An intoxicated Milan Swanz, an Amish citizen from the town of Painters Mill, Ohio, is walking home in the snow after closing a pub at 2am when a truck pulls up offering him a ride. Milan accepts and is choked to unconsciousness from someone hiding in the backseat. When he wakes up, he realizes that he is bound to a stake above a pile of pallets soaked in fuel and is burned to death.

This is the especially brutal opening of Linda Castillo’s new novel, THE BURNING. Those new to the Kate Burkholder series need to know that Kate was raised Amish but strayed from the fold at the age of 18 when she chose a path in law enforcement before returning to Painters Mill, where she now operates as Chief of Police. She also is a newlywed, having recently married John Tomasetti, an agent with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

"[N]ever have I read a darker novel by Linda Castillo than THE BURNING. This is a story dripping with dread and fear with each passing page that succeeds on every level."

Two of Kate’s deputies are the first to come upon Milan’s charred body; they were drawn to this location by his blood-curdling screams. Due to the heavy snowfall, there are no clues as to who might have been involved, but Kate and her team feel it had to have been at least two people. However, once they begin looking into Milan’s background, they find a highly disreputable individual who had many enemies.

Most importantly, Milan recently had been excommunicated from the Amish church by the local bishop. He was estranged from his wife and family and living on his own. He was fired from his last job for allegedly starting a fire that did a lot of damage. A surprised Kate also learns that Milan, an itinerant handyman, had been doing some work on her brother Jacob’s farm. Apparently, feedback from one of Jacob’s neighbors indicated a verbal altercation that included pushing between Jacob and Milan just days before he was so mercilessly executed.

Never before have I seen Kate and her team, especially with her working knowledge of the Amish community, at such a loss in a criminal case. Of course, her colleagues and the mayor go with the path of least resistance and attempt to railroad Jacob for the murder. To do so, they must temporarily relieve Kate of her official duties and ask her to take some time off. She is sure that her brother is innocent, even though she confirms that the argument with Milan was over his alleged inappropriate behavior with one of Jacob’s teen sons.

Kate continues to look for answers on her own, which leads her down an unexpected path that includes a little-known chapter in Amish history involving the brutal type of justice to which Milan may have been subjected. Her pursuit of the truth will put her in grave danger. In fact, she is physically attacked and warned off on two separate occasions, each of which land her in the hospital. Her husband is not pleased with these threats, but they realize it’s the only way she can save Jacob and identify the real culprits.

I have read pretty much every entry in this stellar series and have always been amazed by the otherworldly depiction of the Amish who still reside in the ultra-modern US. That said, never have I read a darker novel by Linda Castillo than THE BURNING. This is a story dripping with dread and fear with each passing page that succeeds on every level. I also love that these books can be read as stand-alones, which hopefully will create enough interest for newcomers to explore Castillo’s backlist.