THE BURNING

5 stars out of 5

With a longstanding fascination for the Amish and their ways and some familiarity with the part of Ohio in which this series is set, it's a given that I'd be attracted to the books. But those interests alone probably wouldn't be sufficient to entice me to read more than one. Rather, it's the stories, and the characters, that keep me on the edge of my seat waiting for the next installment (of which this is the 16th).

For those not familiar, Kate Burkholder is chief of police in Painters Mill, located in the Buckeye State's largest Amish community (the second largest concentration in the world). She's a recent bride, the wife of John Tomasetti, an agent with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation. She's also Amish or, more accurately, she used to be; she left the old ways some time ago but still maintains a relationship with the local Amish, though it's tenuous at best. Her brother, Jacob, owns a local farm where he lives with his wife and son. 

This story begins with the particularly gruesome murder of an Amish man named Milan Swanz, who was burned alive on a stake (hardly a fun way to go). Tracking down clues to his identity and a motive proves difficult for Kate and her team, but it soon becomes clear he was far from an upstanding citizen and had, in fact, recently been excommunicated from the Order. Some evidence suggests that the murderer might be Amish, but that goes against their staunchly anti-violence nature. They're also notoriously closed-mouthed when it comes to speaking anything negative about their brethren - especially to the "English" folks at the police department, so eliciting information is akin to pulling hen's teeth.

Kate has a bit more luck, but not much - and much what she gets doesn't bode well for her brother Jacob, who had a serious run-in with the victim just a few days before the murder. Kate's relationship with her brother also calls into question her continued participation in the investigation; can she, or even should she, be involved when he's a major suspect? The same is claimed about her husband, who's been helping the department. Problem is, without Kate's understanding of the Amish and help from him, any meaningful investigation is likely to go nowhere fast.

It is at this point I must clam up; anything else I can say would reveal too much except that there's a very intriging look into a part of Anabaptist history thought to be long ago dead and buried. Besides that, there's plenty of action and close calls that kept me turning pages right up to the end. Now I'm once again looking forward to the next installment - and once again thanking the publisher, via NetGalley, for putting a pre-release copy of this one in my hands (or rather, on my Kindle). Well done!

The Burning by Linda Castillo (Minotaur Books, July 2024); 320 pp.

THE BURNING

4 stars out of 5

Deputy Coroner Clay Edison has led a complicated life, but now that he's married to psychologist Amy and has a young daughter Charlotte, it seems more settled. Then, a nearby California wildfire kicks in, casting a literal cloud on his life and knocking out electric power. Charlotte and Amy have retreated to a still-lit, less smoky part of the state until everything blows over, but she and Clay stay in touch by phone.

His relationship with his ex-felon brother, Luke, remains unstable; once close buddies, they've become for the most part estranged as Luke exited jail and tries to get his life back together. Still, Clay cares about him; and when he's called to a murder scene in an affluent neighborhood and discovers more than a dead body - clues that Luke may somehow have been involved - he tries to track him down. That's not easy, though, because Luke seems to have gone missing; even his hippy dippy wife, with whom he lives off the grid, has no idea why he left or where he's been for several days.

Clay's off-the-record investigation leads to even more suspicions that Luke may have been involved, forcing him - to his way of thinking - to do some cover-up work that threatens his own future. While I concede that blood can be thicker than water, I admit to losing a fair amount of respect for Clay - whom I've come to like as a leading man over the first three books in the series - because of his actions here. That's especially because - to MY way of thinking - everything that came to light in the end would have been discovered by the police had they been allowed unfettered access to all the evidence from the git-go.

But the chase is exciting and dangerous, and it held my attention so well that I polished it off in a single day by pushing back my bedtime by half an hour or so. And while in the end everything isn't coming up roses and a few ends are left untied, all that means to me is that there's plenty of fodder for the next book. I'm already up for it (or these days, should I say I'm down?) As for this one, I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review a pre-release copy. 

The Burning by Jonathan Kellerman and Jesse Kellerman (Ballantine Books, September 2021); 304 pp.