This is Linda Castillo's best book in the series so far. So many secrets. Things going on that you couldn't imagine with the Amish and the things one person will do to keep it a secret. Chief of Police Katie Burkholder is on the case and she won't give up trying to find out what is going on even though someone is trying to kill her to keep her from discovering the secrets. I highly recommend A Gathering of Secrets to mystery lovers, it will keep you guessing to the end.

Having read all of the Kate Burkholder books, I was excited to get my hands on this one, and it sure didn’t disappoint, the only bad thing was it had to end.
The author does an awesome job of pulling you into the story, and holding you there until the end, and you never really know how things are going to turn out until the finish.
You will come to know the main characters in this book, and others as they are recurring, but each one is a stand-alone.
If you enjoy Amish mystery and suspense this one will grab you, a don’t miss read.
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher St. Martin’s Press, and was not required to give a positive review.

I enjoy reading Amish books. This is the first book I have read by this author. I understand this is the tenth book in a series. I will definitely be going back and reading the other books. This could definitely be read as a “stand alone” book.

The book takes place in Ohio Amish Country. Living close to this area, I loved reading about places I know and have visited. We always think of the Amish as a peace-loving group. This book, however, shows us the mystery of solving the murder of an Amish young man and others. It was thrilling and kept you guessing. This gives you a look into many of the beliefs of the Amish and the support their community gives each other. The Police Chief, Kate Burkholder, grew up Amish, but left to live an Englisher life. Sometimes, we see that as a help, particularly when she is able to communicate with community members in Pennsylvania Dutch, and other times a hindrance, due to the Amish community’s way of distancing themselves from the English. I tried to solve the mysteries throughout the book, but found that there were so many characters and twists and turns that it became hard at times to keep the characters straight. Even so, I really enjoyed the book, although I certainly didn’t think the book would end as it did.

I highly encourage anyone who hasn’t read any books by this author to do so.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Minotaur Publishers for the opportunity to read this ARC and give my honest opinion.

Daniel Gingerich appeared to be a fine, upstanding young man and the Amish community mourned him when he burned to death in a barn fire. But when Kate Burkholder discovers that the fire was no accident, she also learns that Gingerich might not be have been the person he appeared to be. With the help of Tomasetti, Kate digs deep to find the arsonist and uncovers dark secrets beneath the placid surface of Amish society. Good solid read.

I always gain a different perspective of the Amish community when reading a Linda Castillo book. Such is the case with A Gathering of Secrets. A murder investigation that is met with silence. Chief of Police Kate Burkholder has her work cut out for her in this case.

Strong addition to the series which is saying something since it is book ten. The clues within the plot are revealed piece by piece with just as many facts concerning Kate’s past that come into play. Secrets, other crimes, Kate’s own past and a closed mouth community make this an intriguing, compelling read.

Kudos to the author for great style in pulling me into the story, as I tried to solve the case along with Kate. Highly recommend.

An ARC of the book was given to me by the publisher through Net Galley which I voluntarily chose to read and reviewed. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

4 stars
This is book 10 in the Kate Burkholder series. The prologue has a teenage Amish girl committing suicide. Chapter 1 shows a teenage Amish boy getting burned alive. Kate is called to the scene of a barn fire. The mother and father are frantically looking for their missing son, Daniel Gingerich. A body is discovered in the burned out barn and is soon identified as Daniel. The fire is classified as arson. Kate and her 3 officers investigate. The book skillfully shows Kate uncovering secrets, like peeling back an onion, as she discovers the suicide and Daniel are connected. The Amish do not trust the outside world, and getting cooperation is difficult, but Kate does solve the case, with an ending that leaves no one satisfied, least of all Kate. But the ending does tie up all the threads and Pennsylvania Dutch/Amish words are always translated, giving the reader insight into Amish life.
I read this book in 2 days and strongly recommend this series.
I live in Western New York state, where soda is called "pop.' Evidently it is also called pop in Northeastern Ohio.

Thanks to my friend Susan who sent me this book. After she sent it to me, Minotaur books approved my pending request on NetGalley, so I had a e ARC copy also. Thanks also to Minotaur books.

I like most Amish fiction. This book I loved! The story jumped out at me and I read it straight through. I have read almost all of this series and am never disappointed. The arc of this book was given to me by the publisher and netgalley, the opinions are my own

Another hit from Linda Castillo, one I had a hard time putting down. The storyline was well developed and the characters also. I enjoy learning about Amish culture from these books. Can’t wait to see another book from this author.

