Pray for Silence: A Thriller

When the police arrive at the Amish farmstead in Painters Mill they can't imagine the horror that awaits them. An entire family slaughtered: the men shot, the young women tortured and killed. The town is shocked by the brutal killing. But is it random? Every family has its secrets. Kate knows that better than anyone. And as she and Agent John Tomasetti dig deeper into the victims' lives they discover a young woman who was living a lie. With her own past resonating, Kate knows she has to maintain some distance. From the case, and from Tomasetti. But when she puts herself in the line of fire - she realizes that, this time, there may be no going back.

From AudioFile

This sequel to SWORN TO SILENCE, narrated by Kathleen McInerney, gives us the continuing tribulations of Police Chief Kate Burkholder and the town of Painter's Mill, Ohio. An Amish family of seven has been slaughtered in their home, and Kate must find the killer. Her search takes her on a dark journey that uncovers a disturbing realm of violence. With creativity and authenticity, McInerney skillfully navigates a wide variety of characters--from cops and criminals to the Pennsylvania Dutch-speaking Amish. Her performance takes diverse situations in stride, from rendering the horror of a crime scene to dramatizing the emotional disturbances experienced by inadvertent witnesses and the police officers who are investigating a terrible crime. K.O. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

People (3 ½ out of 4 stars)

“Silence is the opening salvo in what promises to be a gripping series.”

USA Today

“Lovers of suspense will find no better novel to read this summer than Sworn to Silence, a teeth-chattering debut thriller from romance writer Linda Castillo…This first in a series will delight fans of Chelsea Cain and Thomas Harris…compelling characters, excellent plotting and a hair-raising finale.”

Lisa Scottoline

“Absolutely stunning… .A perfectly crafted thriller.”

Sandra Brown

“[Castillo] combines the protagonist’s Amish background with her tough cop persona so skillfully and with such finesse, that both aspects of her character are totally believable. She also makes police procedure anything but tedious.”

Chelsea Cain

“Complicated, haunted protagonists, shocking murders,psychological twists and bizarre crime scenes… . Sworn to Silence is a nailbiting series debut.”

C.J. Box --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

“Kate Burkholder is the real deal and Sworn to Silence is a vivid, intense, and brutal page-turner of a novel.”

From Booklist

Painters Mill is an idyllic small town in Ohio’s Amish country. But even the most peaceful of landscapes is not immune to violent crime. The second installment in Castillo’s strong series (after Sworn to Silence, 2009) finds Police Chief Kate Burkholder once again face-to-face with pure evil. This time around it’s the murder of the Planks, an Amish family who invited trouble when pretty 15-year-old daughter Mary became enamored with a non-Amish man, who seduced her and documented their sexual episodes on tape. The case rattles Burkholder, who left the Amish faith as a teenager after she was raped by an Amish man. Helping her through the stressful investigation is John Tomasetti, a big-city cop battling his own demons (his wife and young daughters were murdered a few years before). The two had a brief affair, but time has passed and both have hesitations about rekindling the romance. They have plenty to distract them as they search for a killer who may have more sinister acts in store. Though the plot fizzles a bit at the end, a unique setting and a very human heroine make this a good recommendation for readers seeking an alternative to the urban whodunit. --Allison Block --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

In this overwrought thriller from Castillo, her second after Sworn to Silence, someone slaughters all seven members of the Amish Plank family at their home in Painters Mill, Ohio. The bodies of the two teenage daughters show signs of torture. At first, it appears the father, Amos, killed his wife and five children, then shot himself. When clues point to a killer outside the family, Kate Burkholder, the local police chief who left the Amish community decades before, zeroes in on 15-year-old Mary, who may have flirted with the idea of living in the English world. Lending a hand is Kate's on-again/off-again boyfriend, John Tomasetti, an agent suspended from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and Identification for failing a recent drug test in the wake of his own family's murder about two years earlier. Castillo excels at detailing gory crime scenes, but she leaves Kate and John as little more than cookies cut from the same troubled cop mold. Author tour. (June) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

“Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.” --Benjamin Franklin Chapter 1 Officer Chuck “Skid” Skidmore wished he hadn’t indulged in that last cup of coffee. If it wasn’t for the new waitress at the diner, he would have stopped at just one. But damn she was cute. So he’d sat at the counter the entirety of his dinner break and sucked down caffeine like a ten-year old gorging on Kool-aid. Brandy obliged by keeping his mug full, and entertaining him with her twenty-something chit chat and a full two inches of jiggling cleavage.He’d been eating at LaDonna’s Diner every night for two months now, since the chief assigned him the graveyard shift. He hated working nights. He respected the chief, but he was going to have to have a talk with her about getting back on days.Skid turned his cruiser onto Hogpath Road, a desolate stretch of asphalt bounded by Miller’s Woods to the north and a cornfield on the south side. The cruiser’s tires crunched over gravel as he pulled onto the shoulder. He was reaching for the pack of Marlboro Lights in the glove box when his radio crackled.“Three two four. Are you 10-8?”Mona was the third shift dispatcher and his sole source of entertainment—after the diner closed, anyway. She’d kept him from dying of boredom many a night. “Roger that, Dispatch.”“So did you talk to her?”“That’s affirm.”“You ask her out?”Throwing open his door to keep the smell of smoke out of the cruiser, Skid lit the Marlboro. “I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”“You’re the one who’s been talking about her for the last two months.”“She’s too young for me.”“Since when does that make a difference?”“You’re tying up the radio.”Mona laughed. “You’re chicken.”Wishing he’d never told her about his crush on Brandy, he drew on the cigarette. “Whatever.”“Are you smoking?”He mouthed the word shit.“You said you were going to quit.”“I said I was going to either quit drinking or smoking. I sure as hell ain’t going to do both in the same week.” He sucked in a mouthful of smoke. “Especially when I’m stuck working nights.”“Maybe the chief’s still pissed about that old lady you roughed up.”“I didn’t rough her up. That old goat was drunk out of her mind.”“She was sixty-two years old—”“And naked as a jaybird.”Mona giggled. “You get all the good calls.”“Don’t remind me. The sight of her wrinkled ass has damaged me for life.” He sighed, his bladder reminding him why he’d stopped in the first place. “I gotta take a piss.”“Like I need to know that.” She disconnected.Grinning, Skid got out of the cruiser. The crickets went silent as he walked around to the bar ditch. Dry cornstalks crackled in a light breeze. Beyond, a harvest moon cast yellow light onto the tall grain silo and barn roof of an Amish farm. It was so quiet, he could hear the cacophony of frogs from Wildcat Creek a quarter mile to the south. Skid relieved himself and tried not to think about the long night ahead. Yeah, he was going to have a talk with the chief. Get back on days. He’d had enough of this vampire-hours shit.He was zipping up when a distant sound snagged his attention. At first he thought maybe a calf was bawling for its cow. Or maybe a dog had been hit by a car. But when the sound came again, he realized it wasn’t either of those things. It was a man’s scream. Looking out across the cornfield, he felt the hairs at his nape stand straight up.Skid rested his hand on the .38 strapped to his hip. He scanned the field beyond where the corn whispered and sighed. Another scream sent a chill scraping up his spine. “What the hell?”Yanking open the door of the cruiser, he leaned in and flicked on the strobes, then pulsed the siren a couple of times. He hit his lapel mike. “Mona, I’m out here at the Plank farm. I’ve got a 10-88.” They used the ten-code radio system at the Painters Mill PD. Ten-eighty-eight was the code for suspicious activity.“What’s going on?”“Some crazy shit’s screaming his head off.”“Well that’s strange.” She went silent for a moment. “Who is it?”“I don’t know, but I think it’s coming from the house. I’m going to check it out.”