The Burning (Kate Burkholder #16) by Linda Castillo

  

 My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Suspense
Content: Strong language, A gruesome murder with details from the murdered person's perspective

 

Newlywed Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is awakened by an urgent midnight call summoning her to a suspicious fire in the woods. When she arrives at the scene, she discovers a charred body. According to the coroner, the deceased, an Amish man named Milan Swanz, was chained to a stake and burned alive. It is an appalling and eerily symbolic crime against an upstanding husband and father.

Kate knows all too well that the Amish prefer to handle their problems without interference from the outside world, and no one will speak about the murdered man. From what she’s able to piece together, Swanz led a deeply troubled life and had recently been excommunicated. But if that’s the case, why are the Amish so reluctant to talk about him? Are they protecting the memory of one of their own? Or are they afraid of something they dare not share?

When her own brother is implicated in the case, Kate finds herself not only at odds with the Amish, the world of which she was once a part, but also the English community and her counterparts in law enforcement. The investigation takes a violent turn when Kate’s life is threatened by a mysterious stranger.

To uncover the truth about the death of Milan Swanz, Kate must dive deep into the Anabaptist culture, peering into all the dark corners of its history, only to uncover a secret legacy that shatters everything she thought she knew about the Amish themselves―and her own roots.

 

It's hard to believe I've read 16 books in this series. This latest installment starts out with a very gruesome murder, and quite frankly, I had a hard time reading the details. From looking at the cover, I thought someone's barn would be set on fire but unfortunately it wasn't a barn. If you've read the books description then you'll know, but I didn't read it beforehand. 

There were some interesting historical things about the Anabaptist culture in this book, and I had to look those things up on my own and read about them. I also enjoyed Kate and Tomasetti as they embarked on life as a married couple, and he even attempted to help her with this case. This book was pretty average for the series. Kate, as always, did some things I thought weren't very well thought out, and on top of that she came off as super human with the way she kept taking beatings yet could keep going. That aspect of the story wasn't very believable. 

Overall I liked this book but it wasn't one of my favorites in the series. 

Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for providing me with an ARC of this book.