As a longtime fan of the Kate Burkholder series, I'm always ready when a new one is released, and A Gathering of Secrets is another excellent addition to this series. This case (like many) hits on some really personal notes for Kate as it echoes some of her experiences as an Amish teenager. Once again, this book shows that no community is free from the darker sides of human nature. When a young man dies in a fire, it quickly becomes clear that it wasn't an accidental death- someone made sure that he wouldn't be able to get out. As Kate investigates, she realizes that there were some open secrets in the community about who Daniel was, which makes the pool of suspects quite wide. Linda Castillo has managed to craft a mystery that simmers with tension without relying on twists or constant gore, and the tenth book in this series is just as intriguing as the first. Here's hoping for more to come!

If you haven't read this series before, please start here because you are in for a treat. If you, like me, have read all of them, you're also in for a treat. Kate Burkhelder is one of the most intriguing female police chiefs- she's ex-Amish and dealing with the bann, she lives with a fellow law enforcement officer, (Tomasetti) , and she investigates some pretty wicked crimes in her community. In this case, everyone thought Daniel was a good Amish boy and it's a shock when he's locked in his barn and burned to death. A shock to his parents but maybe not to everyone in the community, especially the young women. This is a sad tale in many ways of multiple lives ruined because of secrecy and shame about sexual assault. It's also a very good mystery that unfolds carefully in layers that leave you questioning your assumptions as Kate does. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Highly recommend this one - and I'm very much looking forward to the next.

This is now the 10th book in the Kate Burkholder series and I'm still as fascinated by it as was in the very beginning.

Linda Castillo, delivers a  story that is chilling, engrossing, and just as entertaining as I could have wished for. A Gathering of Secrets started slow, until midway through. From there on it was twists and turns that kept me on the edge of my seat and didn't let go until the very end. I honestly did not see the end coming. I thought it was all done, and resolved. Boy was I wrong.

I absolutely love this series. The contrast between Amish and English is fascinating. Their believe is at times hard to understand, but that's exactly what brings me back again and again. Especially this book, when it's obvious that not everything is as simple and pure as it looks. For Kate, this case brings part of her past uncomfortably close to the surface. But she handled it in a professional manner, and with a passionate heart she brought justice to the wronged.

I had a hard time putting the book down. And the ending was as satisfying as it was shocking. 

A Gathering of Secrets allowed a closer look into Kate and Tomasetti's relationship, which I loved. Still, after so many years, they as a couple, were going as strong as ever. Kate and Tomasetti relied on each other, and reached a point where talking about a future together is possible.

I rarely read mystery/thrillers anymore, which I'm planning to change in the upcoming months, but for me this book, this series is one that needs to be on everyone's tbr who loves this genre.

Linda Castillo's stories are chilling, fascinating, and sometimes graphic, but they are never boring.

A Gathering of Secrets by Linda Castillo is the newest and tenth book in the Kate Burkholder Series. Kate Burkholder is the chief of police in Painters Mill, Ohio a setting that includes both Amish and English (non Amish). Kate grew up within the Amish community, but left for a different life. Each of the books bring you deeper into the community and deeper into the life of Kate. While this book is part of a series, I feel it can be read as a stand alone as well.

The book starts out starkly with a teenage suicide and while you are reeling from that another teenage death occurs, but is different in cause and distinction. Kate is called to a huge barn fire due to the missing teenager. It is from here the story twists and turns. Not all is as it seems. The missing teenager - what and who was he really? Kate finds a shocking parallel of happenings to what she, as a young teenager in her Amish community, had to deal with and face. The case twirls as Kate is unable to stop searching for the truth, even at her own peril.

I liked the book a great deal. I liked how Kate had to work through the parallels. I liked how Thomasetti and Kate’s relationship grew and changed. I felt that there was a lot of insights into God’s Will within the Amish and helped with understanding the connections from the past and the present. I liked how Kate continued to maintain her professional dealing with the Amish and the English, making her a more conflicted and dynamic character.

A Gathering of Secrets by Linda Castillo was a great read.

