Review: Rage by Linda Castillo

 

Rage (Kate Burkholder #17) by Linda Castillo

Publication Date: July 8th 2025 by Minotaur Books & Macmillan Audio

Pages: 304

Audio Book Length: 9hrs 17min

Narrator: Kathleen McInerney

Source: Publishers

Rating: ★★★★

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Librofm | Audible | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Chief of Police, Kate Burkholder, is called to the murder of Samuel Yutzy, an Amish man who owned the local landscaping/tree farm. The scene is a disturbing one and it takes a lot of police work and interviews to get the smallest bits of information, but Kate and her team are determined to nail the bad guys. Especially when they discover another murder.

 

Kate’s background with the Amish helps pave the way for cooperation between English and the Amish community. As she questions Samuel’s family and friends it becomes apparent that he was running with an unsavory crowd but had been turning his life around.

 

The story was a page-turner, and I really like Kate, but just like the last book she charged ahead without waiting for backup and it ended badly almost every time. It was frustrating and hard to believe a seasoned police chief would do this over and over. With that being said, the mystery was hard to put down and the conclusion was a nail-biter!

 

Rage is book seventeen in the series, but I think it could be read as a standalone as each book introducing a new mystery and is wrapped up by the end. I would highly recommend reading at least the first couple of books to get Kate’s history being raised Amish and the circumstances that led to her leaving. It has bearing on how she came to be the police Chief of Painters Mill and includes the start of the romance between Kate and Tomasetti, an Ohio BCI agent.

 

I alternated between an audio and e-copy and can recommend either version. Kathleen McInerney’s wonderful narration enhanced my enjoyment! Her accents and performance of Deitsch accents are well done.

4 Stars

Book Description:

In this gripping new installment of the Edgar Award winning series, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder investigates a brutal double murder that takes her into the dark underbelly of society and exposes the dangers of Amish lives gone wrong.

Summer has arrived with a vengeance in Painters Mill, and a macabre discovery by three Amish children brings the quiet to a grinding halt. Chief of Police Kate Burkholder arrives on scene to find the dismembered body of 21-year-old Samuel Eicher, a local Amish man who owned a successful landscaping business. What twisted individual murdered him in such a sadistic way?

The investigation has barely begun when, miles away, a second body is found, stuffed into a barrel and dumped in a ravine. The deceased is 21-year-old Aaron Shetler, Samuel Eicher’s best friend. What could these two young Amish men have done to deserve such violent ends?

With a heat wave bearing down, Kate learns quickly that, for reasons she doesn’t understand, no one is willing to talk about what happened to the men. Just as she begins to fear the case may be hopeless, a mystery woman comes forward and reveals that fun-loving Aaron and Samuel had recently befriended some very unsavory characters―individuals who may have ties to a larger, more sinister, black market.

To solve the case, Kate must delve into the most sordid corners of her community, but when she gets too close, the killers target Kate herself. Will the secrets simmering beneath the surface of Painters Mill take another life before she can expose the truth? Or will Kate be the final victim?