After leaving her son's grave behind in Montgomery, Alabama, Delilah Evans has little faith that moving to her husband's hometown in Pennsylvania will bring a fresh start.  Enveloped by grief and doubt, the last thing Delilah imagines is becoming friends with her reclusive Amish neighbor, Emma Mullet—yet the secrets that keep Emma isolated from her own community bond her to Delilah in delicate and unexpected ways.

Kate Burkholder knows violent crime.  At 14, she was kidnapped and tortured by a vicious serial killer.  Now 30, she's a policewoman with eight years of experience under her belt.  For the last two, she's been chief of police in her hometown of Painters Mill, Ohio.  Residents of the small town, 1/3 of whom are Amish, generally get along peacefully.  When they don't, Kate, who grew up Amish but is currently under the bann for leaving the faith, is uniquely qualified to intervene.  Which doesn't make her job easy or pleasant or always gratifying.

When a young woman is murdered, her body marked in a way that is intimately familiar to Kate, the chief of police is understandably shaken.  The handiwork appears to be that of the man who imprisoned her so many years ago.  Kate knows it's not, but she can't explain why without dredging up secrets that could ruin both her and her family.  As the bodies pile up, she's racked with guilt and tormented by the traumas of the past, but more determined than ever to stop the cold-blooded murderer.  "Help" comes in the form of a disgraced field agent from the Ohio Bureau for Criminal Identification and Investigation (BCI) named John Thomasetti.  He, of course, comes with his own complications.  Her new partner's various neuroses are the last thing Kate needs to be dealing with right now.  If she doesn't keep her head in the game, she could be the killer's next victim.

Police procedural novels are a dime a dozen.  It takes something different, something unique, to make one stand out above the others.  Linda Castillo mined her Ohio childhood to find that something.  Sworn to Silence, the first installment in her Kate Burkholder series, is one of only a few books I've encountered that could be labeled an Amish thriller.  While that may sound like an oxymoron (the Amish are, after all, a notoriously peace-loving people), it's the intimate, unflinching look inside their culture that makes this novel so compelling.  Because of Castillo's careful shaping, Painters Mill feels real; the quiet tension between its Amish and "English" inhabitants smacks of authenticity.  As for the story itself, I have to warn you—it's grisly.  Gripping, but gruesome.  And unsettling.  Definitely not for the faint of heart (or stomach).  While I loved the Amish aspect of this novel, which is an undeniably compelling page turner, it ended up being too disturbing for me.  Therefore, I won't continue with the series, as engrossing and well-written as it may be.  If you're looking for a new police chief to follow (and you're made of stronger stuff than I am), give this series a try.  Just know that it's not an easy one to read.

(Readalikes:  Reminded me a little of Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult, as well as Laura Bickle's Amish/ zombie apocalypse books [The Hallowed Ones; The Outside].  Of course, other books in the Kate Burkholder series will also be similar.)

Grade:

On a peaceful summer night in Indiana, an Amish father falls asleep while driving his family home in their buggy, causing a freak accident that kills his two young daughters and sends his pregnant wife into premature labor. Nineteen years later, the tragedy still looms over the Sommers family, casting a dark shadow of grief over them all. No one feels the weight of the long-ago accident more than Marianna, who has spent her life trying - and failing - to be exceptional enough to replace her two dead sisters.

Just as Marianna's beginning to find her own way, her father announces his intention to move the family from the close-knit Indiana community they've always known to the wilds of Montana. Being the perfect daughter means never arguing, never questioning, but Marianna's horrified at the thought of leaving. What will happen to her out in the Englisch world? Can she hold onto her faith or will she be lured away from God, just like her older brother? Everything she wants, including a future with handsome Aaron Zook, is in Indiana. Torn between obeying her father and following her heart, Marianna must make one of the most important decisions of her life.

Her choice will change everything.

Beside Still Waters, the first book in an inspirational new series by Tricia Goyer, is a contemporary novel with a soft, old-fashioned feel to it. Which doesn't mean it dodges "real" issues or darts away from truth. In fact, I think it portrays the Amish in an honest way, showing that however homogenous they may seem, each is an individual with his/her own thoughts, emotions and struggles. Because of this, Marianna becomes a character who's easy to identify and empathize with, even though she comes from a world vastly different from most of our own. The story does become predictable and the poor editing gets annoying, but all in all, I enjoyed this one. Seriously, reading Beside Still Waters felt like sticking my feet into an ice cold stream on a scorching summer day - clean, cool, and refreshing. Not the most exciting thing, maybe, but a pleasurable diversion nonetheless.

