A Gathering of Secrets
When a historic barn burns to the ground in the middle of the night, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is called in to investigate. At first, it looks like an accident, but when the body of eighteen-year-old Daniel Gingerich is found inside—burned alive—Kate suspects murder. Who would want a well-liked, hardworking young Amish man dead? […]
Down a Dark Road
“Castillo weaves the particularities of the Amish mindset into a complex mystery that will leave you crying with pity or seething with rage.” ¯Kirkus Reviews (starred)
Her Last Breath
What at first seems like a tragic, but routine car accident suddenly takes on a more sinister cast as evidence emerges that nothing about the crash is accidental. But who would want to kill an Amish deacon and two of his children? He leaves behind a grieving widow and a young boy who clings to […]
Breaking Silence
In Castillo's fine third Amish thriller (after Pray for Silence), Kate Burkholder, police chief of Painter's Creek, Ohio, finds a gruesome crime scene at a farm. Solly and Rachael Slabaugh, and Solly's brother, Abel, have drowned in a poorly ventilated manure pit, succumbing to methane gas asphyxiation. But the deaths are no accident and may […]
Among the Wicked
06/13/2016 In bestseller Castillo's exciting eighth Kate Burkholder mystery (after 2015's After the Storm), Sheriff Dan Suggs from Franklin City, N.Y., and Frank Betancourt, a senior investigator with the BCI division of the New York State Police, ask Kate, the Painters Mill, Ohio, police chief, who escaped her Amish upbringing at 18, to go undercover […]
After the Storm: A Kate Burkholder Novel
Library Journal 06/15/2015 This seventh book in Castillo's "Kate Burkholder" series (after The Dead Will Tell) opens with a tornado tearing through Painters Mill, OH. In the aftermath of the destruction, a set of bones is discovered in an old barn. Kate is called to the scene, where the forensics team is working to safely […]
The Dead Will Tell: A Kate Burkholder Novel
Library Journal ★ 06/15/2014 Thirty-five years ago in Painters Mill, OH, the Hochstetler family was robbed in the middle of the night. The crime began as a quick money scheme but swiftly turned sinister, resulting in the deaths of the entire Amish family except for a teenage son who escaped. No suspects were found, and […]
Pray For Silence
Library Journal In her second mystery (after Sworn to Silence), Castillo brings back Police Chief Kate Burkholder in the town of Painters Mill, OH. Barely recovered from the serial killings of the previous year, the town and its small police department are once again rocked by the unthinkable. Someone has killed an entire Amish family […]
Sworn to Silence
Jane Jorgenson – Library Journal: This debut mystery introduces Police Chief Kate Burkholder of Painters Mill, OH. Kate grew up in that Amish community but abandoned her heritage after a traumatic event in her teen years. Now she's back, using her Amish background to navigate between the two factions in the community. Her hard-won equanimity […]