Amish country murder mystery puts twist on familiar premise
In Her Last Breath, fifth in Linda Castillo’s gritty series about a Holmes County police chief, Kate Burkholder scrambled to keep a devastating old secret from being revealed. Its exposure could mean the end of her career. Now, in The Dead Will Tell, it is others who have a secret, and they are dying for it.
The story begins in 1979, when a robbery at an Amish farm turns into a slaughter. One boy survives and is adopted by a local family. The crime is never solved.
In the present day, a group of respectable middle-aged professionals begin receiving notes in their mailboxes, on their car windshields, stuck inside their doors: “I know what you did.” “Murderer.” “I know you were there.” When, one by one, they are killed, Chief Burkholder must figure out what the victims had in common, and how it could be related to the old Hochstetler case. Meanwhile, the ceaseless rain washes away clues.
The premise has been used before — an old crime, thought forgotten, is brought back by threats and murder, but Castillo sells it with her solid characters, especially capable Kate. As with Her Last Breath, The Dead Will Tell doesn’t explore the Amish culture as deeply as the first books in the series: the small town includes an art gallery owner, a reformed felon turned preacher, a land developer and Kate’s nemesis, an imperious councilman. Kate is at another turning point with her love interest, Tomasetti, who is being uncommunicative.
The Dead Will Tell (320 pages, hardcover) costs $25.99 from Minotaur. Linda Castillo grew up in Ithaca, Ohio, a village in Darke County, and now lives in Texas. Her Last Breath has been nominated as Best Hardcover Novel by the International Thriller Writers Association; the awards will be presented Saturday in New York.
Castillo will launch her book Tuesday at the Dover Public Library, 525 N. Walnut St., from noon to 2 p.m., and also will appear from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at Stark County District Library’s Perry Sippo branch, 5710 12th St. NW, Perry Township. From 6 to 7 p.m. Wednesday she will be at the Massillon Public Library, 208 Lincoln Way E.
‘Zenobia: The Patriot Way’
Emerson Moore, the hero of Wooster author Bob Adamov’s series of adventure novels about an investigative reporter, gets some backstory in Zenobia: The Patriot Way, the decade-jumping eighth book.
In 1991, Moore, a rookie reporter for a Washington paper, volunteers to cover the war in Croatia. Though Moore has no experience, his editor agrees, and Moore travels to the town of Vukovar, under siege by Yugoslav and Serbian forces. Moore falls in with several other reporters and a valiant teenage Croat courier, and witnesses ghastly war crimes, including the Vukovar massacre, in which Serb militia murdered hundreds of people, including hospital patients and prisoners of war.
A brutal man known as “the Vuk” (the Wolf), described as the leader of a Serb paramilitary unit, is the most barbaric of the raiders. The Vuk is obsessed with Tatiana, a beautiful teenage girl whose parents have been killed in the siege, and intends to sell her into the Yugoslav sex trade, but Moore manages to spoil his plans.
Ten years later, Moore is married and working at another Washington paper when the Vuk re-enters his life, seeking revenge. While he makes Moore’s life hell, he stirs up other kinds of trouble.
In the present day, Moore is at his home base at Put-in-Bay when a young woman is stabbed to death; he learns that she had been forced into the sex industry in Bulgaria and escaped after being brought to the United States. When Moore hears that Toledo is a major gateway for human trafficking, because of its proximity to the Canadian border and location near the crossroads of the Ohio Turnpike and I-75, he feels a story coming on.
The first part of the book, with Moore a witness to war atrocities, is some of Adamov’s better writing, as is Moore’s ride-along with a female truck driver who schools him on underage prostitution at truck stops. The Put-in-Bay setting allows Adamov to continue his practice of namedropping his friends and favorite establishments.
Zenobia (287 pages, hardcover) costs $24.95 from Packard Island Publishing. Bob Adamov is a graduate of Kent State University.
Events
Barking Spider Tavern (11310 Juniper Road, Cleveland) — Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, who blog and speak about living a simpler and more meaningful life, sign Everything That Remains: A Memoir by the Minimalists, 7 to 8:30 p.m. Monday.
Mac’s Backs (1820 Coventry Road, Cleveland Heights) — Gail Bellamy, author of Cleveland Summertime Memories, Cleveland Food Memories and Cleveland Christmas Memories, signs her books from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday in the “Tuesdays on Coventry” summer vendor village across the street from the bookstore; poet Peter Leon reads from and signs his work from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at the store; David Smeltz, one of the founders of the reggae band I-Tal, talks about and signs his memoir Clean: From Reggae to Recovery, about his recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, 5 to 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
Stow-Munroe Falls Public Library (3512 Darrow Road, Stow) — Bryan Fritz and Ken Krsolovic discuss League Park: Historic Home of Cleveland Baseball, 1891-1946, 7 p.m. Tuesday. Registration requested; call 330-688-3295.
Cuyahoga County Public Library (North Royalton branch, 14600 State Road) — Lynn Underwood, author of Spiritual Connection in Daily Life: 16 Little Questions That Can Make a Big Difference, talks about the Daily Spiritual Experience Scale, 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday.
Wayne County Public Library (Rittman branch, 49 W. Ohio Ave.) — Ron L. Kuntz of Rittman, who has written two Christian allegories and a storybook, Doodlin Ducks, and Mary-Hannah McCray Klontz, his co-author on the new Christmas-themed There’s Noel in Rat, 10 a.m. to noon Saturday.
Learned Owl Book Shop (204 N. Main St., Hudson) — Betty Weibel talks about Ohio’s historical importance in show jumping and signs Cleveland Grand Prix: An American Show Jumping First, 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday.
Barnes & Noble (4015 Medina Road, Bath Township) — Copley High School alumna and chef Kate Horning, author of Healthy Living Redefined: Live It. Share It, talks about nutrition and lifestyle, 2 p.m. Saturday.
Akron-Summit County Public Library (Highland Square branch, 807 W. Market St.) — Nate Vengrow presents My World in a Book of Poems, 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday.
— Barbara McIntyre
Special to the Beacon Journal
Send information about books of local interest to Lynne Sherwin, Features Department, Akron Beacon Journal, P.O. Box 640, Akron, OH 44309 or lsherwin@thebeaconjournal.com. Event notices should be sent at least two weeks in advance.