loribonesscaswell

It is harvest time in Heavenly and Claire is excited to try out one of Mose Fisher’s famous corn mazes. Her excitement quckly turns to terror and she rounds a corner and comes face to face with a very dead Harley Zook. Harley was a local Amish dairy farmer and handyman.

This investigation is going to be difficult for Detective Jakob Fisher. Mose Fisher is his father and because Jakob has been shunned by the Amish Community he has not had any recent contact with the man. When the evidence starts to point directly at Mose things get even tougher. Claire feels she has to step in and find the real killer before someone else turns up dead.
Dollycas’s Thoughts

Cozy mysteries are my favorites and Laura Bradford (aka Elizabeth Lynn Casey) is one of my favorite cozy authors. She is an amazing storyteller so I always know the book is going to be a great read but with this story she absolutely blew me away!!

When an author writes a series each book brings a new adventure and the characters continue to evolve. This has to be extremely difficult. You have to tell the reader enough to get them engaged but you can’t “spill all the beans” too soon. In the first 2 books of this series we were introduced to Jakob Fisher and knew he had been shunned by his Amish Family. In this story Jakob takes center stage and we find out more details but also see the pain he must endure for the choice he made.

Most of us know the Amish live a simple life. They do not have telephones or electricity and travel by horse and buggy. Personally there is an Amish community near here and my daughter visits often. She shops in their stores and bring me the most delicious baked goods. I have also witnessed some of their excellent building and woodworking skills. But I never really think of those that have been shunned for choices they have made. How they can forgive someone who may have committed a terrible crime against them but when a member of their family makes a choice after baptism to leave the community they cannot be forgiven. They are ex-communicated (shunned) forever. Even if they have left to protect and serve others. The way Jakob has to deal with this just breaks my heart. Claire is trying to understand the workings of the Amish too, just as I was and this really added to my relationship with this story.

In addition to this character study Bradford creates an outstanding mystery that she weaves right into this heartbreaking situation. There were so many twists and turns it was hard to believe this story took place in just 288 pages. She packed the drama and emotions into this story, it left me reeling.

I love my cozies and with no disrespect intended at all. This was so much more than a cozy mystery. This is a story that is going to stick with me longer than any story I have read in a long time. It was so eye-opening and thought provoking.

Laura you really hit a home run with this one. You get my first Paradise rating of the year. I can’t wait to travel back to Heavenly again soon.