I just released A Waffle Death, book #20 in the Auntie Clem’s Bakery series! Get ready for a sweet and suspenseful adventure. Join Erin as she unravels her secrets and finds herself in a sticky situation! It is the perfect blend of sweetness, spice, and murder. Check out the details here.
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Read the rules and more teasers at The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along.
I’m a sucker for Linda Castillo’s Kate Burkholder Amish mysteries. I love the way she weaves the Amish life and traditions with the intricate threads of suspense and crime. I’m sure that Castillo probably met resistance to the idea of mixing the pacifistic Amish with murder and crime when she first floated the idea of the series.
I’ll tell you, she really beats Kate Burkholder up in The Hidden One! That poor woman!
However, despite all the trials and tribulations that Burkholder faces, there’s always an underlying certainty that she will rise above it all in the end. As readers, we have come to know her as a strong-willed and tenacious character who refuses to back down.
A figure emerged from the shadows. The sense of betrayal punched him, hard enough to take his breath, with enough force to make his legs go weak. Never in a hundred years would he have imagined this. Not this.
Linda Castillo, The Hidden One
Summary
Over a decade ago, beloved Amish bishop Ananias Stoltzfus disappeared without a trace. When skeletal remains showing evidence of foul play are unearthed, his disappearance becomes even more sinister.
The town’s elders arrive in Painters Mill to ask chief of police Kate Burkholder for help, but she quickly realizes she has a personal connection to the crime. The handsome Amish man who stands accused of the murder, Jonas Bowman, was Kate’s first love. Forced to confront a painful episode from her past, Kate travels to Pennsylvania’s Kishacoquillas Valley, where the Amish culture differs dramatically from the traditions she knows. Though Bishop Stoltzfus was highly respected, she soon hears about a dark side to this complex man. What was he hiding that resulted in his own brutal death?
Someone doesn’t want Kate asking questions. But even after being accosted and threatened in the dead of night, she refuses to back down. Is she too close to the case—and to Jonas—to see clearly? There’s a killer in the Valley who will stop at nothing to keep the past buried. Will they get to Kate before she can expose the truth? Or will the bishop’s secrets remain hidden forever?
