The New York Times best-selling author of Sworn to Silence delivers an electrifying thriller - Chief of Police Kate Burkholder must confront a dark evil to solve the mysterious murders of an entire Amish family.

In the quiet town of Painters Mill, an Amish family of seven has been found brutally murdered on their farm. Chief of Police Kate Burkholder and her small force have few clues, no motive, and no suspect. Formerly Amish herself, Kate is no stranger to secrets, but she can't get her mind around the senseless brutality of the crime.

State agent John Tomasseti arrives on the scene to assist. He and Kate worked together on a previous case during which they began a tentative relationship, but each is wary of commitment. The disturbing details of this case will push them to their limits and force them to face demons from their own troubled pasts. When Kate discovers a diary, she realizes a haunting personal connection to the case. One of the teenage daughters may have been leading a lurid double life.

As the case develops, Kate's list of suspects grows. Who is the attractive stranger that stole the heart of the innocent young Amish girl? Did her estranged brother - a man with a violent past who was shunned by his family and the Amish community - come back to seek out revenge? Driven by her own scarred past, Kate swears she'll find the killer and bring him to justice - even if it means putting herself in the line of fire.

Topping her own best-selling debut, Linda Castillo once again immerses us in the world of the Amish with a chilling story that is both a fast-paced thriller and intriguing psychological puzzle.

Listening Length

11 hours and 27 minutes
Author

Linda Castillo
Narrator

Kathleen McInerney
Audible release date

June 22, 2010
Language

English
Publisher

Macmillan Audio
ASIN

B003TLSLRG
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	11 hours and 27 minutes
Author	Linda Castillo
Narrator	Kathleen McInerney
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	June 22, 2010
Publisher	Macmillan Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B003TLSLRG
Best Sellers Rank	#21,208 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #552 in Women Sleuth Mysteries #634 in Police Procedural Mysteries #2,000 in Suspense (Audible Books & Originals)

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Island River Scribe

Self-Hate Is A Killer

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 29, 2014

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It has been ten months since Painters Mill Chief of Police Kate Burkeholder and BCI Agent John Tomasetti solved the Slaughterhouse Killer murders. Professionally, those ten months have been relatively smooth for both of them. Personally speaking, not so much.

Kate has been choosing vodka more and more as her pacifier of choice as the resolution of the serial murders did not exactly resolve the problems the murderer resurrected in Kate’s psyche. Meanwhile, although John has significantly decreased his alcohol and pill usage, he has developed paralyzing anxiety attacks.

And their complex, on-again off-again, love affair has been, due to Kate’s issues, in the off-again phase for about two months. Coincidentally – or not – this latest off-again situation seems to correspond to the onset of John’s panic attacks.

On the exact same day, Kate’s and John’s professional lives hit critical mass. For Kate, it is the discovery of 7 bodies, the entire Plank family, murdered on their farm. Two appear to have been executed; two appear to have been shot while fleeing. Two have been strung up in the barn, like so much meat, tortured and mutilated. And the father of the family lies dead in the house, powder burns on his mouth, his brains on the wall, and a gun in his hand.

However, as former Amish, Kate knows the average Amish family does not usually possess, or need, a semi-automatic handgun. A rifle for slaughtering cattle or pigs, yes. A shotgun for dispensing with destructive critters, yes. A Glock or a Beretta, no. But it is not until she sees the bruising circling the man’s unbound wrists that she is certain the scene has been staged to look like a murder-suicide. Someone out there needed this entire family dead.

Kate is determined to get justice for the family, but the autopsy results on the youngest female change that determination dramatically. Forced to confront a series of stunning parallels between this dead girl and herself at the same age, the need for justice transforms into a need for revenge. Not a good place for a cop’s mind to be – just ask Tomasetti.

For Tomasetti, his professional crisis revolves around being forced to take administrative leave for failing a drug test, a test he had actually failed nearly a year ago. At the time of the test, Tomasetti had been on desk duty for psych issues following the torture, rape and immolation of his wife and daughters by a drug lord. He was also on desk duty because the brass considered him a corrupt cop and a rogue after he beat a grand jury investigation into the later torture and immolation death of that same drug lord.

The BCI had wanted Tomasetti gone for some time and the only legal way they could find to dismiss him under ADA was to set him up to fail. So they put Tomasetti back into the field as back-up for Kate in the Slaughterhouse Killer case. They figured he would simply disintegrate under the pressure of the high-profile case and give them ample grounds for dismissal.

The bureaucrats were wrong. Not only did Tomasetti not disintegrate, he earned a commendation for his work. And didn’t that just frost his boss’ cake! Now, after all the backslapping has subsided and in spite of exemplary work since, the boss pulls out the drug charge. Tomasetti is put on leave, required to pass a drug test weekly and see a company shrink until such point as that psychiatrist deems Tomasetti “fit” for duty.

