Among the Wicked

In bestseller Castillo's exciting eighth Kate Burkholder mystery (after 2015's After the Storm), Sheriff Dan Suggs from Franklin City, N.Y., and Frank Betancourt, a senior investigator with the BCI division of the New York State Police, ask Kate, the Painters Mill, Ohio, police chief, who escaped her Amish upbringing at 18, to go undercover to get to the bottom of the death of a 15-year-old Amish girl, Rachel Esh. Rachel was found frozen in the woods with evidence of Oxycontin in her bloodstream; she appeared to have undergone a recent abortion. The New York lawmen also ask Kate to determine whether the rumors of "bad goings-on" in the upstate Amish community headed by Bishop Eli Schrock, who's reputedly intent on separating his congregation from contact with the outside world, are true. Kate finds it difficult to refuse and overrides her lover's fears about the assignment. The feisty Kate is soon immersed in the Amish world and engaged in a ferocious battle for her life. Readers will be enthralled as Kate uncovers secrets in a quaint Amish community. 150,000 announced first printing; author tour. Agent: Nancy Yost, Nancy Yost Literary Agency. (July)