Title: The Burning
Author: Linda Castillo
Published: July 9, 2024 by Minotaur Books
Format: Hardcover, 313 Pages
Genre: Police Procedural
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Kate Burkholder #16
Author: Linda Castillo
Published: July 9, 2024 by Minotaur Books
Format: Hardcover, 313 Pages
Genre: Police Procedural
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Kate Burkholder #16
First Sentence: Prologue: Milan Swanz figured he’d chosen the wrong night to get drunk and walk home.
Blurb: Newlywed Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is awakened by an urgent midnight call summoning her to a suspicious fire in the woods. When she arrives at the scene, she discovers a charred body. According to the coroner, the deceased, an Amish man named Milan Swanz, was chained to a stake and burned alive. It is an appalling and eerily symbolic crime against an upstanding husband and father.
Kate knows all too well that the Amish prefer to handle their problems without interference from the outside world, and no one will speak about the murdered man. From what she’s able to piece together, Swanz led a deeply troubled life and had recently been excommunicated. But if that’s the case, why are the Amish so reluctant to talk about him? Are they protecting the memory of one of their own? Or are they afraid of something they dare not share?
When her own brother is implicated in the case, Kate finds herself not only at odds with the Amish, the world of which she was once a part, but also the English community and her counterparts in law enforcement. The investigation takes a violent turn when Kate’s life is threatened by a mysterious stranger.
To uncover the truth about the death of Milan Swanz, Kate must dive deep into the Anabaptist culture, peering into all the dark corners of its history, only to uncover a secret legacy that shatters everything she thought she knew about the Amish themselves―and her own roots.
My Opinion: Disappointing. Where the book was going was apparent from the first chapter. The reader might not have all the answers, but enough was revealed, so there were no surprises. The book is slow without the usual last-minute Castillo twist and could have benefited from a secondary plotline other than outside agencies not liking Kate and her investigation tactics. The only redeeming part was the dark history, which led to a Google dive into the Schwertler Anabaptists.
Police Chief Kate Burkholder knows the Amish prefer to keep their issues private, but when she is called out to the woods in response to a fire, she is not quite prepared for that fire to be a man tied to a stake and smoldering. No one liked excommunicated Milan Swanz, especially his ex-wife, but the Amish do not speak ill of the dead, which is a complication for the Painter’s Mill Police Department.
I enjoy this series, but there is a running theme in the books, and it is beginning to feel like a fill-in-the-blank series. Gruesome death; innocent Amish who turns out to be no different than the Englisher’s; people don’t like the police chief until they need her; Kate is severely injured; twist; the end.
Blurb: Newlywed Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is awakened by an urgent midnight call summoning her to a suspicious fire in the woods. When she arrives at the scene, she discovers a charred body. According to the coroner, the deceased, an Amish man named Milan Swanz, was chained to a stake and burned alive. It is an appalling and eerily symbolic crime against an upstanding husband and father.
Kate knows all too well that the Amish prefer to handle their problems without interference from the outside world, and no one will speak about the murdered man. From what she’s able to piece together, Swanz led a deeply troubled life and had recently been excommunicated. But if that’s the case, why are the Amish so reluctant to talk about him? Are they protecting the memory of one of their own? Or are they afraid of something they dare not share?
When her own brother is implicated in the case, Kate finds herself not only at odds with the Amish, the world of which she was once a part, but also the English community and her counterparts in law enforcement. The investigation takes a violent turn when Kate’s life is threatened by a mysterious stranger.
To uncover the truth about the death of Milan Swanz, Kate must dive deep into the Anabaptist culture, peering into all the dark corners of its history, only to uncover a secret legacy that shatters everything she thought she knew about the Amish themselves―and her own roots.
My Opinion: Disappointing. Where the book was going was apparent from the first chapter. The reader might not have all the answers, but enough was revealed, so there were no surprises. The book is slow without the usual last-minute Castillo twist and could have benefited from a secondary plotline other than outside agencies not liking Kate and her investigation tactics. The only redeeming part was the dark history, which led to a Google dive into the Schwertler Anabaptists.
Police Chief Kate Burkholder knows the Amish prefer to keep their issues private, but when she is called out to the woods in response to a fire, she is not quite prepared for that fire to be a man tied to a stake and smoldering. No one liked excommunicated Milan Swanz, especially his ex-wife, but the Amish do not speak ill of the dead, which is a complication for the Painter’s Mill Police Department.
I enjoy this series, but there is a running theme in the books, and it is beginning to feel like a fill-in-the-blank series. Gruesome death; innocent Amish who turns out to be no different than the Englisher’s; people don’t like the police chief until they need her; Kate is severely injured; twist; the end.
No comments:
Post a Comment