Gone Missing

"My name is Kate Burkholder and I've been the police chief of Painters Mill for about three years now. I was born here to Amish parents in a one-hundred-old farmhouse set on sixty acres of northeastern Ohio's rich, glaciated soil. I grew up Plain. Up until the age of fourteen, I was a typical Amish girl--innocent, God-loving, content in the way most Amish children are ... All of that changed on a postcard-perfect summer day when fate introduced me to the dark side of human nature. I learned at a formative age that even on perfect, sunny days, bad things happen."

 In this Linda Castillo mystery, Kate Burkholder has been asked by State Agent John Tomasetti to consult on a case involving three missing Amish teenage girls. They come from different communities in Ohio; they didn't know one another; and they went missing months apart. But Kate and Tomasetti think their disappearances might be related. Then one of the girls turns up dead, and a fourth girl goes missing--a girl that Kate knows personally.

This is a good mystery. But it's the Amish setting I like best: their rules and restrictions, family values and faith, and the way they choose to not be a part of the modern world. Because she was raised Amish, Kate understands them; but because she chose to leave their community when she was eighteen, she's no longer welcome among them, which makes her a nicely complicated character. In her job as police chief, she tries to bridge the gap between the Amish and the English, which isn't easy.  And her growing relationship with Agent Tomasetti is another fun complication. It's all these layers and complications that make this mystery series so good.

Happy Reading!