Review: "The Dead Will Tell: A Kate Burkholder Novel" by Linda Castillo

The past is never truly buried. As any mystery reader knows, the past often comes back with a vengeance leaving a trail of bodies and carnage in its wake. Such is the case here in The Dead Will Tell: A Kate Burkholder Novel by Linda Castillo. The author once again takes readers to the Amish country she has made familiar in another tale where the past is almost as big a character as the actual characters themselves.

The latest in this very good series begins in early March 1979 with a home invasion/robbery. Things go very wrong almost from the start and the night ends with a massacre and a family tragedy. Billy Hochstetler, a fourteen year old boy, was the sole survivor of a night of terror that took the lives of everyone else in his family. A horrific crime that remains unsolved today 35 years later.

But, somebody knows what happened that night and has begun sending notes to those involved. The notes are ominous reminders of their crimes and the promise that justice is coming for them all. Whether it is justice or not, one by one people are definitely being murdered in the Painter’s  Mill area of Ohio. Who is doing the killing is just one of the many questions Police Chief Kate Burkholder will have to solve in this intense read.

With The Dead Will Tell author Linda Castillo may have penned the best book in the series that started with Sworn To Silence. Not that any of the succeeding books have been slouches by any means, but this one ratchets up the intensity from start to finish. Not just in the professional storyline of Kate Burkholder and her department trying to stop a determined killer, but in the ongoing storyline regarding the relationship between her and John Tomasetti.

The Dead Will Tell: A Kate Burkholder Novel by Linda Castillio is an intense and exceptionally good read. Like many complicated series that are so much better when read in order, you should begin with Sworn To Silence and work your way forward. It will be well worth it as The Dead Will Tell is an incredible book and very strongly recommended.

The Dead Will Tell: A Kate Burkholder Novel

Linda Castillo

http://www.lindacastillo.com/

July 2014

ISBN# 978-1-250-02957-7

Hardback (also available as an e-book)

320 Pages

$25.99

ARC by way of the wonderful Lesa Holstine who sent her copy so that I did not have to wait months on my library hold list. Lesa also reviewed the book here.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2014