I decided to read this as I heard others mention this series. It was my first read of this series and I was able to get most of the history of the characters. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I had hoped. I was able to figure out the ending early on in the story and thought some of it seem too far fetched. I will give some of the other books in this series a try.

3.5 Stars.

Have come to really enjoy this series. They definitely can be read as a stand alone. However, this wasn’t a favorite. Maybe because it seemed more English, than Amish related. Maybe because it seemed I knew upfront what would happen. However, since I haven’t read the first few books, I enjoyed catching a glimpse of Kate’s past. This book hinted at a more permanent future with Tomasetti. I look forward to the next book in this series.

Thanks to Ms. Castillo, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this ARC. Opinion is mine alone!

The Kate Burkholder series is one of my favorites. I eagerly await each book in this series and hide myself away with a cup of tea and my cat to binge read it immediately. Covid19 and my insane work schedule made me have to wait awhile for my binge-session...but once I got a free evening, I was glued to my kindle savoring every single word of this book!

The Outsider is the 12th book in the series. It's best to read the books in order. There's a lot of background and character development that would be missed by reading out of order, in my opinion.

The basics: Kate Burkholder grew up Amish in Painters Mill. After a horrific ordeal as a teenager, she left the faith and later became a police officer. Then she returned to Painters Mill as the area Police Chief. In this newest book, her past in training and as an officer in Columbus, OH come back to haunt her. A fellow officer and friend shows up in Painters Mill, but she's wanted for killing an officer in Columbus. Kate tries to investigate the incident, but meets with warnings and stonewalling, slowly revealing possible police corruption.

I am never disappointed by this series. Great plot, awesome suspense and action, plus interesting character development. I enjoyed this book! I can't wait for the next novel or short story in this series!

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from St. Martin's Press. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

Loved this 12th book in Linda Castillo's "Kate Burkholder" series!
Someone from Kate's past comes to Painters Mill seeking refuge and Kate must trust her instincts while protecting the Amish community. Complicated by a snowstorm and an Amish widower with young children, this is a story of good cop/bad cop and high level police corruption.
In Outsider the author gives us extensive information about Kate's life before returning to Painters Mill to join their police force.
One of my all-time favourite series!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for an arc of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoy this series, but have to say this probably was my least favorite. It was interesting to get more of Kate's back story and her career, but the rest of the book was pretty dull. Even the ending was kind of lackluster. I missed Kate's interaction with her team, which was very little in this one.

The whole time I was reading this book, I kept wondering where Kate’s focus should be. With an old friend - she does not trust - or as the Chief of Police of Painters Mill. A town amid a blizzard with only two of her officers able to answer calls, or snowed in on a farm trying to keep an eye on an old friend with a strange story to tell.

Gina Colorosa, an officer who came out of the academy with Kate, has made bad choices in her life, and right now, she needs Kate’s help. Gina is trying to get to Kate before she is murdered by the men who have a habit of removing problems from their lives. Adam Lengacher, an Amish widower, while out with his children, finds Gina huddled nearly frozen to death by the side of the road. He is a good man, and with his upbringing and faith, he must help Gina, an outsider. By doing this, he is putting his and the lives of his children in danger, but for him, she is worth it.

As Gina tells her story, the reader bounces back and forth in this loosely wound thriller. Kate knows Gina’s seedy history, but can she get past it and read between the lines to find the truth. Can Kate’s boyfriend, John Tomasetti, use his Bureau of Criminal Investigation ties to find out if what Gina is saying is truthful about the corruption and cover-ups within the vice squad? As the story unwinds, it is a race against man and the elements to save all the lives on an Amish farm and to expose the truth behind Gina’s farfetched story.

