Hello beautiful people! Welcome to a new review! For this review I get into the newest release for a series I have long loved The Burning by Linda Castillo the 16th book in the Kate Burkholder series. Newley wed chief Kate Burkholder and her husband John Tomasetti are back to solve another mystery in Painters Mill this time tackling a gruesome murder of a formerly Amish man.
Main Characters:
- Kate Burkholder: Chief of police in small-town Painters Mill Ohio, being formerly Amish and from the area, Kate can connect with the people around her a lot more than others, when the badly burned body of an Amish man is found Kate finds that he may have a connection to her own roots
- John Tomasetti: Kate’s husband and former officer with the Ohio Bureau of Investigation now retired still can assist on cases and works with Kate to try to solve this one when she is forced off by other officers who question her capabilities
- Milan Swanz: A formerly Amish man with a troubled past that led to his ex-communication from the community, it’s a shock when he is found dead given the terrible manner it is done in is leading to everyone wanting to solve this case and quick
- Sheriff Mike Rasmussen: Despite knowing Kate well questions her authority when new information on the Milan Swanz case comes to light
My Review
I feel like I should preface this review by saying that the Kate Burkholder series by Linda Castillo is one of my favourites. I find it only fair to say that because it may or may not taint my judgement on the books because I love the characters in the series so much and have just spent so much time getting invested in their lives and the things that go on in Painters Mill. I really can’t say how someone who has never read the series before would feel about the book or if it would differ from me so I just like to make these things clear. That being said though I didn’t find that you really needed to read the other books in the series to check out The Burning as really reading the other books only strings along small plot lines that don’t have any major effect on the book. Such as in the last book Kate and John finally got married after waiting some time to get it done, so in this book, they are still in the newlywed stage of things. As I said though this really has no effect on the mystery in the book though so I don’t find that you have to be a long-time reader like myself to be able to pick up a book in the series and enjoy.
While I really enjoy the Kate Burkholder series I wouldn’t say that The Burning was my favorite. I was really looking forward to the release, and don’t get me wrong this book is not bad at all it’s great, but I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I was hoping. I can definitely acknowledge though that I may have over-hyped in my head as one does so I really don’t say this as any kind of insult to the book at all. Overall I gave The Burning by Linda Castillo a 7.5/10 rating. I was super hooked in the first half of the book as it started off with a bang and found that as we got into the second half in my opinion the pace just didn’t keep and I wasn’t as drawn in as I was earlier in the book. It definitely didn’t mean that in the second half, I didn’t want to keep reading but I just was maybe craving the intensity that was shown in the first bit of the book.
In The Burning Chief Kate Burkholder is awoken in the middle of the night on her sleepy acreage from a call for a major emergency. Two of her officers stumbled upon a fire, and when they finally got it put out what they saw would haunt them in their dreams forever. Burned at the stake is a charred body, seemingly burned live by the screams they heard moments before they saw the flames go up. The horrific scene is leaving everyone in the small town of Painters Mill Ohio shaken up. Discovering the identity of the body to be formerly Amish Milan Swanz Kate must figure out why someone would want to kill this man in such a horrible way. When it is discovered that Kate’s Amish brother Jacob may have had a dispute with Swanz before his death all male superior officers take this as an opportunity to call Kate’s professionalism into question and push her off of the case. Worried that her brother will be thrown under the bus Kate, with the help of Tomasetti, and her loyal team who work with her behind the scenes Kate must figure out what about Milan’s past would lead to someone hurting him in this way. With whispers of an old age tale, Kate must try to get the Amish community to trust her to figure out what it has to do with Milan and her brother.
Personally, I didn’t love the personal connection Kate had to this case with her brother. One of the things I love about the series is how badass, strong, and respected Kate is. I don’t think anything that happened in this book takes away from that but I just didn’t like this angle where people who did respect Kate just kind of attacked her, and then the people who usually attack her just got to do a little dance. I don’t know I’ve just been critical about this in other mystery thriller series I’ve read in the past because it just takes away from the realness of the book by having the main police character have to go off the book. I mean yeah it’s already far-fetched that this little town would have 16 gruesome murders but in the real world if an officer is removed from a case that’s it. There is no sneaking around and doing investigations on their own. So, in these books when they get removed and then everything is all sneaky I just personally don’t love it. I just tried to kind of push that away and enjoy the book but it’s been clear in past books that Kate’s family are good people so the idea that her brother would do something like this is pretty far-fetched. I guess you would have to know the series to know that though so I get why it’s in here.
If you’re a fan of the Kate Burkholder series, or just a fan of a good mystery thriller I would definitely recommend checking out The Burning by Linda Castillo. You just can’t help but love the characters in this series and the people of Painters Mill, so even for just that factor it’s a good read to get into. This is definitely a bit of a gory book, I mean you do get descriptive scenes of someone being burned alive so just keep that in mind if you feel like that might be a bit much for you.
Have you read The Burning by Linda Castillo or any of the other books in the Kate Burkholder series? What did you think?
Thank you for checking out this review, I hope you enjoyed it! Feel free to follow me on my socials @baddiebookreviews to be kept up to date for when I release a new review!
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