Gone Missing by Linda Castillo – Amish Crime Fiction – Teenage Disappearance, Sex, and Murder

Best-selling author Linda Castillo, released Missing, his fourth whodunit starring an ex-Amish woman, Kate Burkholder, out June 19. Castillo’s signature talent is exposing the flaws of the Amish community often perceived as pure Simon.

Kate, 33, is a police chief in the small town of Painters Mill, Ohio. Raised Amish, she left the order at eighteen to live as a English. Her fate produced a career in criminal justice and a return to her hometown, despite being excommunicated from the church.

John Tomasetti, is an agent with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation in Cleveland. He asks Kate to consult on two cases involving missing Amish teenagers, both from cities within a hundred-mile radius.

Kate takes the opportunity to expand her professional comfort zone, ultimately looking forward to her time with Tomasetti. The two have become part-time lovers; and as a reader, you wonder where their relationship is headed; “The long-distance aspect of our relationship has worked well for us. We’re too independent for anything too cozy. But I know that no matter how hard we try to keep things simple, relationships tend to get complicated.”

The couple met a year and a half ago while working on the Slaughterhouse Murders case, and each discovers their own pain. Kate is haunted by the memory of her being raped at 14: “I learned at a formative age that even on perfect sunny days, bad things happen.” Tomasetti is marked for the murder of his wife and his two young daughters three years ago.

Are the mysteries of Amish teens somehow connected? Could they be related to rumspringa?

Rumspringa is the time when Amish teens explore English ways of life and adults look the other way, before joining church. It is an exciting period of discovery and personal growth. Self-expression includes listening to music and dressing fashionably. Some teens take it to the extreme, experimenting with alcohol, drugs, and sex. At least eighty percent of Amish teenagers return to the order and are baptized.

Kate’s fluency in Pennsylvania Dutch is a research asset when it comes to the Amish; and most are surprised when she speaks in their language: “Guder mariye,” I say, bowing my head respectfully as I bid them good morning.

Consumed by the investigation of missing Amish teenagers, Kate receives numerous calls from Painters Mill Mayor Augie Brock. Ella Bradford’s 17-year-old son was recently arrested for possession of marijuana, a methamphetamine pipe and assault on an officer. The mayor is determined to have Kate drop the charges, insisting that Bradford will be ruined if he is found guilty.

Castillo appeared on the Geauga County campus of Kent State University on June 25 during his Missing book tour She described traveling to Fredericktown, Ohio, the birthplace of her brother-in-law, in 2004. Already an accomplished writer of romance novels, it was there that she was inspired to juxtapose the bucolic lifestyle of the Amish against crime brutal. Because, as she says, “Nobody’s perfect, not even the Amish.”

In Missing, Castillo continues the self-exploration and growth of the characters in the series. If he’s read Castillo’s previous books with Kate Burkholder, he’s no doubt been looking forward to his next adventure. If you are new to Castillo narratives, dive in with Missing. Three more entertaining mysteries await your discovery.

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