The Amish Books of Linda Castillo

Last July Amanda Flower, a writer of multiple cozy series at least one or more dealing with the Amish, and Hudson, Ohio Librarian, and member of our NeoSinc chapter, asked us  to come to hear an author named Linda Castillo who would be speaking so there would be a good turn-out. I hadn’t heard of her before, but to support Amanda, I went to hear this author and was fascinated by her talk about how she came to writing the books she writes and her path to writing, especially the Amish thrillers she writes.

Sugar Loaf Nursery the first one my sisters and I visit each spring.

Because I’ve lived within easy driving distance of the Amish for years, and shopped at their stores, garden centers, and had other contact with them, I’m interested in the Amish and like any books dealing with them. Also many Amish families have been moving into the township where I live. I’ve had Amish put a roof on my barn and my sun room, and one who takes care of my ponies’ hooves. I’ve had them bring hay to my barn and store it for me. He had to use a guy with a truck who wasn’t Amish, of course.

Linda originally came from the area where her Kate Burkholder series is set in Holmes County, and now lives in Texas with her husband, but she has retained her knowledge of the Amish in the county. She told us she returns every so often to the area to visit people she knows, and to refresh her memories of the Amish. I bought the first three books in her series, and was totally hooked and ended up ordering all the other ones, too, and can’t wait for her next one to come out this summer.

Castillo’s Kate Burkholder is a break-away Amish woman, who is now sheriff of the small fictional town of Painters Mill, in Holmes County. She deals with the English-Amish divide since she was banned because of walking away from her religion in her late teens. What helps her is that she still is able to speak Pennsylvania Dutch, and understands their reticence about reporting any crimes to the English. So even though they don’t want to tell her things that would help her solve murders and other crimes against the Amish, she can still sometimes get them to co-operate because of her background with them. I found it interesting that when Castillo writes dialogue using their language; it’s in italics with the English translation following in normal print. Also, there was one book where Kate and John traveled to a county in N.E. Ohio and drove on roads and through towns I know well.

Kate Burkholder is an interesting character with something in her background she keeps a secret.  Enter John Tomasetti, a BCI agent from Columbus, who has a dark background, too. He was sent to help Kate solve the crime in Painters Mill. There’s friction between them, but also an attraction, which builds in each of her following books. I like the officers who work under her, and the descriptions of an Amish area I can picture so well. Even though it takes place in a small town in a rural area, there is nothing cozy about Castillo’s books. They’re suspense/thrillers hard to put down. I lost a lot of sleep reading them.

Her latest book in the series until this summer

Linda Castillo’s first book in the series, is Sworn to Silence which won numerous awards and was on the Times Best Seller list for four weeks. Her following books in order are Pray for Silence, Breaking Silence, Gone Missing, Her Last Breath, The Dead Will Tell, After the Storm, and Among the Wicked. Her next one is supposed to come out this coming summer, and I can’t wait to read it.

Linda Castillo has written other books, too. According to her website, she’s written thirty books for three New York Publishing houses, and has won numerous awards for her books. The two I’ve read that are not Amish, take place in Texas the state she lives in now. I liked those, too, but they weren’t a series, and I really like mysteries with characters I’ve grown familiar with coming back.

Sworn to Silence was made into a two hour movie re-titled An Amish Murder. I’m not sure how to get it, but I might be able to find it on Amazon.

How familiar with the Amish culture are you?

Have you read any Amish mysteries?