In 1979, an Amish father and four of his children die during a botched robbery at his home. The only survivors are his wife, who disappeared that night, and their 14-year- old, son. The son, Billy Hockstetler, was adopted by a local Amish family, but the wife was never heard from again. The Hockstetler farm was abandoned. The perpetrators were never apprehended...or identified.
Now, 35 years later, police chief Kate Burkholder is investigating the death of a prominent Painters Mill citizen found hanging in his barn. Initially thought to be a suicide, clues indicate it to be murder. Most gruesome of all is the small wooden Amish doll left in the corpseβwith the name Hockstetler on the bottom. It doesn't take long for two more people to be killed with the same wooden doll left in their bodies. Could these murders be connected to the cold case? Is Billy out for revenge, or does someone else know the truth about the horrific 35-year-old crime? It will take all of Kate's investigative skills to learn the identity of the killer and then bring that person to justice.
Linda Castillo gives readers an amazing tale of suspense in THE DEAD WILL TELL, the sixth entry in this outstanding police procedural thriller series. Characterization is spot-on as the tightly written plot progresses quickly to the surprise ending. The Kate Burkholder series, set in Ohio's Amish country, is one of my favorites. I recommend all of the books in this compelling series.
Everyone in Painters Mill knows the abandoned Hochstetler
farm is haunted. But only a handful of the residents
remember the terrible secrets lost in the muted/hushed
whispers of timeβand now death is stalking them, seemingly
from the grave.
On a late-night shift, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is
called to the scene of an apparent suicideβan old man found
hanging from the rafters in his dilapidated barn. But
evidence quickly points to murder and Kate finds herself
chasing a singularly difficult and elusive trail of
evidence that somehow points back to the tragedy of that
long ago incident. Meanwhile, Kate has moved in with state
agent John Tomasetti and for the first time in so long,
they're both happy; a bliss quickly shattered when one of
the men responsible for the murders of Tomasettiβs family
four years ago is found not guilty, and walks away a free
man. Will Tomasetti be pulled back to his own haunted past?
When a second man is found deadβalso seemingly by his own
handβKate discovers a link in the case that sends the
investigation in a direction no one could imagine and
revealing the horrifying truth of what really happened that
terrible night 35 years ago, when an Amish father and his
four children perishedβand his young wife disappeared
without a trace.
And, as Kate knowsβthe past never truly diesβ¦
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