RATING: 4 STARS
2020; Minotaur Books/St. Martin's Press

What I loved about the Outsider was that we get to know more about Kate's life before she became the Chief, and after she leaves her family. When Gina, also a police officer, is found wounded Kate is drawn back into their complex relationship. Gina was the one who took Kate in and taught her about the English way of living. Together they attended the Police Academy to become police officers. Both have taken different paths, and it at one time drew them apart. Can Kate trust Gina, who is also putting an Amish family in danger? This is another suspenseful novel that had be reading that last half until I finished the book. This novel can be read as a standalone but you do miss out on a lot of the characterizations.

***I received a complimentary copy of this ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.***

Thanks to Minotaur and St. Martin's Press for this advanced copy!

This is my first Linda Castillo book and I'm looking forward to reading more now!

I enjoyed this book and it kept me hooked! I loved the suspense and small town drama too!

I always enjoy and look forward to the books in the Kate Burkholder series. This one, while still enjoyable, was lacking in suspense and I didn't feel there was much of a plot however. I have to admit I was a little disappointed.

OUTSIDER: A Kate Burkholder Novel
Linda Castillo
Minotaur Books
ISBN-13: 978-1250142894
Hardcover
Mystery/Thriller

The Kate Burkholder series by Linda Castillo is one of my favorites for a couple of different reasons. One is that it is set in near my hometown. The other, and the primary one, is the manner in which Castillo manages to bring new plots, mysteries, twists, and turns to a relatively small area --- the fictional Amish community of Painters Mill, Ohio, in very real Holmes County --- while inserting (as opposed to forcing) bits and pieces of Amish life into the narrative. OUTSIDER gives longtime readers of this popular series an added bonus, that being some extensive information regarding Burkholder’s life before she returned to Gates Mill to join the town police force. OUTSIDER accordingly deserves to be considered as one of the best books in the canon to date.

OUTSIDER in short order introduces Gina Colorosa, a member of the Columbus, Ohio Police Department vice squad. It becomes quite clear from the jump that Colorosa is in huge trouble. She is wounded in an ambush at her home and immediately flees Columbus, heading for Holmes County and the only person whom she can trust, that being Burkholder, her former best friend, who with Colorosa joined the Columbus Police Department several years previously. Colorosa makes it to the outskirts of Painters Mill before a combination of blood loss and a raging snowstorm causes her to crash her car into a fence. She is found by Adam Lengacher, an Amish widower, and his son and two daughters. Lengacher immediately comes to her aid, following the Amish practice of immediately and reflexively helping someone in need. Colorosa is a bit rough around the edges even under the best of circumstances and her initial interactions with the Lengachers are worth the price of admission to OUTSIDER all by themselves. Colorosa makes it clear that she will speak only with Burkholder, who of course is extremely surprised to see her former friend. Colorosa tells Burkholder that she is being hunted by a rogue police unit in the vice squad and her subsequent story of why leads Burkholder to reminisce internally about how she came to join the department, why her friendship with Colorosa ended, and why she left Columbus. Meanwhile, Colorosa’s pursuers slowly follow a few sparse clues that lead them to Painters Mill, a place which is ill-prepared for the endgame they have planned. This, of course, places Adam Lengacher and his children in danger, even as Lengacher himself is in danger of succumbing to his attraction toward Colorosa, which of course would violate the strict tenets of his culture and faith. The last half of OUTSIDER races toward a cringe-inducing conclusion that contains a number of surprises, including a resolution of a long-range issue which has been percolating over the course of the last several installments in the series.

You of course will be forgiven if you infer that OUTSIDER bears some similarities to the classic film WITNESS in spots. Castillo, however, takes things a few different directions while adding several twists and turns to the plot, making the ending anything but preordained. Longtime fans of the series and newbies looking for a change of scenery will both find much to love in OUTSIDER and should partake without hesitation. Recommended.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
© Copyright 2020, The Book Report, Inc. All rights reserved.