(Readalikes: Reminds me of other Amish novels, particularly those by Beverly Lewis)

Grade: C

If this were a movie, it would be rated: PG for mild sexual innuendo

To the FTC, with love: I received a finished copy of Beside Still Waters from the generous folks at MotherTalk Book Reviews, for whom this review was written. The official Mother Talk disclosure statement is as follows: "I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of the Beside Still Waters campaign and received a copy of the book and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate."

Annalise Bailey Jensen can't outrun her past, no matter how far she flees. Sunny California - miles and miles from her hometown in Lancaster, Pennsylvania - seems to be the perfect place to reinvent herself. She shortens her name to Anna Bailey, lands a job as a "skip tracer," moves into a colleague's beach house, and tries to forget her former life. All is well until the fateful day that everything changes. First, she gets a call from her sister-in-law, begging Anna to help her locate her husband. Anna's brother, Bobby, never came home, and his wife knows he wouldn't just leave her and their little boy. While she's on the phone, Anna hears loud bumps coming from upstairs - when she investigates, she finds her roommate unconscious and a masked man searching her bedroom. The intruder demands to know where she's hiding The Beauharnais Rubies, jewels Anna's never heard of. Clearly, it's a case of mistaken identity, but she can't quite put the incident out of her mind.

So begins Shadows of Lancaster County, Mindy Starns Clark's second standalone novel. By the 7th chapter, Anna's winging her way home, plagued by memories of the event that forced her to leave Pennsylvania in the first place. She prays 11 years and a new haircut will be enough to disguise the face - her face - that once dominated the local and national news. All she wants is to slip quietly into Pennsylvania, find her brother, and high-tail it back to California. It soon becomes clear that things aren't going to be that simple. When Bobby's best friend turns up dead, Bobby's disappearance takes on a new connotation. Could he really have killed his best friend? Anna knows that's impossible, but as she traces her brother's steps, she's finding all kinds of crazy activity that seems out of character. When her old flame shows up, complaining of a break-in at his condo, Anna begins to wonder if someone isn't trying to get revenge for her past misdeeds. After all, every member of the Dreiheis 6 - a name the media gave to her and a group of her friends - has been targeted. Is someone trying to harm them because of the horror they caused 11 years ago? Or does it have more to do with Bobby's work in a DNA lab? Did Bobby really kill his best friend? Why? And what - if anything - do the rubies have to do with it all?

Anna, who works as a people finder, has her hands full with leads that take her in every direction. Tracked by the media, she searches frantically for any signs of her brother, who may or may not be a killer. With the help of her Amish in-laws, she sorts through shocking DNA results that point to a crime even more sinister than murder. In the rush to find her brother, Anna almost forgets about the rubies, but a frightening encounter convinces her that they are very much on someone's mind. From the California coast to peaceful Amish country to the high-tech labs of DNA researchers, Anna races here, there and everywhere to find her brother. In the process, she will come face-to-face with the ghosts of her own past.

The plot of Shadows of Lancaster County sounds confusing because it is. Although Anna's search for her brother forms a strong main plotline and the whole DNA research makes for interesting reading, the story gets derailed bigtime by the subplot about the Beauharnais rubies. The whole idea seems hastily tacked on, never becoming fully entwined with the novel's main events. It's as if Clark is just trying to tackle way too much in one story. Without the distracting subplot, this would have been a much better, much tighter novel. Although clumsy plotting is my biggest beef with this novel, I also found the characters lackluster. Most exuded no personality whatsoever, making it difficult to remember - or care - who was who. Likewise, Clark's writing bumps along, without the smoothness it takes to really captivate a reader.

Despite all this, the novel held enough intrigue to keep me reading. I didn't stay up until the wee hours just to finish, but I did finish. The plot holes really bugged me, but Clark did explore some interesting and unique topics. Also, I don't know if this book qualifies as Christian fiction, but it does talk a lot about faith and forgiveness. Anna prays and relies on God throughout the book. This, coupled with a lack of profanity, graphic violence or sex, makes Shadows of Lancaster County a clean read - a novelty I always appreciate. It reminded me of an edgy Beverly Lewis book.

Shadows of Lancaster County has the makings of a taut, suspenseful novel; unfortunately, it sags under the weight of haphazard plotting, indistinct characters and dull writing. It's not a terrible book, it's just not a really good one.

Grade: C