It is clear Tomasetti’s boss feels that he will go down in short order. But little does that boss know that Tomasetti has already quit the painkillers. And he needs his job, from a psychological standpoint, so badly that he makes his first appointment with the shrink for that very afternoon. And then, in the middle of the psych session, Kate calls, asking for his help with the Plank family murders.

Castillo does a fine job of manufacturing a murder mystery with twist after turn after twist, most of which you do not see coming, and neither does Kate. Just when you think you have the identity of the killer figured out, you don’t. Or you just think you don’t and go off on another path that Castillo so adeptly places before you.

And Castillo also does a fine job of manufacturing a devolvement in Kate’s character that makes you just want to slap Kate senseless. No, that’s not exactly right. Kate’s already senseless and so self-involved, so full of guilt and anger, so selfish that you just want Castillo to write in some intervention, some promising light at the end of Kate’s oh-woe-is-me tunnel. You want and you wait for the misery to end, or just let up. Unfortunately, on the very last page, you will still be wanting and waiting.

Castillo has Kate sinking farther into the role of a functional alcoholic while she is writing Tomasetti as a man who is climbing, even if only by centimeters, out of his pit of despair. However, this reader can only take a whining protagonist with a victim complex for just so long. And when that protagonist is a police chief who has started drinking on the job and who places her officers at unnecessary risk just to pacify her own personal demons, sympathy for that character can wither in moments.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Tomasetti is still a broken soul, but Castillo has his breaks ever so slowly knitting together. She has him gain ground and then lose some, particularly in the scenes where he has a panic attack, scenes which, by the way, are incredibly well written. Just like Kate, he doesn’t want to feel the way he does, but he now accepts that he must deal with what is, rather than pine for what was. He no longer wants to eat his gun, while Kate is plowing headlong into suicide by cop, with her own self being the “cop.”

Hopefully, Castillo has some positive movement scheduled for Kate Burkeholder in her next novel. While flawed characters make realistic and even likeable protagonists, flawed characters who have started digging their personal holes to Hell with a backhoe instead of a shovel are not so tolerable. I’ll stick for another book, maybe two, but I don’t pay money for very long to read about a first-person-POV character who has lost not only a significant amount of socially redeeming value but also my respect.

3 people found this helpful

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SandyJ21

Definitely not the best in the series.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 16, 2021

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EXCERPT: A massive barn and silo stood in silhouette against the pre-dawn sky. The postcard-perfect farm was the last place Skid expected any trouble. He'd lived in Painters Mill going on four years now. Aside from a few minor infractions - like that time two teenage 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 house stood in shadows; it didn't look like anyone was up yet. Turning, he made eye contact with Zimmerman. 'How did you get in?'

'The back door is unlocked,'the Amish man said.

Grabbing his Maglite, Skid left the cruiser. He slid his. 38 from its sheath as he started down the sidewalk. Stepping onto the stoop, he banged on the door with his flashlight. 'This is the Police,' he called out. 'Open up.'

That was when he noticed the dark smear on the jamb. He shifted the flashlight beam and squinted. It looked like blood. A handprint. Skin shone the light down on the concrete porch. More blood. Black droplets glittering in the moonlight.

ABOUT 'PRAY FOR SILENCE': 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.

MY THOUGHTS: Pray for Silence may be the most shocking, but it is not the strongest, nor the best book in the series. I loved Sworn to Silence, the first book in this series, and I have read many of the later books, and loved them. But with Pray for Silence, it almost felt like the Castillo was trying too hard, trying to shock rather than entertain. Not what I have come to expect from this author. I finished this read feeling somewhat unsettled, and 'grubby'.

I didn't particularly like what was happening in the relationship between Kate and Tomasetti either, with both in self-destruction and point-scoring modes. Kate rushes into things blindly, putting herself in danger to prove a point to Tomasetti. We learn very little more about the constant characters, there's almost zero character development.

The bones of the story are good. Now, this is going to sound strange coming from me - the Queen of 'dark and gritty', but this is one story that could have benefited from a slightly gentler touch.

I am pleased that I didn't read this immediately after 'Sworn to Silence'. I might not have continued reading what is an otherwise excellent series. Instead I am going to put this down to the second book' phenomenon and advise other readers not to be put off by it. There is better to come.

I did a read & listen of Pray for Silence. Narrator Kathleen McInerney was, as always, wonderful.

⭐⭐.8

THE AUTHOR: Linda Castillo is a New York Times bestselling author. In addition to writing, Castillo’s other passion is horses, particularly her appaloosa George. She lives in Texas with her husband and is currently at work on her next novel.

DISCLOSURE: I own my copy of Pray for Silence by Linda Castillo, published by Macmillan. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Helpful

Kindle Customer

Good but graphic

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 28, 2022

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The scenes of violence were graphic but also made the book hard to put down. If a person gets squeamish while reading, this is not the book to read.

