Rage : a novel / Linda Castillo.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In this gripping installment of the Edgar Award winning series, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder investigates a brutal double murder that takes her into the dark underbelly of society and exposes the dangers of Amish lives gone wrong.

Summer has arrived with a vengeance in Painters Mill, and a macabre discovery by three Amish children brings the quiet to a grinding halt. Chief of Police Kate Burkholder arrives on scene to find the dismembered body of 21-year-old Samuel Yutzy, a local Amish man who owned a successful landscaping business. What twisted individual murdered him in such a sadistic way?

The investigation has barely begun when, miles away, a second body is found, stuffed into a barrel and dumped in a ravine. The deceased is 21-year-old Aaron Shetler, Samuel Yutzy's best friend. What could these two young Amish men have been involved in that led to such violent ends?

With a heat wave bearing down, Kate learns quickly that, for reasons she doesn't understand, no one is willing to talk about what happened to the men. Just as she begins to fear the case may be hopeless, a mystery woman comes forward and reveals that fun-loving Aaron and Samuel had recently befriended some very unsavory characters -- individuals who may have ties to a larger, more sinister, black market.

To solve the case, Kate must delve into the most sordid corners of her community, but when she gets too close, the killers target Kate herself. Will the secrets simmering beneath the surface of Painters Mill take another life before she can expose the truth? Or will Kate be the final victim?

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Booklist Review

Castillo's latest Kate Burkholder mystery (after The Burning, 2024) has the police chief in Painters Mill, Ohio, a small town in the heart of Amish country, facing a series of gruesome murders. Samuel Yutzy, a young Amish man, is found shot to death, his dismembered body buried in woods outside town. The body of a second victim, Samuel's friend, has been stuffed into a barrel. Then a young Amish woman is found dead, apparently shot while trying to evade her killer. Kate is determined to solve the disturbing and perplexing murders and begins the tedious investigative work, hitting dead end after dead end. Undaunted, she finally finds evidence that the murder victims were involved in a vicious sex-trafficking ring, a deeply troubling situation she never expected to confront in Painters Mill. Eventually, after nearly becoming a victim herself, she uncovers the brutal truth and ensures the killers are brought to justice. But the young women who've been trafficked will bear a lifetime of scars that may never heal. A gripping, shocking story--fortunately with some lighter moments to offset the violence and tension--from a gifted, award-winning writer who knows how to grab readers and keep them riveted from first page to last.

Kirkus Book Review

A series of brutal murders rocks the quiet community of Painters Mill, Ohio. A young Amish girl playing hide-and-seek in a brushy area near a creek finds dismembered body parts. The early years of police Chief Kate Burkholder, who grew up Amish and has come to terms with leaving that life behind, give her insight into crimes committed in her county, which has a large Amish population. Although there's always some crime among the Amish, something about the killing and dismemberment of landscaper and nursery owner Samuel Yutzy has a big-city feel. Kate's husband, John Tomasetti, is an agent with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation who provides the services small-town police departments lack. Kate and John knew Samuel, and when they check his place of business, they find a dehydrated buggy horse and a lot of blood. Samuel's parents admit that he had a wild rumspringa--a period when Amish youth try out the secular world before committing to the church--which included a girlfriend and some shifty non-Amish men, but say that he'd recently returned to the fold. A picture of the girlfriend leads them to a gentlemen's club, and his parents reveal that he was being sued by someone over a landscape job gone wrong. When Kate tries to find Samuel's best friend, Aaron Shetler, she learns that he's been missing from work, and soon his body is found stuffed in a drum. Searching for the girlfriend gets Kate drugged and warned to drop the case. Never one to give up, she discovers a tangled web of deceit and a link to human trafficking that just may be the death of her. Slippery suspects and evildoers among the usually private and quiet Amish. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.