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Bestselling author Linda Castillo premiered Missing, his fourth crime fiction novel starring a former Amish woman, Kate Burkholder, on June 19. Castillo’s signature talent is exposing the flaws of the Amish community often perceived as pure Simon.
Kate, 33, is a police chief in the small town of Painters Mill, Ohio. Raised Amish, she left the order at eighteen to live as a English. Her fate produced a career in criminal justice and a return to her hometown, despite being excommunicated from the church.
John Tomasetti is an agent with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Identification in Cleveland. He asks Kate to consult on two cases involving missing Amish teenagers, both from towns within a hundred-mile radius.
Kate takes the opportunity to expand her professional comfort zone, ultimately anticipating her time with Tomasetti. The two have become part-time lovers; and as a reader, you wonder where their relationship is headed; “The long-distance aspect of our relationship has worked well for us. We’re too independent for anything too cozy. But I know that no matter how hard we try to keep things simple, relationships tend to get complicated.”
The pair met a year and a half ago while working on the Slaughterhouse Murders case, and each discovers their own pain. Kate is haunted by the memory of her being raped at age 14: “I learned at a formative age that even on perfect, sunny days, bad things happen.” Tomasetti is marked by the murder of his wife and his two young daughters three years ago.
Are the mysteries of the Amish teenagers somehow connected? Could they be related to rumspringa?
Rumspringa is the time when Amish teenagers explore English ways of life and adults look the other way, before joining the church. It is an exciting period of discovery and personal growth. Self-expression includes listening to music and dressing fashionably. Some teens take it to the extreme, experimenting with alcohol, drugs, and sex. At least eighty percent of Amish teenagers return to the order and are baptized.
Kate’s fluency in Pennsylvania Dutch is a research asset when it comes to the Amish; and most are surprised when she speaks in her language: “Guder mariye,” I say, bowing my head respectfully as I say good morning.
Consumed with the investigation of the missing Amish teenagers, Kate receives numerous calls from the Mayor of Painters Mill, Augie Brock. Ella Bradford’s 17-year-old son was recently arrested for possession of marijuana, a methamphetamine pipe and assault on an officer. The mayor is determined that Kate drop the charges and insists that Bradford will be ruined if he is found guilty.
Castillo appeared on the Geauga County campus of Kent State University on June 25 during his Missing book tour She described traveling to Fredericktown, Ohio, her brother-in-law’s birthplace, in 2004. Already an accomplished writer of romance novels, it was there that she was inspired to juxtapose bucolic Amish lifestyle against crime brutal. Because, as she says, “No one is perfect, not even the Amish.”
In Missing, Castillo continues the self-exploration and growth of the characters in the series. If he’s read Castillo’s previous books with Kate Burkholder, he’s no doubt been looking forward to his next adventure. If you are new to Castillo narratives, dive in with Missing. Three other entertaining mysteries are waiting for you to discover them.
For all things Amish, visit Amish America at: http://amishamerica.com/about.