Barbara L. (Barbllm) reviewed on 4/16/2013 + 241 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 3

In the second outing for police chief Kate Burkholder, a person--or persons--have slaughtered all seven members of the Amish Plank family at their home in Painters Mill, Ohio. The bodies of the two teenage daughters show signs of torture. At first, it appears the father, Amos, killed his wife and five children, then shot himself. When clues point to a killer outside the family, Kate, who left the Amish community decades before, zeroes in on 15-year-old Mary, who may have flirted with the idea of living in the English world. Lending a hand is Kate's on-again/off-again boyfriend, John Tomasetti, an agent suspended from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and Identification for failing a recent drug test in the wake of his own family's murder about two years earlier. Castillo excels at detailing gory crime scenes, but she leaves Kate and John as little more than cookies cut from the same troubled cop mold.

Castillo can describe crime scenes in detail, but here it seems overwrought. And, let's face it, with what both Burkholder and Tomasetti have done in their personal and professional lives, it's a wonder they still have jobs. The case rattles Burkholder, who left the Amish faith as a teenager after she was raped by an Amish man. Helping her through the stressful investigation is John Tomasetti, a big-city cop battling his own demons (his wife and young daughters were murdered a few years before). The two had a brief affair, but time has passed and both have hesitations about rekindling the romance. They have plenty to distract them as they search for a killer who may have more sinister acts in store. Though the plot fizzles a bit at the end (I guessed the killer), a unique setting and a very human heroine make this a good recommendation.

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