I have read several books in this series and each one has left me with the desire to read more of the series. I did receive this book as an ARC.
Police Chief Kate Burkholder was raised in the Amish community. She left as a young adult but came back to the area but not the Amish way of life. She is called out during snow storm by Adam Lengacher. Adam has discovered a woman in a snow drift. She is obviously injured and needs help. When Kate arrives, she is surprised to see that the mystery woman is her old friend, Gina. Is Gina in trouble or is she just trouble. As her story comes out, Kate isn’t sure if Adam and his family are safe. But due to the storm, they are basically stranded. The longer Kate and Gina stay at Adam’s farm the more they are pushing the boundaries of Amish behavior. As Kate tries to figure out just what is true in Gina’s story, someone is stalking Gina.
The storyline is absorbing. The characters are engaging. The descriptions of the Amish way of life are interesting. All in all, a five-star book.

Outsider by Linda Castillo is the latest in the Kate Burkholder series. I have read all of this series and have never been disappointed.
In this installment we get a glimpse of Kate's history in Columbus, Ohio as a patrol police officer. Her former partner has gotten in over her head with some corrupt Columbus cops and heads to Painters Mills for Kate's help. Unfortunately, Gina gets shot before leaving the city and ends up snowed in, wounded, with a widowed Amish man and his children. This is how Kate finds her and when Gina tells her what is going on in Columbus, she is torn, is Gina telling the truth or not. Then Gina's CI is found shot and all leads point to Gina she enlists her boyfriend. John Tomasetti, an officer with the OBCI, she realizes Gina has gotten in way over her head.
I could not put this story down It, as is the case with every book by Castillo I have ever read.
I was given an ARC by the publisher and NetGalley for an honest review.

Outsider was not at all what I expected it to be! This book has got a little bit of everything: drama, suspense, action, and romance. The story is mostly told from Kate's point of view. Kate, as the chief of police of a small town in Ohio, is surprised to see her old friend and colleague, Gina who was discovered by a local Amish man after a bullet wound and car accident left her freezing and injured. After much coaxing, Gina admits to being involved in a police corruption scandal but that the tables have turned against her. Now Kate must decide how far she's willing to go to help Gina out of her situation, despite being estranged for several years.

Overall, Outsider was a very good book and I'd highly recommend it to those who like Amish stories and also crime drama and suspense!

I continue to read Linda Castillo's books thinking this one cannot possibly be as amazing as the last, and every single time she proves me wrong. I could not stop reading Outsider. While there was not as much action in this title, it invested a lot of time in building Gina's and Kate's backstory to explain to the reader how they got to the point of no longer being friends. Outsider is an excellent read worth picking up and adding to your list.

Solid addition to the Kate Burkholder series. We learn a bit more about Kate’s past Right after she left her Amish upbringing. The friend who saved her then needs her now. kate has to decide whether she trusts her enough to help her.

I was given a copy from Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

This might be the first time one of the Kate novels has been in a passed the time just fine category versus Engrossing Reads which is honestly great for the 12th book in a series. I still liked it, but I did not love it. I appreciate the glimpse into Kate's past and the author doing something different with this book, but the lack of movement in the story itself or geography and the focus narrowed in on Kate and people we are not familiar with versus Kate and the crew at the Painters Mill PD and Tomasetti was meh.

Free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Outsider by Linda Castillo is the 12th A Kate Burkholder Novel. It can be read on its own for those new to the series, but I recommend reading this suspenseful series in order. I thought Outsider was well-written with developed characters and it moves along at a fast pace. Outsider starts off with a bang in the prologue with Gina Colorosa, a vice unit cop from Columbus, on the run after a no-knock warrant is executed at 3 a.m. on her home. Gina was prepared for this action and was able to escape, but she was shot in the shoulder. Gina knows only one person whom she can trust and that is Kate Burkholder. Adam Lengacher, an Amish widower with three children, rescues Gina and takes her into his home. Kate is shocked when she sees Gina because it has been ten years since they parted. Kate would not have become a police officer if not for Gina. Gina tells Kate about corruption within the police force in Columbus. There is suspense, action, mystery, and intrigue in Outsider. You wonder if Gina is disclosing all the information to Kate, who is involved in the corruption, and what will happen next. There is graphic violence in Outsider and along with an extensive amount of foul language (fair warning). I thought Outsider was more violent than the earlier books in A Kate Burkholder series. I like that we get to learn more about what happened to Kate after she left home, her time at the academy, and her early years on the force in Columbus. We also discover why Kate has not spoken to Gina in ten years. There are some cute moments in Outsider as well. Adam’s three kids are sweet. Sammy was my favorite. He is a curious boy. There was a calf who had been spurned by his mama that needed nurturing. I like the relationship between Kate Burkholder and John Tomasetti. They manage to balance their work and their private life. I liked the author’s descriptive writing which brought the scenes to life. I enjoyed the vivid word imagery of the sleigh ride especially. I like the glimpses of Amish life which felt authentic. Outsider is a suspenseful novel with a cute calf, a well-proportioned widower, a friend on frightful footing, substantial snowfall, corrupt cops, an auto accident, and a barrage of bullets.

