Gone Missing

If you want a suspense series that will grab you right away, isn't shy on describing murder scenes while giving you a main character who has a unique backstory and is an emotional work in progress, then let me introduce you to Linda Castillo's Kate Burkholder series.

This is a series that you should read in order to get the full effect of Kate's emotional baggage and experience as woman who was raised Amish but then left the community and their culture, later becoming the police chief in her small Ohio town. Kate is a tough emotional nut to crack. I love her strength and seeing how she uses it in her job and when her past comes back to impact her personal life.

In this fourth installment of the series, Kate is called to aid the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations when three Amish teens go missing. Kate and Agent Tomasetti find connections between other missing Amish teens and the case becomes bigger than they could have imagined. Castillo builds good tension and gives her readers several red herrings to keep them guessing while also revealing the tentative nature of Kate's personal life which is a nice, slow burn.

This is a great addition to this gripping suspense series with its interesting look into Amish culture, its strong female main character in Chief Kate Burkholder and a story with good twists and an ending that will leave readers' hearts pounding.

My Rating: 4 stars

Author: Linda Castillo

Genre: Suspense

Series: #4 in the Kate Burkholder series

Type and Source: Hardcover from public library

Publisher: Minotaur Books

First Published: June 19, 2012

Book Description from GoodReads: Rumspringa is the time when Amish teens are allowed to experience life without the rules. It’s an exciting time of personal discovery and growth before committing to the church. But when a young teen disappears without a trace, the carefree fun comes to an abrupt and sinister end, and fear spreads through the community like a contagion.

A missing child is a nightmare to all parents, and never more so than in the Amish community, where family ties run deep. When the search for the presumed runaway turns up a dead body, the case quickly becomes a murder investigation. And chief of Police Kate Burkholder knows that in order to solve this case she will have to call upon everything she has to give not only as a cop, but as a woman whose own Amish roots run deep.

Kate and state agent, John Tomasetti, delve into the lives of the missing teen and discover links to cold cases that may go back years. But will Kate piece together all the parts of this sinister puzzle in time to save the missing teen and the Amish community from a devastating fate? Or will she find herself locked in a fight to the death with a merciless killer?