Dein ist die Lüge

Outsider is a bit of a departure for this series. Usually someone from the Amish community is either the victim or the perpetrator of a crime (or both). This time, the setting is still Painter's Mill, Ohio, but the focus is on Gena Colorosa, a female vice cop from Columbus who is wounded and on the run. She finds shelter at an Amish widower's house, where she reaches out Police Chief Kate Burkholder. The two women have a long history; they met soon after Kate left the Amish lifestyle, and they went through the police academy together. Kate isn't sure if Gena is a good cop in trouble, or a bad cop lying through her teeth, but she finds herself stuck at the widower's house along with Gena during a snowstorm, trying to weigh the law against a friendship that ruptured ten years ago.

This 12th installment provides a lot of backstory that we didn't know about Kate's life during her absence from Painter's Mill, and there is a bit of Witness-in-reverse vibe between Gena and the widower, Adam. There's a nice dynamic between Adam and his three young children that make Kate remember how much there is to appreciate about the Amish way of life. Kate's significant other, John Tomasetti makes a few dashing appearances on a snowmobile, but he's largely (and sadly) MIA for most of the story. The pace is a little slower than some of the other books in the series (and a lower body count, at least initially) but it's still an engaging, quick read.

Also, either Linda Castillo is psychic, or she wrote this book in a hurry, because the similarities between the case in Columbus that sets off the book's events, and the tragic March 2020 shooting death of Breonna Taylor in Louisville Kentucky, are eerie.