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W. P. Lake

Wow! This story is powerful!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 25, 2022

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I have read all of this series to date yet not in the order they were written so Pray For Silence was a surprise as it incorporated violence, sexual exploitation and surprises around each corner. I was glued to the story from beginning to end! Whew

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BCB & More

Not as good as the previous Kate Burkholder!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 21, 2011

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I was looking forward to reading Linda Castillo's second book after enjoying her first so much. We see the return of both Kate Burkholder and John Tomasetti. Except this time around we are around a year after the setting for the book Sworn to Silence.

When the police arrive at the Amish farmstead in Painters Mill following the sound of screaming, they can't imagine the horror that awaits them. An entire family slaughtered: the men shot, the young women tortured and killed. They need to work out if this is random or intentional and planned. Kate decides to call on John for help. Jon is having his own career crisis and finds that the call from Kate comes at the right time.

Linda Castillo's writing was just as good the second time around. However, a few chapters in and I was getting the distinct feeling that I had been here and read this before. The story wasn't as complex as the first and I found myself getting frustrated with the plot. I wasn't however dissapointed with the characters. I like Kate Burkholder and John and think the dynamics of their friendship/relationship was the more interesting part of this book?!?!

I was over half way through and kept expecting there to be a big surprise or plot twist. Sadly, I was still expecting it right up to the end, only to be left feeling dissapointed. Don't get me wrong overall I enjoyed the book, but I wasn't sure what was the overwhelming dislike. Was it the fact that the Amish angle to the story was now a little dull? Or was it the fact that the story just wasn't as good as her first book? I don't actually think I know the answer even having finished it.

As a summary, I would say that this is a read that will keep you reasonable entertained, but not gripped. Anybody looking to read another great book in this series may be left feeling a little cheated. All of that said, I will still buy and read the next book in the series which has already been released in the hope that this book was just a minor blip

7 people found this helpful

Anne

Enjoyable enough but a couple of major flaws

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 6, 2012

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This is the second of the Kate Burkholder novels where the heroine is the sherriff of a small town which includes a large population of Amish people. Kate herself is ex-Amish having left the lifestyle after a major incident in her past which still lives with her and was the subject of the plot in the first book. She has a troubled relationship with mixed up FBI agent John Tomasetti. The Amish element of the story is dealt with well and respectfully and provides a decent enough background for the crime and the investigation.

The first issue which I have with the book, however, is that Kate and John are just too damaged - I seriously wonder how either of them hold down a job or function in society (although John does have problems with his job in this book although we don't get to find out what happens in the end). The relationship issues are interesting but they do loom large in the novel and overwhelm the mystery element.

The solving of the crime is the second problem which I have with the story. The investigation is very pedestrian for a while with lots of potential suspects and then everything happens in a rush, I confess that I never really grasped the motivation of the perpetrators nor how they had committed the crimes. The climax was exciting enough but it was a bit unrealistic that they would have set such a trap (a very expensive use of people resource if nothing else).

I wanted this book to tie together better because I liked Kate and John and thought that the setting was good, but it didn't really work well enough. It wasn't woefully bad but it could have been better. It was also written in the first present tense - I realise that this is becoming more common (Elly Griffiths does it too in her novels) but I, personally, find it offputting.

2 people found this helpful

Philtrum

Pray for no more repetition

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 7, 2012

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I read the first book in the series (Sworn To Silence) about a year ago and enjoyed it. The books (up to four, now, I understand) concern Kate Burkholder, Chief of Police in a small Midwestern US town. She was raised Amish but left the church as a teenager. The town in which she serves contains both Amish and "English" people.

The books are basically police procedural but contain a lot of information about the Amish way of life, and a lot about Kate's various conflicts.

This second book disappointed on a couple of levels. There was way too much referring back (and summarising - repeatedly) the events of the first book. There was way too much repetition, full stop. Yes, we understand just how deeply Kate is disturbed and disgusted by the crimes committed and how much she just wants to kill the perp. We got the point the first time the author mentioned it. Harping on about it, chapter after chapter, was not needed.

Lastly - and no spoilers - when the big reveal came in the last chapter, one of the names mentioned meant nothing to me. Even flicking back through the book quickly didn't help me. She repeated herself about certain things, then, when we find out whodunit, all we get's a quick mention of a name and then she moves on. D'oh!

I don't think I will be moving on to numbers three and four in the series unless the reviews are universally glowing.

4/10

5 people found this helpful

Susan J Robinson

Another gripping read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 23, 2020

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I had only just finished book 1 and had to buy no2 it's as good as the first a real page turner, these stories really grip you and you just have to know what happens next, off to start ready NGOs book not,her 3

One person found this helpful

kath collman

Good quality and quick service

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 21, 2021

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Good quality and quick service

One person found this helpful

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