Review: The Burning

The Burning by Linda Castillo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book grabs you right from the very first page and doesn't let you go. A murder occurs in Painter's Mills, one of incredible savagery, and someone close to Kate is one of the suspects.

For the first time, Kate and her husband work together, and it doesn't really have the desired results.

This book did not let me down, and I think it was the best one yet,

Added to the mystery is an interesting background history of a little-known Anabaptist sect that may or may not be responsible for a few of these types of murders.

*ARC was Supplied by the publisher Minotaur Books, the author Linda Castillo, and NetGalley.

View all my reviews

SYNOPSIS: "Chief of Police Kate Burkholder investigates a gruesome murder that reveals a little-known chapter of early Amish history in this new installment of the bestselling series by Linda Castillo.

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."