Harmless As Doves

As he goes about his milking chores on a cold October morning, Bishop Leon Shetler daydreams of escaping the Ohio winter and taking a bus to the Pinecraft Amish community in Florida for a vacation. His reverie is suddenly interrupted when young Crist Burkholder enters the barn, head down, hat in hand, to make a […]

Whiskers of the Lion

In Whiskers of the Lion, Sheriff Bruce Robertson is charged with finding a young Amish woman on the run from a murderous drug ring so she can testify in federal court. Wrestling with a recurring childhood nightmare of a deadly lion, the Holmes County sheriff finds himself torn between allegiance to the legal system he […]

The Names of Our Tears : an Amish-country Mystery

Ruth Zook returns home to Holmes County, Ohio, carrying a heavy suitcase and a heavier heart. Coerced into becoming a drug mule, Ruth retaliates by destroying her illicit burden and pays for it with her life. When Fannie Helmuth confesses that she was similarly coerced, Sheriff Bruce Robertson realizes that the drug dealers’ operation reaches […]

A Prayer For the Night : an Ohio Amish Mystery

Publisher Weekly Review: Amish teenagers run wild during Rumschpringe, their time of testing in the outside "English" world, in Gaus's absorbing fifth entry in this powerful series (after 2003's Cast a Blue Shadow). Eighteen-year-old Sara Yoder is torn between a modern culture of drugs, sex, iPods and cell phones and the strict values of her […]