Sworn to Silence

I admire Kate for her strong sense of self. She accepts her outsider status as a strength.

Amish-raised Kate Burkholder becomes the sheriff of Painters Mill. With a foot in both the Amish and English communities, she is often treated as an outsider as she investigates crimes. The Amish give her the cold shoulder because she left the community, and some city leaders treat her poorly because she’s a woman. She tamps down her pride most of the time and occasionally wields her authority like a hammer to get the job done.

I have always been fascinated by reading about Amish culture. I was so fortunate to discover Linda Castillo’s sixteen fascinating mysteries featuring Kate Burkholder, the Chief of Police in Painter’s Mill, Ohio. Kate was formerly Amish and solves crimes by navigating between her two worlds.

This book is the first book in the series and was made into a Lifetime movie. The mysteries are riveting and allow the reader inside the closed Amish community. I would suggest reading the series in order to see Kate’s growth in her position and her background revealed.

Ex-Amish, Kate Burkholder is the cursing, gun-carrying police chief of Painters Mill, Ohio and a total badass. In Sworn to Silence, Kate vows to stop the Slaughterhouse Killer, but hunting him down means confronting her own past and revealing why she left her community—some deep digging she’d rather avoid. As she walks a moral tightrope and has to make decisions that could betray her family, I’m right there with her. Supported by a force of brave and sometimes quirky officers and partnering with super-sexy but troubled Special Agent John Tomasetti, Kate takes us on a hair-raising ride through the Ohio… show more.