Review of "Gone Missing" [59]

Gone Missing by Linda Castillo
Minotaur Books, ISBN 978-0312658564
June 19, 2012, 288 pages

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About the book

Linda Castillo’s bestselling series has been called “gripping” [People] and “impossible to put down” [Bookpage] and the “teeth chattering suspense” [USA Today] continues with GONE MISSING—a deeply chilling novel about a rite of passage gone horribly wrong.
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?

About the author

New York Times bestselling author LINDA CASTILLO lives in Texas with her husband and is currently at work on her next book in this series, also set in Amish Country and featuring Chief of Police Kate Burkholder. Visit http://www.lindacastillo.com to learn more.

This is the fourth book in the Chief Kate Burkholder series..if you are fans of the previous ones, you will love this one as well. If you have not read the others...What Is Wrong With You?!

I have read a lot of series, and I can honestly say this is one of my very favorite. If you like a well written book, with a great plot, an interesting setting and engaging characters, including a strong, smart female lead, have I got a book for you.

The premise is that Kate was raised Amish in a north east Ohio community, left as a young person, at least in part because of a terrible act of violence that was committed against her, entered law enforcement and then, several years ago, returned to her home town to be chief of police.
She has her own issues in her life, and at the same time stands with one foot in the "English" community and at least part of the other in the Amish world of her family and childhood friends, an awkward situation. And while that is painful for her at times, raising a lot of bad memories, it is also very useful in any crimes involving the Amish, who are very distrustful of the English authorities. Kate is a very good character, very smart, very easy to sympathize with, even with her darker side, which is maybe not as evident in this book as in the previous one. All the more reason the read those too!
And her sort of boyfriend..it is a complicated relationship..John Tomasetti, is a great character as well. We learned more about him in the previous books, but don't worry, you will be told what you need in this one to make this a good standalone as well. To say the least, their relationship is a bit complicated.

And then of course we have the setting. Happily, in this book we travel for a time out of Kate's local town of Painters Mill to some other Ohio Amish communities, in her role as a consultant. This helps us in avoiding the "Cabot Cove' syndrome, of an unbelievable amount of crime in one little town, that I feared in the previous books might become an issue. But this crime, the missing children, still involves the Amish, a very interesting part of this series, as we get a glimpse into a group that we rarely get such an intimate view of. Not only will you be entertained but you will learn something.

The book has a very good, very believable, quite clever plot and Ms. Castillo is an excellent writer. Once you start reading..and I must say the book has a gripping beginning that will suck you in...you will be swept away in the story and it will be very hard to put down. And then it all leads up to an excellent ending, something the author really excels at, in this and the other books in the series. One of those books that, when you turn the last page, you will say "Wow. Oh wow!"
Did you get the idea that I liked it? Well, yes I did.

And since I am lucky enough, thanks to Big Honcho Media and the publisher, to be offering a giveaway of two copies of Gone Missing to a couple of lucky winners, be sure you enter the GIVEAWAY!