Breaking Silence (2011) is another in the Kate Burkholder murder mystery series.

Mixed feelings.

The writing is average, at best.

BUT troubled Kate, as a former Amish teen turned police chief, faces interesting scenarios.

The Slabaugh family are model Amish farmers, prosperous and hardworking, with four children and a happy extended family.

When the parents and an uncle are found dead in their barn, it appears to be a gruesome accident: methane gas asphyxiation caused by a poorly ventilated cesspit.

But in the course of a routine autopsy, the coroner discovers that one of the victims suffered a head wound before death–clearly, foul play was involved.

But who would want to make orphans of the Slabaughs’ children?

And is this murder somehow related to a recent string of shocking hate crimes against the Amish?