Kate Burkholder is the Chief of Police in a small Ohio town, Painters Mill. She is called to the scene of an intense barn fire at an Amish farm where all but one family member has been accounted for. Initially, no one knows if 18-year-old Daniel has snuck out of his family home while everyone else was asleep. However, when a badly burned body is discovered in the debris, it is soon confirmed that Daniel was indeed in the barn and suffered a horrific death.
As Kate begins talking to family, friends, acquaintances, and coworkers, no one has anything negative to say about Daniel and a motive for this murder seems unlikely to be uncovered. As Kate interviews people though, it slowly becomes clear that Daniel had a very aggressive and unpleasant dark side and the list of possible suspects begins to grow. When Kate's life is threatened, it seems she must be getting too close for comfort to the killer. Murder, suicide, and sexual assault are just some of the parts of this fast-paced, page flipping tale and when all is said and done, many lives will be irrevocably changed. There were many twists and when I thought the author was done, well she added one more!
What did I love? The character of Kate, a woman with her own demons trying to do the right thing. Her boyfriend, John Tomasetti, a man with a deep love for Kate, and finally the descriptions of the Amish community and how they live. Many of their beliefs and how they support each other are admirable, though some of the things family members turn a blind eye to are devastating to female members.
A Gathering of Secrets is the first book I have read by this author and it won't be my last. This is the tenth book in the Kate Burkholder series, but I thought it worked as a standalone.
Thank you, Linda Castillo, St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the complimentary digital copy.

Sometimes when a series has been around for awhile, the characters and the stories seem to get a little stale. That is not the case with the Kate Burkholder series. We are ten books in and I still enjoy it just as much as I did the beginning of the series.

I thought A Gathering of Secrets was a very well done procedural. As with most cases, there is a lot more going on than first suspected and the case becomes really personal for Kate, reminding her of things from her past she thought she moved on from. I also thought these elements were pretty timely to what’s going on in the world today. The pace was really steady with new clues revealed in every chapter. There were a few red herrings here and there, but everything about the resolution of the mystery made sense. I suspected so many characters and it took me about as long as it did Kate to figure things out.

There are a couple of big character developments in this book. One with a beloved side character and one with Kate and Tomasetti. One of the only things I haven’t liked about the last few books in this series is that there isn’t as much Tomasetti as in the beginning. Now that he and Kate are involved, it makes working cases together a little trickier and since the romance is not front and center his role has been reduced. While I do wish we would’ve gotten a little more of him in this installment (I will never stop wanting more Tomasetti), it made me appreciate what we did get even more. He is such a great partner for Kate and I’m looking forward to watching their relationship develop even more in future books.

Overall, I really enjoyed A Gathering of Secrets. I thought the mystery was so well done and I found the book hard to put down. The story takes place in a fictional town in a real county that’s close to where I grew up and it’s always fun to recognize the locations mentioned (this one included the venue I had my junior prom at!). I definitely recommend this series to Mystery fans.

Overall Rating (out of 5): 4 Stars

The Kate Burkholder series has been going strong for almost ten years now and it just keeps getting better. A Gathering of Secrets is #10 and is arguably the best book in the entire series. Even with such a small window for storytelling (just how many Amish can commit murder in this small town??), Castillo never fails to tell a compelling story and I am never bored. The intense scenes that bookend this novel were so well described I swear I could literally feel the heat coming off the pages and I spent a good deal of my reading afraid of what was coming on the next page. The one scene toward the end was one of the most terrifying I've read in any thriller book. The identity of the killer was a complete shock as well and I'm still reeling from that ending. Also, I love Kate's relationship with Tomasetti and I'm glad it was highlighted a little more in this book than it has been in the last few. It's such a relief to read about a relationship without a lot of drama and I really hope it stays this way. Overall, a solid 5 star book that as always leaves me eager for more of these characters.

First of all, I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martins Press for an advance copy of A Gathering of Secrets by Linda Castillo for an honest review.

A Gathering of Secrets is the 10th book in the Kate Burkholder series by Linda Castillo. Kate Burkholder is the Chief of Police for Painter’s Mill, a small town in Ohio with a significant population of Amish. Chief Burkholder was raised Amish but left the life in her teens after a traumatic event and deciding that this was not the way she wanted to live.

The story opens with Chief Burkholder responding to a barn fire at one of the local Amish farms. The fire department investigators find the body of 18 year-old Danny Gingerich who has burned to death in the fire. More disturbing is the fact that there is evidence that this was not an accident. By all accounts, Danny was a good-natured, fun young man that everyone loved and wanted to be around; however, as Kate digs further, she discovers that Danny had a dark side and there were reasons that some might want him dead.

This was yet another great read from Linda Castillo. The author kept the reader guessing throughout and even when you thought you had the answer…you didn’t.

In this tenth book in the 'Kate Burkholder' series, Kate - the Chief of Police in Painters Mill, Ohio -investigates the arson death of a young man. The book can be read as a standalone.