I reviewed this editorially for Library Journal please peruse the latest issue for my complete review

A series that never disappoints!
Five fabulous stars for the latest release in my favorite series!

Katie Burkholder is the Chief of Police in a small Ohio town. An area of Ohio prominently populated by a community of Amish people. In fact, Kate herself grew up Amish and left her family and friends for a life in the outside world.

When Kate’s long-time friend and fellow law officer goes into hiding on an Amish farm, Kate quickly arrives to assist. But help will be no easy task. This situation runs deeper than Kate ever imagined. For starters, can she even trust her old friend? Is she putting everyone’s lives at risk by hiding out on this Amish farm?

We’re all familiar with the sage advice, “you can ever go home.” The very concept Kate struggles with in a constant tug-of-war. Longing for the simple life she knew growing up vs the life in the darker outside world she shares with her boyfriend, Tomasetti.

Linda Castillo’s descriptive beauty of the culture, and painting a marvelous snap-shot of Amish life, was truly touching.

You feel yourself side-by-side Kate as she struggles with the decisions she’s made so far in her life.

This series continues to be my favorite. I’m impatiently counting down the days to her next release.

A buddy read with Susanne.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for an ARC to read and review

Kate Burkholder left the Amish way of life many years ago and is now the Chief of Police in her hometown of Painter’s Mill, Ohio. Katie’s childhood friend, Adam Lengacher, is a widower with three young children. Adam discovers a woman half frozen and wounded on the side of the road during a snowstorm who asks him to contact Kate. When Kate arrives at Adam’s farm, she is shocked to see the woman he has rescued is her old friend from their police academy days, Gina Colorosa. Gina is being accused of committing serious crimes but she claims her old unit in Columbus is crooked. Kate wants to help her old friend, but can tell she’s holding something back. Will she be able to figure out what’s really going on before innocent lives are placed in danger.

This book is part of an ongoing series. I’ve only read a couple of the prior books and short stories and I had no problems enjoying the book. Readers who are new to the author should be aware that this series is full of gritty mysteries and is not the sweet, gentle stories common in a lot of Amish fiction. “Outsider” lets you know up front who most of the villains are and is more of a thriller as Kate, Gina, and others are in danger. The atmosphere becomes tense as Kate learns more and more about what her former friend has been involved in during the last few years. I like Kate and enjoyed learning more about her background through the flashbacks included throughout the book. She doesn’t have a lot of scenes with state agent John Tomasetti, but from what we see of the two, they make a great couple. The information about Amish customs is interesting and from what I know about that culture, the look at Amish life seems to be realistic and not overly romanticized.

Even though Gina is in danger throughout the book, I just couldn’t warm to her character. She constantly lies putting everyone around her, including young children, in danger. I understand she was in hiding, but I couldn’t get behind that part of the plot that had her hiding in Adam’s home when it put his children at risk. The book starts somewhat slow, but things quickly pick up and the final confrontation is very dramatic and full of twists and turns. The plot wasn’t my favorite, but Castillo is a skilled author and great at creating interesting characters. I will definitely seek out other books in this series.

~ Christine