The Dead Will Tell: A Kate Burkholder Novel / Linda Castillo / 320 pages / Mystery

Police Chief Kate Burkholder and the Painters Mill police department have their hands full when three brutal murders occur within a short period of time. Wooden Amish dolls are found left by the serial killer with each victim, indicating a connection to the unsolved murder of an Amish family that took place over 30 years ago.

While Kate works to find the killer before more lives are lost, she must also deal with a cranky town council member who is being threatened, and her fragile relationship with John Tomasetti is threatened by an enemy from his past.

Like all of the entries in this series, The Dead Will Tell is a page-turner. I read it in one day. Kate is a tough but deeply compassionate protagonist. The only negative to this book is that the whodunnit was not a surprise, I figured it out well before the conclusion. Thus as a mystery it is somewhat disappointing, but the pacing makes it an excellent thriller.

Linda Castillo has become one of my regular pre-orders and I look forward to every new book in this series. The folks in Painters Mill better get busy making babies though, as the population declines considerably in this 6th entry of the Kate Burkholder series.