I’ll be home again tomorrow, and I actually have one of my own book reviews posted to run on Monday. In the meantime, I’m grateful for everyone who stepped in while I was on vacation; all of you on Thursday, Kevin Tipple, and, today, Sandie Herron. Sandie’s talking about Linda Castillo’s fourth Kate Burkholder mystery, Gone Missing. Thank you, Sandie!
Gone Missing
Written by Linda Castillo
Series: Kate Burkholder, Book 4
Kindle version
Minotaur Books (June 19, 2012)
288 pages
ASIN: B006ZL1KES
Chief of Police Kate Burkholder responds to a call of disturbing the peace. Some teenagers have gathered at a covered bridge in the small rural town of Painters Mill, Ohio to watch two girls fight. One happens to be Kate’s sister-in-law’s niece Sadie Miller. Although Sadie is Amish she in a period of her life called Rumspringa where teens are allowed to act out and not follow the rules for a year or two before they are baptized and join the church. Having been born and raised Amish, Kate is all too familiar with the Amish ways.
It is this familiarity that gives the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation a reason to draft her into service when a task force is formed to look into the disappearance of several Amish youth around the state but all within a two hour radius of each other. Kate has worked with BCI Agent John Tomasetti on several tough cases. The two have become friends and lovers and have troubled pasts in common.
Kate leaves Painters Mill and travels with Tomasetti to northeastern Ohio where they look into disappearances of varying lengths, all but one female, and all of troubled teenagers thinking of leaving the Amish faith. The most recent disappearance has left behind a crime scene, one with a large pool of blood, which shortly turns into a murder investigation when a girl’s body is discovered in a pond nearby. Each teen disappeared under unique circumstances so it is difficult to find similarities to determine if these are all runaways or possible kidnappings or even murders.
Kate’s familiarity with the Amish gives her insight into their lifestyle so that she can see what might be considered normal and what is out of place. Kate speaks Pennsylvania Dutch which makes it possible for her to communicate on a more intimate basis with the teenagers’ families. Since the Amish do not usually allow photographs to be taken, the task of searching for missing persons is much more difficult. As with any community, the Amish keep secrets so teaming with the local police and sheriff’s departments and their varying abilities to deal with them bring additional difficulties.
It takes some time for Kate and Tomasetti to pull together the disparate clues to bring the cases together. Once they do, the action picks up, and the hunt for a killer is on. Author Linda Castillo knows just how to ramp up the tension and unearth an unlikely suspect. The team of Kate and John along with local law enforcement at their backs spring forward to solve what becomes a gruesome case.
This is the fourth book in the Kate Burkholder series, and her friendship with Tomasetti is deeper in this outing, and their love relationship is further involved creating additional tension in an already fraught investigation. While we are introduced to several local officers, it is Kate and John that take center stage in their law enforcement roles, and they pull everything together to solve this horrific crime series. The tension in doing so is palpable and draws the reader deep into the action with sounds, scents, and detailed descriptions. Highly recommended.