*****

The Amish community of Painters Mill, Ohio seems serene, but there's trouble brewing beneath the surface. First, 17-year-old Emma Miller wakes up one morning, does her chores, then hangs herself. Six months later, 18-year-old Daniel Gingerich sneaks out to the barn expecting a midnight tryst. Instead, Daniel is locked in the tack room and burned to death.

When Police Chief Kate Burkholder starts investigating Danny's death she learns that the tack room door was not only locked from the outside, but blockaded with hay bales and a wheelbarrow. Who would do such a thing? Interviews with Danny's family, close friends, and employers provide few clues, since everyone says Danny was a great guy and a good worker.

Further inquiries, however, reveal that Danny had a wild streak, and had taken advantage of being on Rumspringa to drink whiskey and buy a car. Danny also liked to attend Amish singings (gatherings of teens), and often invited Amish girls to attend with him. Danny was a good-looking, amiable fellow and had little trouble luring girls into his orbit.....and not only at singings.

Kate suspects that Danny's eye for the ladies may have led to his death, but inquiries among the Amish go nowhere. The Amish seem to live by the aphorism, "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil", and zip their lips. 😑 Moreover, Kate - having been raised Amish before she left the fold - knows that Amish people hide their heads in the sand when it comes to sexual abuse/rape of women. Their first reaction is, 'it doesn't happen', and their second response is, 'if it happens, it's the woman's fault.' NOTHING could be worse for victimized young girls.

Much of the book is a police procedural, following Kate and her police officers as they question persons of interest, gather clues, study CCTV footage, look into anonymous tips, and so on. Lucky for Kate, her boyfriend John Tomasetti is an agent for the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, and his help is invaluable - especially his connections with fingerprint experts and the like. As evidence accrues, Kate is reminded of an incident in her past - one so traumatic that it led her to abandon the Amish community. (This issue crops up often in the series, and I for one wish it would be put to rest already.)

There's also some excitement in the novel, and - at one point - Kate is lured into a deadly situation and has to make a 'shots fired' call. Fair enough, since this couldn't be anticipated. It bothers me though, that Kate later waltzes into ANOTHER dangerous predicament.....without backup. I wouldn't go so far as to say Kate is TSTL, but really girl - you need to learn from your experiences!! 🙄

During the police probe, deep secrets are revealed and more deaths ensue. In the end, Kate figures out exactly what happened, and it's a sad story all around.....one made worse by everyone's silence.

I enjoy the series' tidbits about Amish society, and I like that Kate uses Pennsylvania Dutch when she speaks to Amish people. (I have a smattering of German - which is a similar language - and I like to try to suss out the meaning before I read the translation.) In this story, we also learn a little about two different Amish sects: the Swartzentruber Amish - which is very strict, and the Beachy Amish - which is more liberal.

The story is a compelling page-turner, but the novels in the series are becoming too formulaic (IMO). The pattern goes as follows: there's a crime among the Amish population but no one wants to talk to the police....which usually results in additional trouble. I'd love to see something a little different in future books.

Still, I'd recommend the book to readers who like mysteries, especially Kate Burkholder fans. 🙂💚

Thanks to Netgalley, the author (Linda Castillo) and the publisher (Minotaur Books) for a copy of the book.

A fire in a barn revealed some unsettling secrets in an Amish community. The story took a few twists and turns. It wasn't one of my favorites in the series, but it was really good. This book was very Kate centric. Many of the usual side characters were there but didn't play pivotal roles. Kate was focused on so strongly because she had a unique perspective on the case.

The main topic of this book is a highly relevant one in society today. It had strong parallels to Kate's past. I love it that this series shows how one event can drastically alter someone's life. Kate is strongly affected by what happened to her as a teenager, and if you've read the other books in this series you'll know what I'm talking about. Kate is a strong character who has made the best possible life for herself but still isn't over what happened. This series does a good depiction of the life long damage from a traumatic event.

I love the Kate Burkholder series by Linda Castillo. I have read them all and feel like I know the characters personally. It's nice to read a story that have characters you can route for. Kate is the sheriff in a small Amish town where she grew up and was once Amish herself. I enjoy these stories that keep me guessing to the very end. It does seem like this small town has had more than it's fair share of violent crimes, but I hope there is more to come!

This was a different sort of book for me, but I loved it! A deadly fire opens up so many secrets. Chief Kate Burkholder investigates the fire and death of a young Amish man, Daniel Gingerich. She uncovers secret after secret among the local Amish community. This case hits a little too close to home for Kate too....lots of twists and turns as you uncovers the truth about Daniel and the person he was....as well as his death. I loved this book. It is very much one click worthy.