Pray For Silence by Linda Castillo

PRAY FOR SILENCE is the second installment in Linda Castillo's Kate Burkholder Series. Kate is the Chief of Police of small town Painters Mill, Ohio, which includes a large Amish community. She is no stranger to the Plain Life, being born into an Amish family herself. However, after enduring a traumatic event as a young girl, when Kate became of age, she decided not to join the church, which resulted in her being banned by the church, the Amish community and her family. Even though she doesn't live the Amish life, she still respects their beliefs and strives to keep a balance between the two cultures.

The peacefulness of small town life was brought to an abrupt end when an entire family was found brutally murdered with no apparent motive and little evidence left at the scene. The fact that the murdered family was Amish was even more baffling. The Plank family had recently moved to Painters Mill from Lancaster, Pennsylvania and had become well liked and respected by the other families within the district.

Even though Kate didn't personally know the Plank family, she felt a connection to them and given the brutal manner in which the two young daughters were assaulted, it affected Kate more than she cared to admit. It triggered painful memories of her own past that she has tried to put behind her.

Once again Kate enlists the help of Detective John Tomasetti, from the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation in Columbus, to help with the case and offer a profile of the murderer. But Kate also has her own personal reasons for wanting him there. They'd become quite close some ten months earlier when they first met while he was assisting her on a previous murder case. Their relationship is complicated yet she feels a certain reassurance and comfort from him that she neither expected nor knows how to handle.

When Kate finds a diary written by one of the daughters it begins to shed some light on what may have happened that terrible night and reinforces the fact in Kate's mind that even the Amish have secrets. It may well have been Mary Plank's secrets that got her entire family murdered.

My thoughts:

As in the first book, the story takes off right away with the quick discovery of the murder victims and subsequent criminal investigation. It's been roughly ten months since we first met Chief Burkholder and her small but effective staff. The list of suspects begins to grow. Not a lot of attention is put on the relationship between John and Kate, although there is a definite connection there. We do learn that John has been put on leave until he deals with some of his own issues, namely his addiction to prescription medications. He can not return to his job until he passes a drug test that he previously failed. His suspension, however doesn't keep him from assisting Kate on her murder case. What I like is that even though these two characters have such a strong chemistry, their relationship doesn't take away from the main theme of the book, which is the murder case. However, I actually found myself wanting there to be more going on with them.

The murder case is just as realistic and believable as the serial killer case in the first book and since most of the characters are carried over from the first book, I felt like I already knew them. The new characters involved in the investigation are equally as original and help give the story twists and turns.

The bottom line is that even though I wasn't as on the edge of my seat with this second book, I did enjoy the story and was completely satisfied with the outcome of both the murder case and how things were left between John and Kate. I think Ms. Castillo is smart in developing this relationship slowly and not making it center stage where it may take away from the main theme of the book. I look forward to seeing what the next case brings and if the romance will continue to grow. I would like to thank Mnotaur/St. Martins Press for supplying my review copy.

PRAY FOR SILENCE

Author: Linda Castillo

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Published: June 2010

Pages: 320

Grade: B

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You may also be interested in my review of SWORN TO SILENCE found here.

Teaser Tuesday: Pray for Silence

Teaser Tuesday is where we readers/bloggers share a couple sentences from the books we're currently reading. It's a great way to get a feel for books you may be interested in reading for yourself. For more details and other teasers, visit Should Be Reading each Tuesday.

Today the teaser I'm sharing is from a book I actually finished yesterday. The book is PRAY FOR SILENCE by Linda Castillo. It's the second book in the Kate Burkholder series, the first being SWORN TO SILENCE, which was recently released in paperback. Here is my teaser from PRAY FOR SILENCE . . .

For a second, I can't speak or move or even think. Then my cop's mind switches on and the horrific details of what I'm seeing slam into my brain. ~ page 15

This is a great series from Linda Castillo that I have been enjoying very much. I'll be posting my review in the coming days, so I hope you'll come back to check it out.