“Roger that.”Back in his cruiser, Skid turned into the long gravel lane that would take him to the house. The Planks were Amish. Generally, the Amish community was quiet and kept to themselves. Most were up before the sun and in bed before most folks finished their supper. Skid couldn’t figure one of them out this time of night, raising hell. Either some teenager on rumspringa—their “running around” time before joining the church—was drunk out of his head, or there’d been an accident. He was midway down the lane when a figure rushed from the shadows. Skid braked hard. The cruiser slid sideways, missing a man by inches. “Holy shit!”The man scrambled around the front of the cruiser, hands on the hood, eyes as big as baseballs. Skid didn’t recognize him, but the full beard and flat-brimmed hat told him the guy was Amish. Setting his hand on his .38, Skid rammed the shifter into Park and got out of the cruiser. “What the hell are you doing? I almost hit you.”The man was breathing hard, shaking harder. In the moonlight, Skid saw sweat glistening on his cheeks, despite the October chill, and he wondered if the guy was high on drugs. “Mein Gott!”Skid didn’t understand Pennsylvania Dutch, the Amish dialect, but he didn’t need to be fluent to know the guy was terrified. He didn’t know what he’d walked into. The one thing he was certain of was that he wasn’t going to let this cagey-looking sumbitch get any closer. As far as he knew the guy was on crack and armed with a machete. “Stop right there, partner. Keep your hands where I can see them.”The Amish man put his hands up. Even from ten feet away Skid could see his entire body trembling. His chest heaved. It was tears—not sweat—that glistened on his cheeks. “What’s your name?” Skid asked.“Reuben Zimmerman!” he choked.The Amish man’s eyes met his. Within their depths, Skid saw fear and the sharp edge of panic. The man’s mouth worked, but no words came.“You need to calm down, sir. Tell me what happened.”Zimmerman pointed toward the farmhouse, his hand shaking like a flag in a gale. “Amos Plank. The children. There is blood. They are dead!”The guy had to be out of his mind. “How many people?”“I do not know. I saw . . . Amos and the boys. On the floor. Dead. I ran.”“Did you see anyone else?”“No.”Skid’s gaze went to the darkened farmhouse. The place was silent and still. No lantern light in the windows. No movement. He hit his lapel mike. “Mona, I’ve got a possible 10-16 out here.” A 1-16 was the code for a domestic problem. “I’m going to take a look.”“You still out at the Plank place?”“That’s affirm.”“You want me to call the sheriff’s office and get a deputy out there?”“I’m going to check it out first. Will you run Reuben Zimmerman through LEADS for me?” LEADS was the acronym for the Law Enforcement Automated Data System police departments used to check for outstanding warrants and BOLO, cop speak for Be on the Lookout.“Roger that.” Computer keys clicked. “Be careful, will you?”“You got that right.” Anxious to get to the scene, Skid approached the Amish man. “Turn around and put your hands against the car, partner.”Zimmerman looked bewildered. “I did not do anything wrong.”“It’s procedure. I’m going to pat your down. The handcuffs are for your protection and mine. All right?”As if realizing he didn’t have a choice, Zimmerman turned and set his hands against the cruiser. Quickly, Skid ran his hands over the man, checking pockets, socks, even his crotch. Then he snapped the cuffs into place. “What are you doing here at this time of night?”“I help with the milking. Work begins at 4 A.M.”“And I thought I had bad hours.”The Amish man blinked.“Never mind.” Opening the cruiser door, Skid ushered him into the back seat. “Let’s go.”Sliding behind the wheel, he put the cruiser in gear and started toward the house. In the rear view mirror, dust billowed in the red glow of the taillights. Ahead, a massive barn and silo stood in silhouette against the pre-dawn sky. The postcard perfect farm was the last place Skid expected any kind of trouble. He’d lived in Painters Mill for going on four years now. Aside from a few minor infractions—like that time two teenaged boys got caught racing their buggies down Main Street—the Amish were damn near perfect citizens. But Skid had been a cop long enough to know there was always an exception to the rule.He parked behind a buggy, his headlights reflecting off the slow-moving-vehicle sign mounted at the rear. To his right, the... --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Bestselling author Linda Castillo knew at a young age that she wanted to be a writer and penned her first novel at the age of thirteen. In her spare time, Linda enjoys reading, showing horses and barrel racing. She lives in Texas with her husband, four lovable dogs, two barn cats and two Appaloosa horses. Her first novel featuring Kate Burkholder was Sworn to Silence. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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