Evil in My Town by Karen Ann Hopkins

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery
Content: Strong language, A school shooting is depicted


 
After a tragic mass shooting in Blood Rock, Sheriff Serenity Adams is shocked to discover ties to the local Amish settlement, and her teenage niece, who barely survived the carnage. The investigation takes her from the terror of a massacre to an equally horrific crime relating to a missing woman in the community. Serenity must risk her own life to bring law, order, and safety to the town she loves.


This is the latest book in this series, the "other" Amish mystery series I read. There are quite a few similarities between this one and the Kate Burkholder series. So much so that at times I wonder if one author doesn't get ideas from the other, but then there are probably only so many original ideas out there for Amish mysteries.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. I'm so glad we've grown past the early stages of Serenity and Daniel's relationship. It felt more mature and Serenity seemed more mature as a character in this book. She still has some misgivings about marrying Daniel, but they were concerns that a real person would have considering their situation.

There wasn't really a lot of mystery about who did what in this book. It was pretty easy to figure out, but there was some mystery about why things happened and what happened to a couple of missing women. There is also Serenity's niece who is a danger magnet if I ever saw one! There is a school shooting in this book and we are left wondering what she knows about the boy who did the shooting and what she isn't telling her aunt and why. That secret is revealed slowly through flashbacks. I liked the the way that was done.

After reading the last book in the series I was hoping there would be more about Serenity's friend C.J. in this one. I really liked the direction that book took with her character and Joshua Miller, but I was disappointed that C. J. was hardly in this book. After finishing this book I found out why. The author is writing a spin-off series about them! I was so happy about that, I had to pick that one up and read it right away.