When a fellow officer wakes Chief of Police Kate
Burkholder at four in the morning, she knows it can only
be very bad news. A local teenage Amish boy has died in a
fire. At first it only looks like an unfortunate
accident, but as secrets slowly creep up, Daniel
Gingerich's death looks like a murder. Who would want to
kill such a well-liked young man?
I was completely blown away by A GATHERING OF SECRETS!
What started out as an excellent small-town police
procedural turned into an extremely compelling suspense
novel. The Amish angle added much texture to the fabric
of the story because of the flock's beliefs in secrecy
and their view of shame and guilt. I was also pleasantly
surprised at not feeling lost at all in Kate's world,
given that this is the tenth installment and my first
experience of the Kate
Burkholder series. There
was however one thing I found most disconcerting: there
is not one word about Kate's appearance; while long-time
readers know, newcomers don't. I had no idea of her age,
her height, her coloring, and the same goes for Kate's
live-in boyfriend John Tomasetti. It's a bit difficult to
go through a whole book without any visuals for the main
character. It's especially puzzling compared to the
exceptionally crisp descriptions of everything else; I
still shudder when I think of the fire. Oddly enough, the
characters are so well defined, that it was not really a
problem. I empathized with Kate, at her helplessness
confronted with people who will not talk. I felt the
hate, the sorrow, and the despair of some secondary
players as if I had witnessed them.
The story itself is stunningly complex because of the
intricacies of dealing with a tight-knit and close-lipped
community. They will go to any lengths to protect their
way of life, which Kate knows only too well, having been
one of them until she left. I thought this added yet
another layer to an already fascinating and meticulously
crafted plot. Fast-paced from beginning to end, there
were so many twists and characters involved in the crime.
I had no idea who had done what and why, although the
latter becomes clearer as we move along, and the sad tale
becomes even more horrifying, mainly because of the Amish
way of doing things. I felt that the addition of some
Deitsh dialogue -- accompanied with the translation --
contributed to the authenticity, while reminding us that
Kate had also been one of them. A GATHERING OF SECRETS is
told mainly in first person from Kate's point of view,
with some chapters in third person from various
characters, and some are downright chilling. I really
feel I have missed something by not knowing of Linda
Castillo's series before, but I look forward to reading
more of her books. Police procedurals so cleverly
written, so riveting, and with a believable and likable
heroine are hard to come by.
A deadly fire exposes the dark side of Amish life in A
Gathering of Secrets, a harrowing new thriller in the
New York Times bestselling series by Linda Castillo.
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—and herself.
As Kate wades through a sea of suspects, she’s confronted by
her own violent past and an unthinkable possibility.
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