Down a Dark Road
9781250121301
Amish, Crime, Female Detectives, Mystery
Linda Castillo
Kate Burkholder, Book # 9
Minotaur
July 11th 2017
ebook
320
English
March 5, 2019 March 6, 2019
Two years ago, Joseph King was convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to life in prison. He was a “fallen” Amish man and a known drug user with a violent temper. Now King has escaped, and he’s headed for Painters Mill.
News of a murderer on the loose travels like wildfire, putting Chief of Police Kate Burkholder and her team of officers on edge. But this is personal for Kate. She grew up with Joseph King. As a thirteen year old Amish girl, she’d worshipped the ground he walked on. She never could have imagined the nightmare scenario that becomes reality when King shows up with a gun and takes his five children hostage at their Amish uncle’s farm. Armed and desperate, he has nothing left to lose.
Fearing for the safety of the children, Kate makes contact with King only to find herself trapped with a killer. Or is he? All King asks of her is to help him prove his innocence—and he releases her unharmed. Kate is skeptical, but when the facts and the evidence don’t align, she begins to wonder who she should trust. Spurned by some of her fellow cops, she embarks on her own investigation only to unearth an unspeakable secret—and someone who is willing to commit murder to keep it buried.
About the book
This is the ninth book in the series with the police commander of Painters Mill Ohio, Kate Burkholder. Kate is struggling with kids who leave graffiti on a famous bridge, when she receives a phone call warning her: Joseph King, an Amish who killed his wife, escaped from prison. Kate knows King very well, they were friends when they were teenagers and Joseph was his first crush.
While she is checking the farm owned by Joseph’s brother-in-law, where the killer’s five children live, Kate is kidnapped together with the 5 children by the same Joseph who declares himself innocent of the killing of his wife and he has a witness in his favor. The 5-year-old daughter Sadie, who was 3 at the time, saw a man, an Englisher, in her home that night. Can Kate trust her old friend? Is he right or is it the extreme attempt of a sick mind to escape prison?
I loved the book immediately, the first day I read 200 pages and the second I finished it, because I wanted to know how it ended. From the beginning I was involved in knowing whether Joseph was innocent or not and I wanted Kate to discover the truth and maybe have the man reintegrated in society and reunited with his children and I can’t say whether or not it happens so as not to reveal too much and I can’t say how I feel about it so you won’t understand the plot before reading… But I’d have a lot to say about this point.
But there are two points that I don’t like. The first is the journalistic part, when a photo of Kate is published with the suspect as she leaves the house where she was held hostage, which makes it seem like there was something between them. Plus the misogyny of the investigators. And second the fact that for the umpteenth time Kate is in danger (I practically skipped that chapter, the penultimate, I knew that she was going to be okay… I mean, to kill the protagonist doesn’t make sense, so why put her in danger every time? I know it’s good for the history, but I’m tired of always reading the same thing).
The story and the case are very interesting, but is it possible that you can’t have a story where a policewoman is the protagonist and isn’t diminished? I know that she comes out victorious but geez! Sorry rant over.
Also I bought this book because it is part of the series, most likely I haven’t even read the plot and if I had done so, I don’t think I would have liked it. For this reason, thank goodness I didn’t read the synopsis because I usually don’t like the cases where there are hostages, but I loved it from the beginning.
I repeat, the case is very nice, I also recommend the book and the series because they speak about a different culture especially for me that I don’t live in America and sometimes I don’t even know who the Amish people are. It has only these two flaws that make it fall to 4 stars instead of 5. Small things, I know, so do not let these two facts distract you from the story that is very interesting.
