Sarah Yoder races her horse and buggy to the nearest phone
box when she sees a barn on fire. The brave girl's first
action had been to check if anyone needed help.
Firefighters and neighbours come hastily, to stop the fire
from spreading in this dry summer. But how did it start?
WHEN SECRETS STRIKE we see there may not be an
innocent explanation.
I enjoyed the book WHERE SECRETS SLEEP by Marta Perry in
which outsider Allison Standish came to live in this
Lancaster County town and run a large house as a location
for several businesses. Sarah the quilter now comes to the
fore in WHERE SECRETS STRIKE. She used to play with Aaron
King as a child,
but he
grew up and married, and now she meets him as a
firefighter. Widowed with two girls, the bearded man is
still a friend, but that's all. Sarah never wed, and at
thirty the community doesn't expect she will. She likes
having charge of her own shop to sell crafts to the
Englisch tourists. Gus Hill, a casual handyman, comes by
to thank her for raising the alarm on the barn he should
have been tending... he's less than completely grateful.
With more fires breaking out, it seems there is an arsonist
in town, and lives could be at stake. Even the Penn State
Police come to investigate.
Sarah grows with this adventure, but it's actually sad to
see how she has been repressed by being an
Amish woman. If she had been born in New York she'd have
been a fashion designer or boutique owner, but all her life
she has been taught she must be humble and that men
make the decisions. Part of this is expressed by her
inability to tell a good neighbour how she feels about him.
On the plus side, the community supports those in need, and
young people in some households now carry mobile phones
until they decide to join the faith as adults.
Aaron has had a hard time raising his little girls, and is
only now waking up to the fact that Sarah is a lovely,
responsible, capable, kind lady. Who'd have thought she'd
end up an old maid? Not him. However, his main concern is
raising money for better equipment for the volunteer
firefighters. Looks like they're going to need it. Other
issues touched on in WHEN SECRETS STRIKE include an antique
quilting
display,
property lines in this rural area and a barn-raising. For
the benefit of new readers, an arson inspector has to have
matters Amish explained, so we can pick up the threads of
life with ease. The lack of insurance means there is no
doubt that arson equals malice, and the feeling of sinister
working gradually permeates the tale. If you want a highly
unusual romantic suspense read, you can't do better than
the experienced Marta Perry's latest WHEN SECRETS STRIKE.
In Laurel Ridge, Pennsylvania, a community once united must
suspect one of their own
Amish quilter Sarah Bitler's dreams no longer feature a
husband and family. Instead, she searches for success in the
quilt shop within Blackburn House, a place once tarnished
with deadly secrets. She refuses to let the past influence
her future…until an ominous fire forces them to collide.
Firefighter Aaron King was the first to touch Sarah's
heart—and the first to break it. Now a widower and father of
two small girls, his return to Sarah's life brings her
buried feelings to the surface. As a string of horrific
incidents tears apart their community, an arsonist's wrath
threatens to destroy them all. With Aaron as the only
suspect, Sarah must follow her instincts to find the truth.
But to protect an innocent man, she might risk her heart to
Aaron again…and risk her life to an unknown killer.
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