I’m back home, but not as early as I planned due to a lost day at Laguardia Airport thanks to fog. In other words, I didn’t finish what I intended to do this weekend. Tomorrow, I “hope” to post a little about our trip to New York City. In the meantime, Sandie Herron has a review of Linda Castillo’s third book, Breaking Silence. Thank you, Sandie.

Breaking Silence
Written by Linda Castillo
Kate Burkholder Mystery, Book 3
Kindle Edition
Publisher:  Minotaur (June 21, 2011)
Pages:  309
ASIN:  B004TLH3C4 

It is early one fall morning when the police department in the small rural town of Painters Mill, Ohio receives a 911 call.  The dispatcher wakes Chief Kate Burkholder for the call originated from an Amish bishop.  People at the Slabaugh farm have fallen into and are trapped in a manure pit, the gases from which could kill within minutes.  Kate meets an officer at the scene where four young children of varying ages look on in horror as their parents and an uncle lay motionless in the muck.  Unable to do anything until the fire department and its equipment arrives, Kate flashes in her memory back to the days when she was a young girl on a different Amish farm.

Raised Amish herself, Kate left the plain life to join law enforcement yet found her way back to Painters Mill to head its police department.  She is an outsider to the Amish yet she understands their language and their ways.  She is able to understand the dilemma the community faces with the four orphaned Slabaugh children whose father desperately wanted them raised Amish but whose only living relative is an uncle who was excommunicated for loving an “English” woman.  What Kate initially considered a tragic accident with three adults losing their lives turns sinister when the coroner finds that Solomon Slabaugh was killed by a blow to the back of his head, a wound not consistent with an accident.

In addition to the Slabaugh situation, Painters Mill and the surrounding county are dealing with a series of hate crimes against the Amish, particularly difficult to solve since most refuse to press charges.  The county sheriff calls in help from the BCI, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, in the person of John Tomasetti.  Kate and John have worked together on some tough cases and have developed a close relationship that is a mixture of friendship, respect, and a deep understanding of each other. 

John tries to help Kate stay objective when it comes to the four children, but she is drawn to nurture them.  Yet each time they interview them, new information reveals itself filling in the picture of life on the Slabaugh farm, and things are not as idyllic as they seem.  Author Linda Castillo sprinkles the narrative with new facts that begin to coalesce into a disturbing new version of life on the farm.  Were things bad enough to commit murder?

This was a compelling police procedural that kept me turning pages late into the night.  The author’s style is easy to read although the subject matter was often disturbing.  Portrayal of the Amish way of life was well researched and explained and was an integral part of the story.  Conflict with the “English” fueled the plot.  Kate is well grounded in her role and needed to straddle both worlds to solve these crimes and help save what was left of this family in the unexpected conclusion.  An excellent third entry in the series.