Among the Wicked
Amish, Crime, Female Detectives, Mystery, Thriller
Linda Castillo
Kate Burkholder, Book # 8
Minotaur Books
July 12, 2016
ebook
320
English
June 18, 2018 June 22, 2018
Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is called upon by the sheriff's department in rural, upstate New York to assist on a developing situation that involves a reclusive Amish settlement and the death of a young girl. Unable to penetrate the wall of silence between the Amish and "English" communities, the sheriff asks Kate to travel to New York, pose as an Amish woman, and infiltrate the community.
Kate's long time love interest, State Agent John Tomasetti, is dead set against her taking on such an unorthodox assignment, knowing she'll have limited communication - and even less in the way of backup. But Kate can't turn her back, especially when the rumor mill boils with disturbing accounts of children in danger. She travels to New York where she's briefed and assumes her new identity as a lone widow seeking a new life.
Kate infiltrates the community and goes deep under cover. In the coming days, she unearths a world built on secrets, a series of shocking crimes, and herself, alone... trapped in a fight for her life.
About the book
This is the eighth book in Linda Castillo’s series focusing on the Amish community of Painters Mill. Kate Burkholder, ex-Amish, is traveling miles away from her community to solve an apparent accident in cold Ohio.
Usually I don’t like undercover cases especially if the protagonist has to travel so far from his/her city, but I understand that the author couldn’t write about Kate undercover in Painters Mills for obvious reasons. But I must say that the case is interesting, the undercover is not long or better said, between preparations and first contacts with the new city a third of the book has already gone by.
The case became even more interesting in the middle of the book when two Amish lead snowmobiles. But then I couldn’t handle when Kate gets in trouble… I mean… It’s the eighth book, maybe Kate doesn’t have experience in undercover work, but she has been a police officer for several years, is it possible that she doesn’t understand that spilling everything to the bishop put her in danger? I know that without this particular, there is no book, but the author could find a different turning point… Why she must always be in danger? It’s like Temperance Brennan, even in that series the protagonist is always in danger.
Despite this the case is more than interesting.
It was obvious from the beginning that it was a sect… But I like it when it comes to sects so I have nothing to say… Only that Kate got it a little late…
I don’t find the final twist (not who is involved, but what happens at the border between Canada and New York) a real twist because I do not see the connection with the rest of the book. It’s as if the author put it there just to create a plot twist, to write something different from the usual “cult = bad leader” story and then to create a twist that in my opinion it isn’t a twist at all. I would have preferred the usual story about sects, I like the stories that revolve around the phenomenon of sects and moreover if a charismatic character strikes a community as simple as the Amish. For this reason I can’t give 5 stars to the book.
As I said I don’t like that Kate, the protagonist, is in danger not once, not twice but three times, it’s a cliché too big. Besides, I like her collaborators, the ones in Painters Mill who aren’t present that much here, so I miss them. But despite this, I repeat, I really enjoyed the book.
