Review: Pray for Silence – Linda Castillo

Kate Burkholder #2

SYNOPSIS: The Plank family moved from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to join the small Amish community of Painters Mill less than a year ago and seemed the model of the Plain Life—until on a cold October night, the entire family of seven was found slaughtered on their farm. Police Chief Kate Burkholder and her small force have few clues, no motive, and no suspect. Formerly Amish herself, Kate is no stranger to the secrets the Amish keep from the English—and each other—but this crime is horribly out of the ordinary.

State agent John Tomasetti arrives on the scene to assist. He and Kate worked together on a previous case during which they began a volatile relationship. They soon realize the disturbing details of this case will test their emotional limits and force them to face demons from their own troubled pasts—and for Kate, a personal connection that is particularly hard to bear.

When she discovers a diary that belonged to one of the teenaged daughters, Kate is shocked to learn the girl kept some very dark secrets and may have been living a lurid double life. Who is the charismatic stranger who stole the young Amish girl’s heart? Could the brother—a man with a violent past, rejected and shunned by his family and the Amish community, have come to seek out revenge? As Kate’s outrage grows so does her resolve to find the killer and bring him to justice—even if it means putting herself in the line of fire. – via Goodreads

I just want to put it out there how absolutely this book grated on my nerves. So now that that is off my chest, I will begin. This is the second book in the Kate Burkholder series, and the last one, while not brilliant, was an alright read with a decent concept. I liked that Kate was excommunicated from the Amish society but still identified, etc. That was fine. The relationship that came up between her and Tomasetti didn’t irritate me, either, even though it was abrupt. It was fine. But then Pray For Silence happened. Castillo milked the Amish community for all they were worth and she made it extremely biased. I liked the Amish aspect in the Sworn To Silence, it was different for a change. But this time she harped on the community, no criticisms against them really and just continued about how it is the chosen way and all. I felt like I was reading a sermon written by a rebel at times. Bad things happen to everyone, it cannot just be worse because the victims are Amish, no matter how evil that statement makes me look, bad things happening to people are dreadful everywhere. Then there was her and Tomasetti. Which was fine the first time around, now it was forced and everything had to be so damn sexual and so much innuendo everywhere, it was highly annoying and worked on my nerves. Skid permanently seems to be the one destined to find the bad things. I must admit that I am not overly keen on her writing style. This book again felt like it was meandering about and not really progressing to anything at all but running in circles. Again her perpetrators were extremely obvious. Another thing that annoyed me was how there was permanently something that is vaguely bothering her but that she can never put her finger on. I mean seriously, not every break in a case is made like that. Tomasetti is again the hero… I must say, this was very much the same recipe as the last book but with a lot more irritation sown into it. Kate Burkholder is not a character that I can identify with and is rather unlikable, making it difficult to identify with her. She is nowhere near as complicated as she thinks, either, and I find her to be exceptionally weak and predictable, which is never a good sign for me. Overall I must say that I did not enjoy this read at all and I was just so happy when it was finally over. Makes me dread going on to the next book in the series…