Books about the Amish seem to be one of the hot trends right now but I had never jumped on the bandwagon. I tried this one because it is a mystery. It’s a bandwagon I will probably jump off of now. While I didn’t actually dislike this book, it felt like a hot mess.

First to mention what I did like. I am a Christian and so reading Christian novels doesn’t bother me. Some writers, however, have a real problem making Christian dialogue seem realistic and not awkward or stilted. This author does a better job than most at making the conversations regarding the character’s faith seem realistic to what I would hear in my life. Kudos for that!

On to what I didn’t like. I have only a passing acquaintance with the Amish community in our area and I know each one is different but these Amish didn’t feel anything like the ones I’ve had business with. The Amish in this book mostly work in a set of shops run by non-Amish. It’s some kind of tourist place evidently. The interaction between the Amish and non-Amish felt unreal. It didn’t feel the way our interactions with the Amish have been, which is that the Amish are much more interested in keeping their problems within their own communities. They have always been kind, friendly and good workers but I never had the feeling they wanted to discuss their problems with me. I may certainly be wrong but I can only go from my experiences.

The mystery feels like a side issue to what the author wants to say about the Amish-non Amish relationships. The perpetrator really doesn’t have much to do with the story. He’s pretty obvious from the first time you meet him. You won’t be reading this one for the mystery aspect.

This book has a lot of what I assume are supposed to be red herrings. Instead, they felt like rabbit trails, something the author just wanted to talk about. There is a big difference between a rabbit trail and a red herring.

Constantly throwing in the German words in italics when everything else is in English did not help the readability of the book. It was very distracting.

This was the second book of a serious but there’s no problem following the story if you haven’t read the first one. I hadn’t. And I won’t be looking for it. This one is just wasn’t my cup of tea.

This book was provided by Netgalley and I appreciated the opportunity to read and review it.