The Kate Burkholder Series
I’m a sucker for a series with a strong female lead, and I recently discovered Linda Castillo’s Kate Burkholder series.
Why did it take me so long to find these? The first in series, Sworn To Silence, was published in 2009!
I’m now two books in with the third on hold at the library. If you are a fan of mystery fiction, you know that exhilarating feeling of having many books ahead of you in a series you like.
Let’s get my one criticism out of the way first. Too gruesome by far. Needlessly gruesome in my opinion. The only thing I can think of is that Castillo is afraid that with a small town and female lead she might fall into the ranks of the cozy, so she makes the murders not just brutal but includes torture.
It has to be a good series for me to read further when there is torture involved. At least in Castillo’s case we aren’t there to witness the torture, but only learn of it when the bodies are found and the autopsy conducted.
Brutality aside, there are many things to like about the series.
Kate Burkholder is a very strong female lead. She is the Chief of police in a small town. Having grown up Amish in Painter’s Creek, Ohio, Burkholder left the town when she left her Amish heritage. After putting in big-city cop years, Kate returns to the rural town with both Amish and “English” residents. Kate has a significant back story that is unveiled, at least in part, througout the first novel. She is complex and well developed as a character.
There is the beginnings of a romance for Burkholder, yes-with another cop–but rather than swooning and falling head over heels, both approach the connection with tentativeness and realistic amounts of passion combined with the need for distance. I am interested in seeing how the relationship develops but glad the romance didn’t take over the novel.
The backdrop of everything, clearly, are the Amish, and the relationship that Kate has with them –both as someone who has left the fold and as a very “English” police officer. Kate shows deep respect for the Amish lifestyle, yet continues to question practices of the community and her related feelings. The treatment of the Amish is dignified and thorough, without resorting to tokenism.
The mysteries may trod over predictible paths, but I’m ok with that. Sometimes, there is a soothing comfort in knowing how the novel will most likely progress; one is left to enjoy the writing, characters and setting, knowing that we will eventually find out “who-dunnit” without too many barriers.
