Rage (Kate Burkholder #17) by Linda Castillo

  

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre:  Mystery
Content: Strong Language

 

Summer has arrived with a vengeance in Painters Mill, and a macabre discovery by three Amish children brings the quiet to a grinding halt. Chief of Police Kate Burkholder arrives on scene to find the dismembered body of 21-year-old Samuel Eicher, a local Amish man who owned a successful landscaping business. What twisted individual murdered him in such a sadistic way?

The investigation has barely begun when, miles away, a second body is found, stuffed into a barrel and dumped in a ravine. The deceased is 21-year-old Aaron Shetler, Samuel Eicher’s best friend. What could these two young Amish men have done to deserve such violent ends?

With a heat wave bearing down, Kate learns quickly that, for reasons she doesn’t understand, no one is willing to talk about what happened to the men. Just as she begins to fear the case may be hopeless, a mystery woman comes forward and reveals that fun-loving Aaron and Samuel had recently befriended some very unsavory characters―individuals who may have ties to a larger, more sinister, black market.

To solve the case, Kate must delve into the most sordid corners of her community, but when she gets too close, the killers target Kate herself. Will the secrets simmering beneath the surface of Painters Mill take another life before she can expose the truth? Or will Kate be the final victim? 

 

In this seventeenth novel in the Kate Burkholder Series we are greeted at the beginning with a brutal murder of an Amish man. This is nothing new for this series. Each book starts out with either a brutal murder or the discovery of one. This was not one of my favorites in the series. It was entertaining enough, but there were some things done by characters that either didn't make a lot of sense, or were just plain stupid. First off there was no good reason ever given for why the first body was dismembered when it could have just been buried where it was buried without doing all that. What was the point of dismembering the body if they were just going to bury the pieces in shallow holes right next to each other? And the other bodies weren't dismembered. So why the difference?

Then there was Kate herself. If you've read any of my other reviews of this series, then you know I've complained about how Kate does stupid things, like not waiting for backup to arrive before she gets herself into some of the situations she gets into. It happens at least once in each book, but this time she repeatedly does this over and over. She decides to investigate something and then calls one of her deputies to meet her there. Then every time she ends up getting there before they do, and she proceeds to walk straight into trouble without waiting for them. What's the point in calling them? You would think the first time she got beat up it would have made her more cautious, but nope. There are also other things she does in these situations that scream inexperience, but we are supposed to believe that she is a seasoned police chief.

I was also in complete disbelief that Kate and John didn't see all the red flags that were pointing to human trafficking in this book. I don't even think it is a spoiler to say this in my review because it was so obvious from very early on that this was what was happening. Kate in particular came off as an idiot in this book. I'm actually beginning to question whether or not I want to keep reading this series. It's not the first time I've felt this way, I almost quit this series before but decided to keep going because I liked certain things about it. I still like those things. I like the details of the Amish community, and I like the relationship between Kate and John and the small details we get about their home life. This book was very sparse on all those things though. 

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