Linda Castillo has written a number of books featuring a small town American sheriff called Kate Burkholder. Pray for Silence is the second book in the series, although I have read some of the others as well. My advice is to read the first one, Sworn to Silence, first as it resolves an issue in Kate’s past life that is referred to in future volumes, but I don’t think that it really matters if you don’t.
The place where Kate lives has a large community of Amish people and Kate herself grew up in that community. This book concentrates on secrets within the community and, although Kate understands the people and what is going on, there is always a tension between followers of the faith and those, like Kate, who have left.
In this story a whole Amish family are tortured and slaughtered. It appears to be a random killing but, of course, it isn’t and Kate has to find out what prompted the killings and what secrets the family were hiding. Her task is made harder by the presence of an FBI agent, who she met in the first book, to whom Kate is attracted but of whom she is also very wary. Both Kate and John, the FBI agent, are deeply troubled by past events and are broken people who find that the horrific deaths trigger memories and emotions that they would rather not have and which make it hard for them to function.
The story is about facing unpleasant facts, but the Amish community is presented with sympathy and there is no attempt to discredit their way of life. Kate and John slowly uncover what has happened and there is plenty of action towards the end of the book as they trap the perpetrators.
This is hugely enjoyable and a series that I recommend. The books are fast paced and the author ties up the loose ends nicely at the end of each volume.
