In Painters Mill, Ohio, an entire Amish family is brutally tortured and murder. A shocked community cannot come to terms that one of their own is capable of such evil. As Police Chief Kate Burkholder investigates, she discovers the key to the killings is Mary, the oldest daughter, who was leading a double life. The deeper Kate probes the crime, the more parallels emerge between Kate and Mary. Kate could not accept the Amish way of life and left to pursue her own dreams. The resemblance of their lives drives Kate to pursue the killers and bring them to justice.
Kate calls John Tomasetti, a member of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, to help her. They have a tentative relationship that is complicated by the baggage each carries. John and Kate look for suspects knowing that the killer or killers are evil psychopaths who, having tasted blood, will continue murdering.
Ms. Castillo has produced a riveting psychological thriller that is not for the faint of heart. She excels at reaching into the characters' soul as they rage against the cruelties, emotional and physical, that people can afflict on one another. The second in the Burkholder/Tomasetti series proves flawless in prose and plot.
New York Times bestselling author Linda Castillo
delivers an electrifying thriller in which Chief of Police
Kate Burkholder must confront a dark evil to solve the
mysterious murders of an entire Amish family.
The
Plank family moved from Lancaster, Pennsylvania,
to join the small Amish community of Painters Mill less than
a year ago and seemed the model of the Plain Lifeβuntil on a
cold October night, the entire family of seven was found
slaughtered on their farm. Police Chief Kate
Burkholder and her small force have few clues, no motive,
and no suspect. Formerly Amish herself, Kate is no
stranger to the secrets the Amish keep from the Englishβand
each otherβbut this crime is horribly out of the
ordinary.
State agent John Tomasetti arrives on the
scene to assist. He and Kate worked together on a previous
case during which they began a volatile relationship. They
soon realize the disturbing details of this case will test
their emotional limits and force them to face demons from
their own troubled pastsβand for Kate, a personal connection
that is particularly hard to bear.
When she discovers
a diary that belonged to one of the teenaged daughters, Kate
is shocked to learn the girl kept some very dark secrets and
may have been living a lurid double life. Who is the
charismatic stranger who stole the young Amish girlβs heart?
Could the brotherβa man with a violent past, rejected and
shunned by his family and the Amish community, have come to
seek out revenge? As Kateβs outrage grows so does her
resolve to find the killer and bring him to justiceβeven if
it means putting herself in the line of fire.
Topping
her own bestselling debut, Linda Castillo once again
immerses us in the world of the Amish with a chilling story
that is both a fast-paced thriller and intriguing
psychological puzzle.
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