Bookish suspense...

 

Fallen is Linda Castillo's thirteenth Kate Burkholder mystery, and it's every bit as good as the twelve books that preceded it. I really enjoy this series. It's set in Painter's Mill, Ohio, a township of 5,300 people set in the heart of Amish country. Kate is the Chief of Police. She was raised Amish, but left the community when she was eighteen. Her ties to the Amish, and her understanding of their language and culture, is one of the reasons I enjoy reading these books so much. She has a close relationship with John Tomasetti, an FBI agent who sometimes helps out with her investigations.

This book begins with the brutal murder of Rachael Schwartz, another girl who was once part of Painter's Mill's Amish community. In fact, Kate used to babysit her. To have to investigate her murder now is hard for Kate. As she delves into Rachael's past, Kate discovers the once wild teenager had many secrets...and angered many people, both among the English as well as the Amish. And whoever killed Rachael is determined to keep Kate from learning the truth.

This is another solid offering from Linda Castillo. It's got good pacing, and the ending is very suspenseful. I guessed one of the twists early on, but the rest of the mystery kept me guessing. I liked this one. And I really like Kate and her small squad of police officers. Good characters and an interesting setting make this book another entertaining one by Linda Castillo. I'd give it 4 stars!

Happy Reading!

Other Kate Burkholder mysteries I've reviewed:

Gone Missing

Among the Wicked

A Gathering of Secrets

Outsider

The Scent of Murder by Kylie Logan

The plot in brief:
Jazz Ramsey works at St. Catherine's Preparatory Academy, a prestigious all-girls school, as an administrative assistant; she's also a cadaver dog handler. When her dog finds a real dead body on what was supposed to be a simple training exercise, Jazz quickly becomes involved in the murder investigation. Because she knows the victim; Florie Allen was a former student at St. Catherine's. Jazz also knows the lead detective on the case; Nick Kolesov  happens to be her former lover. It definitely complicates matters. But Jazz can't let it go; she has to find out the truth about Florie and what happened to her.

My thoughts:
I checked this one out because of the dog on the cover. Only, that's not Jazz's dog. Luther belongs to a friend; Jazz is just helping out with his training. Her own dog, Manny, died from cancer not that long ago. So, the cadaver dog in this book actually has a very limited role. Which I found a little bit disappointing. But the mystery itself is really good. And I liked Jazz and her uneasy interactions with Nick, and her stubborn doggedness asking questions and trying to figure out the truth.  And the ending totally made me smile. All in all, this is one series I definitely want to keep reading.

For a more detailed synopsis and better review of this book, check out Barb's blog. It's awesome.

Happy Reading!

Dance Night

Like Stella Gibbons and Barbara Pym, Dawn Powell is an author whose novels are often overlooked and underappreciated. Born in Ohio in 1895, she moved to New York City in 1918 where she lived and wrote until her death. Dance Night is her third novel; I've had a copy sitting on my shelf gathering dust for almost two years. I don't know why I let it sit so long. I love the way Powell writes! And I have to say, I spent a very happy weekend immersed in the lives of young Morry and Jen and the other characters living in Lamptown, Ohio. Here's a small taste of this American classic:

"Morry leaned far out the window and looked above and below, but there was no woman in the sky nor any sign of a miracle for blocks around. Girls from the Works in light dresses wandered, giggling, up and down the street waiting for the Casino Dance Hall above Bauer's to open, farm couples stood transfixed before Robbin's Jewelry Store window, the door of Delaney's Saloon swung open, shut, open, shut, releasing then withdrawing the laughter and the gaudy music of a pianola. Everything was as it was on any other Thursday night in Lamptown."

"Suddenly he thought he had lived over stores long enough, he wanted someplace to stretch his long limbs, someplace where he belonged...Morry felt homesick for spacious houses set in spreading lawns fringed with great calm shade trees--he was homesick for things he had never known, for families he had only read about, he missed people--old friends that had lived only in the novels he had read." 

"The Chicago train thundered by with a fleeting glimpse of white-jacketed porters and lit-up dining cars. Morry and Jen watched it hungrily, they were on that train whizzing through Lamptown on their way to someplace, someplace wonderful.... The train went ripping through further silence leaving only a humming in the air and a smoky message painted on the sky.  Morry and Jen looked quickly at each other--this was the thing that always bound them--trains hunting out unknown cities, convincing proof of adventure far off, of destiny somewhere waiting of things beyond Lamptown..."

 Happy Reading!

Backlist Reader Challenge Update:  2 books read, 8 to go.

My 5 favorite Dawn Powell novels:

     The Locusts Have No King

     Dance Night

     The Wicked Pavilion

     The Happy Island

     A Time To Be Born

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!