Plain Dead

November 9, 2015
In Miller’s so-so third Amish mystery (after 2014’s Plain Killing), Rachel Mast, the owner of a B and B in Stone Mill, Pa., where she grew up in the Amish faith she no longer practices, argues on the first day of the Winter Frolic festival with newspaperman Bill Billingsly about the harm that his vicious gossip column has done to innocent people. In response, Billingsly threatens to expose a secret of Rachel’s. When his frozen body turns up tied to his front porch, Rachel’s fiancé, Det. Evan Parks, reluctantly decides to treat her as a murder suspect, driving a wedge between the couple. Rachel’s own investigation of tenuous clues—an Amish man’s hat lost in the snow, for example—leads to a rift with Bishop Abner Chupp, whom she much admires. The divide between Amish and Englishers also provides some tension, but readers should be prepared for stock verbal exchanges between Rachel and Evan, who tells her at one point, “And you need to rein in your emotions and let me do my job.” Agent: Evan Marshall, Evan Marshall Agency.

November 15, 2015
A nosy newsman sets the Amish world of Stone Mill on its ear. Bill Billingsly's stock in trade are the secrets he shares freely in the gossip column of a local paper. He's already shamed Joab and Annie Hershberger by revealing that their son is living in sin with an "English" girl in Delaware. Now he threatens to tell the world that innkeeper Rachel Mast was convicted of insider trading when she worked for Lehman Brothers. Although she's left the high-pressure world of Wall Street behind, even as she had left the quiet world of the Old Order Amish years earlier, Rachel dreads how Billingsly's revelation will disrupt the fragile peace she's made with her family. Before Bill can blab, though, someone kills him by binding him to his porch railing and drenching him with water, leaving him to freeze. Of course, Rachel isn't the only one with secrets to hide. Local potter Blade Finch quietly ditched his book group the night of the murder. Elderly Hulda Schenfeld tells Rachel that Bishop Abner Chupp may have had an illicit relationship before marrying his current wife, Naamah. So Rachel embarks on an unofficial investigation, partly to clear her own name, partly to restore her damaged relationship with her fiance, Pennsylvania state police detective Evan Parks, who's naturally called in to lead the official inquiry. Amiable Rachel's not at her best as she badgers friends and neighbors. Still, Miller's third report from Stone Mill achieves better balance than Plain Killing (2014), merging a well-informed look into the tranquil world of the Amish with a fairly edgy puzzler.

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December 1, 2015
Rachel Mast has returned to Stone Mill, Pennsylvania, after 15 years away in the English world. While her parents have not accepted that she has left her Amish heritage, Rachel is engaged to an Englisher, Pennsylvania state trooper Evan Parks, and owns a local bed and breakfast. She is also in charge of the town's first Winter Frolic, during which she has a heated argument with newspaperman Bill Billingsly, who is later found murdered. Thanks to the argument, to a visit Rachel made to Billingsly's home the night of the murder, and to a secret from her past, Rachel is a suspect along with several others who had reason to want him dead. Evan, the lead detective on the case, must walk a fine line between believing in Rachel's innocence and doing his job. Against Evan's wishes, Rachel investigates to clear herself, causing a rift between them. While it's not very believable that Evan would be in charge of a case where his fiancee is a suspect, this satisfying cozy is populated with well-drawn characters, and details of the Amish and their world are skillfully woven into the story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)