A Gathering of Secrets - Linda Castillo

A Gathering of Secrets by Linda Castillo

First Paragraph(s):

She didn't sleep.  Hadn't slept through the night in a long time.  There was too much darkness, not the kind that was restful.  At dawn, when her mamm peeked into her bedroom and told her it was time to feed the animals and get ready for worship, she was already awake, waiting.  Ready.
     Ever the obedient daughter, she pulled on her dress, tugged her hair into a bun, and covered her head with her kapp.  Stepping into her winter tights and sneakers, she left her room and took the steps down to the living room.  She avoided the kitchen, where she could hear her mamm clanging breakfast dishes and frying sausage, and went out through the side door and into the cold.  The morning was wet and gray, drizzle floating down from a sky the color of iron.  Once in the barn, she tossed hay to the horses, filled their water buckets, dumped scratch into the chicken feeder, and gathered six brown eggs.
     She'd never lied to her parents.  Not once in all of her seventeen years.  But when Mamm told her to get cleaned up for worship, she complained that she'd been sick and throwing up half the night.  Mamm wasn't pleased that she would miss such an important day.  But what could she say?

My Thoughts:

A Gathering of Secrets is the 10th book in Linda Castillo's series set in Amish country of Ohio.  The protagonist is Chief of Police Kate Burkholder and I've been a fan since the very first book.  No summer is complete without reading a Kate and John Tomasetti (her significant other) tale.  Linda Castillo has done a good job here of centering the story around all branches of the Amish community.  I don't think I was aware that there were stricter and less strict portions of believers.  Some drive cars or have telephones or dress more colorfully.  Since this is a crime novel, there is, of course, crime.  Two teenagers have died - a few months apart - and Kate discovers that these deaths, one by suicide and one by fire, might be connected.  She works hard to get the families and friends of the teens to give her information and tell her the truth, but some aspects of behavior are still very hidden and secret.  The families don't report things because they don't want 'shame' to come on the individuals involved or on the family itself.  Kate is very frustrated.  What she suspects takes her back into her own memories and her own past traumatic incident, a time that she still struggles to understand and process.  And now I'll stop talking about the plot.

I was pleased to see the whole team at the Painters Mill Police Department.  There are changes ahead for some people, a good thing.  Kate's life with John Tomasetti, an agent with the Ohio Bureau of Investigation, has stabilized and he is great support to Kate as she investigates here.  Their relationship is one that I am very fond of - a good duo in this ongoing series.  If you're looking for a new mystery series with a bit of difference, you might try this one.  It comes highly recommended by me. 

Blurb:

When a historic barn burns to the ground in the middle of the night, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is called in to investigate. At first, it looks like an accident, but when the body of eighteen-year-old Daniel Gingerich is found inside—burned alive—Kate suspects murder. Who would want a well-liked, hardworking young Amish man dead? Kate delves into the investigation only to find herself stonewalled by the community to which she once belonged. Is their silence a result of the Amish tenet of separation? Or is this peaceful and deeply religious community conspiring to hide a truth no one wants to talk about? Kate doubles down only to discover a plethora of secrets and a chilling series of crimes that shatters everything she thought she knew about her Amish roots—and herself.

As Kate wades through a sea of suspects, she’s confronted by her own violent past and an unthinkable possibility.