Sworn To Silence by Linda Castillo (Kindle Version)

Kate Burkholder has been the Chief of Police in the small town of Painters Mill, Ohio for two years. Before that she worked for the Columbus PD in the Homicide Division. Kate isn't your typical small town cop. Part of the reason the town council hired her as chief was because she used to live there - but more importantly, she used to be Amish. Painters Mill includes a large Amish community and the mayor and members of the council thought it would work to their advantage to have an ex-Amish person on the force. Kate didn't let the fact that her hiring was a political move bother her - she's just wanted to be a good cop and do her job.

Kate's world was rocked when in the dead of winter on a frozen January night the body of a brutally murdered young woman was discovered in a field. With virtually no evidence found at the scene, Kate has to rely on her experience and small staff to solve this case. It quickly becomes obvious, once the body is autopsied, that there are disturbing similarities between this murder and several other murders that took place sixteen years earlier, known as The Slaughterhouse Murders. To make matters worse, more bodies are being discovered. As Kate scrambles to find answers, she is forced to open up a part of her past that she has worked hard to forget. Sixteen years ago, when she was only fourteen, she experienced her own kind of horror that changed the course of her life forever. No one knows her secret but when the bodies start adding up, she fears a connection and prays she can control it without jeopardizing the case. It's not only herself she's worried for, but her Amish family who banned her when she was eighteen.

My thoughts:

Linda Castillo is a master crime fiction writer. At no time during this book was there a lull in the story or even a moment that was not edge-of-your-seat thrilling. I'm not a huge murder mystery reader, but Ms. Castillo has lit a fire under me that leaves me excited to read more of her work. SWORN TO SILENCE was released in June of 2009 and is the first in the new Kate Burkholder Series. I'm excited to tell you that the second book, PRAY FOR SILENCE, just came out on June 22nd of 2010. I'm looking forward to reading it very soon.

Kate Burkholder is an original and interesting lead character that is so believable that I instantly became her ally in this quest to find the killer. She's tough, but not over-the-top. Bringing in the Amish element, not only to the general storyline, but into Kate's personal background was genius. I loved the contrast between the Amish and newer English ways of life. She does a great job of showing how two totally different cultures can exist side by side in a modern world. The supporting cast of characters are genuine and just as original as Kate's character. You can feel the bond these people have created in the short two years Kate has been their leader and you can sense the loyalty. That's not to say that all of the characters are on Kate's side. There is some conflict at play from certain other characters that gives the story a realistic feel as well.

SWORN TO SILENCE is first and foremost a story about serial murders, so there are some disturbing accounts regarding the brutality of the victims, but its not to the point that I had to skip over it. I don't like gore in the books that I read. Linda Castillo knows the perfect balance to ensure the reader gets the true feel for what the characters are dealing with without going too far. She even manages to bring in a physical attraction between Kate and another great character but smartly, doesn't veer too far from the main point of the book, which is solving these murders. Most of the book is told from Kate's perspective in the first person, but there are times when the reader is following John Tomasetti, a profiler brought in from another agency to help with the case, and those parts are told in the third person.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone, especially those who enjoy suspenseful crime novels. There is not one dull moment in this book. If you're interested in learning more about Linda Castillo and her books, please visit her website. You can also read an excerpt from the new installment. PRAY FOR SILENCE. If you've never read her books, I encourage you to give them a try. You won't be disappointed.

SWORN TO SILENCE

Author: Linda Castillo

Publisher: Minotour Books

Published: June 2009

Pages: 336

Rating: 5 Stars out of 5 (Highly Recommend)

Teaser Tuesday: An Amish Mystery

As you probably know by now, Teaser Tuesday is the weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading where we get the chance to tease other readers with a glimpse of the books we're reading. I always look forward to this event because it takes me inside of some really great books for a feel of whats inside. Here are the rules:

• Grab your current read and let it fall open to a random page
• Choose two teaser sentences to share being careful to avoid any spoilers that may give too much
• List the name, author and page number your teasers were taken from so that others will be able to look up the book further

My teasers today come from SWORN TO SILENCE by Linda Castillo:

I'm an outsider here, a foreigner trespassing on sacred ground. The fact has never been more evident as I enter the world of my past. ~ page 84