Sworn to Silence. The two main characters, Burkholder and Tomasetti, are the type of character that I enjoy reading about: strong, intelligent and flawed. It's how they work past their flaws that makes this book so strong.

The plot is well-paced, and I only had the vaguest inklings of the identity of the Slaughterhouse Killer. Castillo does reveal the killer's identity toward the end, which left me to wonder how long it would be before Burkholder figured it out. This device certainly ratcheted up the suspense.

The depiction of a small town in Amish country was well done, especially in the way that the Amish tried to keep themselves separate from the rest of the community in an attempt to handle situations according to their own beliefs.

The characters were vivid in my mind, especially the graveyard dispatcher, whose role models are Kate and Stephanie Plum. Since the book tends to be grim, humorous tidbits like this added a welcome touch of lightness.

Even the landscape played a part in the book. There can be something more than a little spooky about farm country in the winter:

My speedometer hits eighty miles per hour on the highway, but I slow to a reasonable speed once I reach Thigpen Road because it's slick with snow. The Huffman place is down a short lane and surrounded by skeletal trees, like bony fingers holding the place together.

Strong story and strong characters mean that this is a series I will be visiting again and again.

Learn More from Amazon.

Learn More from The Book Depository.

Learn More from an Indie Bookseller.

Good News About One of My Favorite Mystery Series!

I received some very good news from author Paul  L. Gaus, who writes one of my favorite mystery series. Plume, a division of Penguin, will be reprinting his Amish-Country Mysteries in trade paperback editions.

Starting with the very first, Blood of the Prodigal, one book will be released every six months, beginning September 28.

I know there's a lot of fiction available that features the Amish, but it's easy to be led astray if you're looking for an honest depiction of the people. I grew up just a few miles from a large Amish settlement in central Illinois, and I really appreciate Paul Gaus's sensitivity and insight.

If you haven't read any of his books, I certainly hope you'll give them a try!

Forgotten Books: P.L. Gaus' Amish Mysteries

With the advice and encouragement of Tony Hillerman, college chemistry professor Paul L. Gaus began writing a series of mysteries set in the Ohio Amish community that certainly deserves more recognition.

Gaus' main character, Professor Michael Branden, has close ties to both the county sheriff's office and the Amish community, and the six books in the series find him exploring various facets of Amish life such as banishment and Rumschpringe while he searches for the bad guys. These books have good, solid plots, well-drawn characters, and tell the reader much about the Amish way of life.

There are six books in the series to date: Blood of the Prodigal (1999), Broken English (2000), Clouds Without Rain (2001), Cast a Blue Shadow (2003), A Prayer for the Night (2006), and Separate From the World (2008).

The author also has a blog, the Ohio Amish Journal.