La ribelle

Rachael, who left the amish way, is found viscously beat to death in a Painter's Mill motel. What has lead her back to the place she ran from. That's what Kate Burkholder is determined to find out. I love this series and have read them all.

3.5 rounding up

This is the first police procedure I've listened to since early 2020, and despite having always been a fan of the genre, I really struggled with this given the nature of everything that has happened the last 18 months. I think it's a solid police mystery if that's your thing.

Kathleen McInerney gave an excellent performance and if I ever get into the series, I know I will enjoy listening to her narration.

The rest of my review is going to contain spoilers and my issues with the book, so beware.

SPOILERS

I'm jumping into a series as a first time reader, with no attachment to these characters, and while I found Kate very likeable, her inherent biases and the responses by other cops were incredibly frustrating, and potentially triggering to a reader.

Defending questionable police behavior and dismissing the claims of women who were deemed unreliable is difficult to root for. She also struggled with believing anything negative of anyone who chose to stay in the Amish life and even upheld/justified their patriarchal mindsets.

In the end SHE believes the victims which I want to acknowledge as a credit to her character. But I just found the whole story to be a lot of justifying of other officer's actions and clearly I am not in the right headspace for this book at the moment.

So long story short, even if you are a fan of police procedurals, you may want to consider keeping this one on the shelf until you are ready to deal with cops not wanting to believe their fellow officers are capable of using their position of power to hurt others.

***Thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing me with a copy of the audiobook for free via NetGalley for an unbiased review.

Another solid entry in the series that depicts the surprising number of murders that take place in Painters Mill, Ohio, a small town in the heart of Amish country. Kate Burkholder has left the Amish lifestyle but remains in the community as police chief, where her connections often give her insights and access not available to other cops.

This case is interesting in that the victim is a young woman who is described by Kate as “even worse at being Amish than I was.” Rachael Schwartz was charming but rebellious and angry, and there are any number of suspects, Amish and non-Amish, who held a grudge against her. The usual cast of secondary characters is around to help Kate, including her lover and sort-of fiancé John Tomasetti. There isn't much relationship growth in this installment, but there is a bit more gore and Kate-in-jeopardy than usual.

One thing that bothered me is that early on, Kate declares that she is devastated that there has been a violent murder in her community, as if the previous 12 books never happened. Oh well, maybe Castillo felt that she had to reintroduce the situation to new readers.