A body is found under the floorboards!, It's an Amish man who disappeared forty years ago. After Ettie Smith's friend dies, Ettie is surprised to find that she has been left her house. During building repairs, the dreadful discovery is made. When it comes to light the former owner of the home and the victim were once engaged to marry, the police piece together a scenario where Ettie's friend is the killer. Ettie knows her friend is innocent and sets out to prove it.Could an old key found in the house change everything?
After Ettie Smith's friend, Agatha, dies, Ettie is surprised to find that Agatha has left her a house. During building repairs, the body of an Amish man who disappeared forty years earlier is discovered under the floorboards. When it comes to light that Agatha and the deceased man were once engaged to marry, the police declare Agatha as the murderer. Ettie sets out to prove otherwise. Soon Ettie hears rumours of stolen diamonds, rival criminal gangs, and a supposed witness to the true murderer's confession. When Ettie discovers a key, she is certain it holds the answers she is looking for. Will the detective listen to Ettie's theories when he sees that the key belongs to a safe deposit box?
Rachel Hurst sacrificed the life she wanted to stay home and care for her father and siblings after her mother’s death. But now her father has decided to remarry, and there’s no room for Rachel. Desperate to find a job, she accepts the position of housekeeper for a wealthy elderly woman in her isolated mansion. Jacob Beiler thought he had gotten over Rachel’s rejection, but when she arrives as the new housekeeper, he is battered by both joy and bitterness at seeing her again. When odd near accidents threaten the elderly woman’s well-being, her relatives are quick to point fingers, but Rachel suspects someone is intent on harming her employer. When no one believes her, the only person she can turn to for help is Jacob. With danger deepening, Rachel faces a situation that could cost her life…and will certainly break her heart once again.
In the Mysteries of Middlefield series, readers will be immersed into exciting mysteries and authentic Amish culture. With a twin brother and five younger brothers, Mary Beth Mullet’s house is in constant chaos. Her parents don’t seem to mind the noise, but she needs a break from all the pestering and babysitting. It’s the summer before eighth grade, and Mary Beth plans to escape to her secret place as much as possible. The old barn in the neighboring field is dangerous, and her parents have forbidden her to go there, but she escapes to it as often as she can. Mary Beth soon discovers she is not alone in the barn. Someone is living there; someone who needs help. Can Mary Beth help the stranger without losing her secret place? And what if the barn is as dangerous as her parents say it is? Readers will identify with Mary Beth’s struggles for peace and independence and be engrossed in the excitement and danger of A Summer Secret.
When Ettie has problems with her bread sinking in the middle, she turns to her friend, Ruth Fuller, who owns the largest Bakery in town. When Ruth and Ettie discover a dead man in Ruth's Bakery with a knife in his back, Ruth is convinced the man was out to steal her bread recipe. It was known that the victim, Alan Avery, was one of the three men who were desperate to get their hands on Ruth's bread secrets. When it's revealed that Avery owed money all over town, the local detective believes he was after the large amount of cash that Ruth banks weekly. Why was Alan Avery found with a Bible clutched in his hand? And what did it have to do with a man who was pushed down a ravine twenty years earlier?
Return to Home Valley with book one in Karen Harper’s fan-favorite romantic suspense series Budding artist Sarah Kauffman has turned a few of her community's barns into works of art, painting intricate murals on their sides to represent a piece of the Amish traditions she loved. But she’s unwittingly invited a menace into the town, as one by one, each barn is set ablaze and destroyed… The fires spread fear through the community, and arson investigator Nate MacKenzie struggles to investigate the crime scenes while adhering to the community’s ways. As the fires rage, beliefs are challenged, a way of life is questioned and family secrets are exposed. Now Sarah wonders if she's being punished for her pridefulness…or whether there's a more malevolent will at work.
Now the subject of the Lifetime original movie, An Amish Murder Sworn to Silence is the first in Linda Castillo's New York Times bestselling Kate Burkholder series. A KILLER IS PREYING ON SACRED GROUND.... In the sleepy rural town of Painters Mill, Ohio, the Amish and “English” residents have lived side by side for two centuries. But sixteen years ago, a series of brutal murders shattered the peaceful farming community. In the aftermath of the violence, the town was left with a sense of fragility, a loss of innocence. Kate Burkholder, a young Amish girl, survived the terror of the Slaughterhouse Killer but came away from its brutality with the realization that she no longer belonged with the Amish. Now, a wealth of experience later, Kate has been asked to return to Painters Mill as chief of police. Her Amish roots and big city law enforcement background make her the perfect candidate. She’s certain she’s come to terms with her past—until the first body is discovered in a snowy field. Kate vows to stop the killer before he strikes again. But to do so, she must betray both her family and her Amish past—and expose a dark secret that could destroy her. *BONUS CONTENT: This edition of Sworn to Silence includes a new introduction from the author and a discussion guide.
Against the backdrop of the 1893 World’s Fair, a new kind of crime comes to Gilded Age Chicago . . . and a lonely young woman is always at risk. Back on the farm in Wisconsin, Rosalind’s plan had seemed logical: Move to Chicago. Get hired on at Sloane House, one of the most gilded mansions of Chicago. Discover what transpired while her sister worked as a maid there—and follow the clues to why she disappeared. Now, as a live-in housemaid to the Sloanes, Rosalind realizes her plan had been woefully simple-minded. She was ignorant of the hard, hidden life of a servant in a big, prominent house; of the divide between the Sloane family and the people who served them; and most of all, she had never imagined so many people could live in such proximity and keep such dark secrets. Yet, while Sloane House is daunting, the streets of Chicago are downright dangerous. But when Rosalind accepts the friendship of Reid Armstrong, the handsome young heir to a Chicago silver fortune, she becomes an accidental rival to Veronica Sloane. As Rosalind continues to disguise her kinship to the missing maid—and struggles to appease her jealous mistress—she probes the dark secrets of Sloane House and comes ever closer to uncovering her sister’s mysterious fate. A fate that everyone in the house seems to know . . . but which no one dares to name. “Gray writes with honesty, tenderness, and depth. Her characters are admirable, richly layered, and impossible to forget long after the story is done.” —Jillian Hart Part of the Chicago World’s Fair Mystery series: Book one: Secrets of Sloane House Book two: Deception on Sable Hill Book three: Whispers in the Reading Room Book length: approximately 95,000 words Includes discussion questions for book clubs
In small town Laurel Ridge, not everything is as simple as it appears After a terrible betrayal, Allison Standish flees Philadelphia for the small Amish village of Laurel Ridge to claim an unexpected inheritance. Allison intends to sell the mansion housing various shops on Main Street—until she meets Nick Whiting, a single father and tenant of Blackburn House, who challenges everything she believes about her estranged grandmother and the Amish community. Strange stipulations in her grandmother's will soon bring distant relatives and seething townsfolk to Allison's door. As anonymous threats escalate, Nick grows protective of Allison, and she finds herself falling for the handsome carpenter… But then she discovers her grandmother's death may not have been accidental, and someone wants Allison gone. Permanently. "Perry's story hooks you immediately. Her uncanny ability to seamlessly blend the mystery element with contemporary themes makes this one intriguing read." —RT Book Reviews on Home by Dark
