Sworn To Silence

I just finished reading Sworn To Silence by Linda Castillo.

One of the things I really like about Amazon is that they will take your purchase and viewing history and come up with some things to recommend to you. That's how I found Sworn To Silence. My purchasing/viewing history includes books on the Amish and suspense/thrillers and Sworn To Silence has both.

One of the main reasons I choose it was the Amish angle because to be honest, if I was going to pick up a thriller there are three (or maybe four by now) books by James Patterson in the Cross series that I would love to find time to fit into my reading time.

The main character of the book is Kate Burkholder, a police chief in the small town of Painters Mill, Ohio. Kate was born and raised Amish but has left the Amish faith to live in the "English" world. One of the reasons she is hired as the police chief is because she can relate to both the Amish and the English population of the area.

Then the murders start - or do they start again? Sixteen years ago there were a number of gruesome murders attributed to "The Slaughterhouse Killer". These murders are very similar but it is the same killer? (warning here that the murders are very detailed and very graphic).

Kate has very good reason to believe that this is not the same killer but a copycat. And she has very good reason for not revealing to anyone why she believes it is not the same killer.

I was hooked right away. I read way too late into the night and picked the book up as soon as I got home from work the next day and didn't put it down until I was finished.

I didn't find as much "Amish" in this book as I expected. It is a very violent and detailed book. Not for everyone's taste but if you like Patterson you are sure to like this book.

I've read some reviews where people said they knew very early on who the killer was and that astonishes me. I was thrown for a loop when it was revealed. I never saw it coming and wonder what I somehow missed that other people knew so early. Whatever it was, I'm glad I missed it because the reveal hit me in the way I'm sure Ms. Castillo hoped it would.

There's a great cast of characters from Kate to other members of the police department like Glock, Pickles, Skid (gotta love these names lol), Mona and the detective from out of town John Tomasetti (I will say that I did pick up on what would happen with him rather early). I'm hoping this is the first book of a series and that these great folks will return next time along with Kate's brother and sister and their families.

Not for the faint of heart or anyone who can't do "bad" language. But if you like suspense/thrillers I hope you will take a chance at getting to know Kate and her police force. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Jody