Linda Castillo’s Kate Burkholder novels attract me in several ways. Chief among them is the manner in which Castillo, a resident of Texas, “gets” the central/northeast Ohio area (where I have resided for a great deal of my life) as well as, or better than, many of its own residents do. The books use the northeast Ohio Amish country as a backdrop, dropping the fictional town of Painters Mill into the real world of Holmes and occasionally Wayne County to provide cultural elements that fuel these intriguing mysteries.

John Tomasetti, an Ohio State law enforcement investigator, has been the other half of a slow-boil love interest for Burkholder over the course of the series, while providing a reason to occasionally move her into Cleveland or Columbus as a point of cultural contrast with respect to the simple and strict mores of the Amish population with whom she deals in the course of her duties as the Painters Mill chief of police. That Burkholder was once part of the Amish community herself and is now shunned provides one of the several interesting subplots that has threaded through these books.

"While one does not normally associate the Amish community with violence, Castillo realistically presents the darker vignettes of the book over the course of a tantalizing mystery that might never have been revealed."

The concept of shunning is one element of AFTER THE STORM, the seventh in the series, and starkly contrasts the enviable sense of community that the Amish possess with the problems that arise when insularity is taken to extremes. Following an account of a deadly vignette that occurs three decades in the past, Burkholder’s first person narrative begins when a deadly tornado rips through the Painter’s Fork area. The cleanup in the aftermath results in the discovery of human remains that have lain concealed for decades. It soon becomes clear that the death was deliberate. After some top notch investigative work determines the identity of the victim, Burkholder and the police force attempt to peel back the layers of the past in order to discern who might have wanted the person dead and why.

Meanwhile, a rescue effort by Burkholder of a victim of the tornado ends in a tragic death. Though it is not Burkholder’s fault, she is blamed for it by the individual’s loved ones, who make it extremely clear that they are going to exact vengeance. When she is suddenly the target of a series of potentially deadly attacks by an unknown assailant, it appears at first that they are motivated by revenge. Is Burkholder getting too close to solving the mystery of that long-ago murder? If so, does someone want her taken off the board before she does?

While one does not normally associate the Amish community with violence, Castillo realistically presents the darker vignettes of the book over the course of a tantalizing mystery that might never have been revealed. Additionally, anyone contemplating an exchange of the difficulties of city living for the joys of the simple country life might do well to read AFTER THE STORM first. Some of the activities in which one becomes involved while down on the farm are nothing less than cringe-inducing. Castillo takes us from the beginning of the book to the end in fine form, making this latest installment in the series arguably the best to date.