Her Last Breath

Starred review from April 29, 2013
Bestseller Castillo’s fifth Amish thriller featuring Painters Mill, Ohio, police chief Katie Burkholder (after 2012’s Gone Missing) is a stunner. In the prologue a hit-and-run driver crashes into the buggy of Paul Borntrager, killing him and two of his children and seriously injuring a third child. Katie, who was a good friend of Paul’s wife, Mattie, before Katie left the Plain Life, now has to inform Mattie about the accident. An examination of the scene provides clues that the crash may have been deliberate, and more police work strongly suggests that it was premeditated murder. Meanwhile, kids discover human bones in an abandoned grain elevator—bones that have a connection to Katie’s past. Those twin dramas play out, each in surprising fashion, as the search for the hit-and-run vehicle and the killer continue. Castillo once again displays her mastery of edge-of-your seat suspense. Author tour. Announced first printing of 100,000. Agent: Nancy Yost, Nancy Yost Literary Agency

May 15, 2013
A small-town Ohio chief of police is haunted by the past. Kate Burkholder used to be Amish; now she has a job she loves and a tentative romantic relationship with John Tomasetti, who is with the state Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation. Tomasetti has just bought a fixer-upper farmhouse near Kate and wants her to move in with him, but Kate is unable to commit. When Amish farmer Paul Borntrager and two of his three children are killed in a hit-and-run, Kate is devastated. Although she has not spoken to Paul's wife, Mattie, in years, she used to be Kate's best friend, and all the happy memories of their formative years come rushing back. The accident investigator determines that whoever hit them made no attempt to stop, and evidence gathered from the scene indicates it was a coldblooded murder. All the Borntrager children had some genetic disorders, not uncommon in the Amish, who have a small gene pool, and the surviving child does not remember much. Kate is grimly determined to find the killer, but suddenly, a major problem for her comes to light when some children playing in a deserted mill find a body reduced to bones. When Kate was 14, she killed a neighbor's son who was trying to rape her, and her publicity-averse Amish family covered it up by burying the body. Tomasetti knows about it and assures Kate the crime will never be traced to her. Despite her fears, Kate works around the clock on finding a motive for the deaths and discovers some ugly truths about her quiet town. The fifth in the series (Breaking Silence, 2011, etc.) continues to provide details on the Amish way of life along with a fast-paced mystery that will leave readers stunned.

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June 1, 2013

Police chief Katie Burkholder was the first responder at a horrific crash involving an Amish buggy on a winding Ohio road. She's no stranger to accident scenes, but this case cuts too close to home. Fifteen years have passed since Katie left the Amish community, but she is greatly affected by the accident, which involves the family of her closest childhood friend. A relentless pursuit of the truth leads her to question whether the accident was the result of negligence, or something more sinister. Meanwhile, Katie must confront her personal demons as a new lead in a cold case from her teenage years emerges and threatens to expose a secret that could ultimately jeopardize her career. Katie finds herself straddling two worlds (Amish and English) as she investigates the accident, struggles to keep her teenage secret buried, and confronts relationship issues with her lover. VERDICT In her fifth installment (after Gone Missing), Castillo combines the simple Amish lifestyle with dizzying hairpin twists and turns, and the result is a mind-blowing read that will keep her fans and mystery readers engrossed. [As a tie-in, Castillo is releasing an e-original short story "Long Gone."--Ed.]--Mary Todd Chesnut, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 1, 2013
A tragic case hits close to home when an Amish farmer and two of his three special-needs children are killed in a dreadful traffic accident, widowing Mattie Borntrager, the closest childhood friend of Kate Burkholder, police chief of Painters Mill, Ohio. When evidence indicates that the hit-and-run may have been premeditated, Kate's probing for motive causes her to question whether beautiful, grieving Mattie, who was like a sister to Kate before she left the Amish faith, is being fully forthcoming. Diverting Kate from solving this all-consuming case is the discovery of the remains of the rapist she shot in self-defense 17 years earlieran incident that was covered up by her family and now threatens her career, if not her life, plus her burgeoning relationship with FBI agent John Tomasetti, who wants a commitment from the skittish Kate. The Amish setting, an intrinsic aspect of these mysteries, continues to add depth and texture in the fifth entry (after Gone Missing, 2012). But it's Kate Burkholder who's the heart of Castillo's masterful series, a rare protagonist who bares her soul in her first-person narration. This compelling mystery combines increasing nuance and complexity with heart-stopping action.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)