Fans of Linda Castillo will love this look at the Amish community, filled with mystery and forbidden love.
Twelve years after Nathan Fisher left his Amish roots behind, his father’s death takes him back to Mississippi, where he grapples with confusion and self-reflection.
Driven by a desire to help his sister, who was born with a heart defect, Nate left home and pursued a career in professional baseball, hoping to earn enough money to get her a heart transplant. His dreams didn’t come true, and in his job as a deputy sheriff in Oklahoma, he’s been involved in a deadly shooting. Despite being cleared of wrongdoing, Nate can’t shake the guilt that haunts him. He returns home for his father's funeral knowing he’s not welcome, and even his mother refuses to speak to him since he’s under the Bann, a strict Amish law applied to those who leave. The one person who does want to talk to him is Rachel Hostetler, the love of his life, who married after waiting four years for his return. Rachel has two children, but her husband vanished three years ago, and she lives with her father. Rachel’s brother, Albie, supposedly hanged himself. Her father burned Albie's clothes and the rope and buried him in secret. Rachel, who can’t believe Albie would die by suicide, seeks Nate’s help. Albie was being bullied by a group of well-connected "Englisch"—non-Amish—boys Rachel thinks beat and murdered him. A deputy who’s willing to listen helps get the body exhumed, raising new riddles only Nate can solve. Though they seem to have no future, Nate can’t leave Rachel until the truth is revealed.
Fans of Linda Castillo will love this look at the Amish community, filled with mystery and forbidden love.Pub Date: June 24, 2025
ISBN: 9798892421249
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crooked Lane
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As the prosecutor sadly observes: “All this because of a dead buffalo.”
Idyllic Catalina Island turns out to be just as crime infested as the rest of Los Angeles County in the latest series launch by the creator of Harry Bosch, Renée Ballard, and the Lincoln Lawyer.
Det. Sgt. Stilwell has been bounced off the county homicide squad and rusticized to Catalina, where the exclusive Black Marlin Club won’t admit even four-term Avalon Mayor Doug Allen to full membership and the most serious infraction seems to be the killing and cutting up of a buffalo, presumably by Henry Gaston, who operates Island Mystery Tours when he’s not threatening endangered species. All that changes with the discovery of a body sunk in the surrounding waters. The corpse, most recognizable by its streak of purple hair, is that of Leigh-Anne Moss, a Black Marlin server recently fired for fraternizing with members and guests she sees as potential sugar daddies. Stilwell is sufficiently invested in her murder to compete vigorously over jurisdiction with Rex Ahearn, the LA County homicide detective who kept his job when Stilwell lost his. Their rivalry, fueled by mutual contempt, is only the first hint that Stilwell will end up fighting his counterparts in law enforcement and local government at least as hard as he fights crooks like hit man Merris Spivak and Oscar “Baby Head” Terranova, Henry’s boss, who comes under sharper scrutiny when Henry disappears and ends up dead himself. Connelly handles his hero’s obligatory romance with assistant harbormaster Tash Dano and his increasingly wary alliance with assistant D.A. Monika Juarez with equal professionalism, and if the wrap-up leaves some loose ends dangling, well, that’s what franchises are for.
As the prosecutor sadly observes: “All this because of a dead buffalo.”Pub Date: May 20, 2025
ISBN: 9780316588485
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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