Thursday, August 24, 2017

Review: Only The Lucky: A Kate Burkholder Story by Linda Castillo

For Alma Fisher, the party should be fun. She is going with a friend, Irene, and will meet up with her boyfriend, Aden Keim. Two years older than her as he is now 20, she knows Aden is a hard worker, and that she is in love. She is thrilled that he plans on being baptized into the church next year further proving his devotion. She has her sights on marrying him.

For the Chief of Police Kate Burkholder the evening in Painters Mill, Ohio has been a quiet one. It is a Friday evening in the spring and things are unusually quiet. She does not know about the party the local teens are having. It is not just the Amish teens that will attend; teens from the town and miles around will be there. It is only when local Amish farmer  Aaron Yonder comes to the station and requests to see her that she learns what could be happening on this quiet evening. She has known Aaron since they were kids and she knows that he does not come to see her easily.

He knows what is planned in the coming hours out at old Davenport place. He has heard whispers and talk about the planned activities at midnight and has seen both cars and Amish buggies headed out there. He believes that the place is haunted and that “it is an ungodly gathering.” The fact that it is Friday the 13th does not help matters. Nor does a murder.

While not at the level of the books, Only The Lucky: A Kate Burkholder Story by Linda Castillo is a pretty good one. It is significantly better than the previous short stories she has done as tie-ins to the series. In this case, all the usual characters are in place and the mystery has a couple of twists to it. Unfortunately, a couple of time discrepancies are apparent and that tends to cause the reader to double check the sequence of events as one works through the read. Despite the fact as well as the obvious fact that the short story is a marketing gimmick designed to wet appetites and interest readers into buying the latest novel, it does work fairly well on its own. 



Only The Lucky: A Kate Burkholder Story
Linda Castillo
Minotaur Books (St. Martin’s Press)
May 2017
ASIN: B06XKKFQBM
eBook only
56 Pages
$1.99


I picked this up to read and review back last May using funds in my Amazon Associate account.


Kevin R. Tipple ©2017

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