Fallen (Kate Burkholder #13) by Linda Castillo

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Suspense
Content: Strong Language, A very brutal killing with some description, A rape that isn't described in much detail.

 

When a young woman is found murdered in a Painters Mill motel, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is shocked to discover she once knew the victim. Rachael Schwartz was a charming but troubled Amish girl who left the fold years ago and fled Painters Mill. Why was she back in town? And who would kill her so brutally?

Kate remembers Rachael as the only girl who was as bad at being Amish as Kate was—and those parallels dog her. But the deeper Kate digs into Rachael Schwartz’s life, the more she’s convinced that Rachael’s dubious reputation was deserved. As a child, Rachael was a rowdy rulebreaker whose decision to leave devastated her parents and best friend. As an adult, she was charismatic and beautiful, a rabble-rouser with a keen eye for opportunity no matter who got in her way. Her no-holds-barred lifestyle earned her a lot of love and enemies aplenty—both English and Amish.

As the case heats to a fever pitch and long-buried secrets resurface, a killer haunts Painters Mill. Someone doesn’t want Rachael’s past—or the mysteries she took with her to the grave—coming to light. As Kate digs deeper, violence strikes again, this time hitting close to home. Will Kate uncover the truth and bring a murderer to justice? Or will a killer bent on protecting a terrible past, stop her once and for all—and let the fallen be forgotten?

 

Kate Burkholder and John Tomasetti have become like old friends that I enjoy visiting with every year. That being said, I don't think my expectations for these books are ever real high. Some of the books in the series have been better than others. There have definitely been times I wanted to give up on this series, but at this point I've made peace with it, and I feel like the characters have grown and I like them. 

This time around I thought the story was compelling but there were some implausibilities that were hard for me to ignore, thus the 3 star rating. The implausibilities were mainly surrounding the murder. It was a vicious murder that was very personal and full of rage, and after reading about these characters and their backgrounds and motives, I just felt like it wasn't likely this person would have killed the way they did. There was a good enough reason for wanting to kill someone, I guess, but it didn't feel believable for this person or for the amount of rage that was involved. 

Despite the implausibilities, I still enjoyed reading this book and look forward to visiting Painter's Mill again next year. I think the thing I like best about these books is the way the author paints the Amish people in the stories, and how Kate can relate to them still, even though she is no longer Amish. I also like that we get to go down memory lane with Kate in most of the books as she relates something to her past.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an ARC of this book.