In quiet Painters Mill, Ohio, Officer T.J. Banks finds the body of a naked woman the snow. Some marks on her body make the police force suspect the murderer has killed a number of women before, but stopped fifteen years ago.
The local Chief of Police, Kate Burkholder, knows the area well, as she grew up in the Amish community. She left after the first round of murders, however, and in spite of the evidence, she has good reason to believe the murderer is a copycat. Her private knowledge makes her hesitate to call in help, but soon the decision is forced upon her by the mayor.
The book offers an interesting and probably quite realistic setting, e.g. the Amish community of Ohio, and I liked the taste of Pennsylvania Dutch, which seems much like German. Besides Kate Burkholder is an engaging, well-drawn character, a modern woman in a leading position, who feels torn between her ´English police´ and her loyalty to her family and old friends.
Several plusses to the writer for the setting, the main characters and the level of excitement, but a minus for unnecessary brutality when it comes to the descriptions of the serial killer´s torture of the young, female victims.
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