A is for Amish

Kate Burkholder is back in Linda Castillo's latest, Pray for Silence.

Fans of Sworn to Silence, in which Chief of Police Kate Burkholder hunted down a serial killer, will find this second case just as riveting as Kate must discover who murdered an entire Amish family and possible prevent more carnage in this closed community.

New arrivals from Lancaster, Penn., the Plank family has joined the small Amish community of Painters Mill only to be slaughtered on their farm. There are few cluse, no suspects and no motives, which makes local residents anxious and Kate, no stranger to Amish life, knows that this crime is extraordinary in its execution.

What may or may not help in solving the case is the discovery of a diary that belonged to one of the dead teenaged daughters, a book filled with dark secrets and illicit rendezvous. Who was this man the young girl was meeting or are these killings a case of revenge?

While Kate's on-again-off-again relationship with John Tomasetti seems off again for the moment, Tomasetti arrives in Painters Mill to offer assistance, doing so at the risk of his own job back in the state capitol. There are a lot of ghosts from the past that both Kate and Tomasetti have to face before they can begin to get a handle on this unspeakable crime. And once they do, the danger level hightens.

Castillo immerses us in the world of the Amish, and Pray for Silence serves up an intriguing puzzle that moves at an increasing speed and offers several surprises.