Down a Dark Road: A Kate Burkholder Novel

Joseph King, whose plight is the focus of bestseller Castillo’s thrilling ninth novel featuring Painters Mill, Ohio, police chief Kate Burkholder (after 2016’s Among the Wicked), has escaped from prison, two years after he was convicted of shooting his wife dead. Bulletins go out that he may return to Painters Mill, where his children are living with relatives. Kate knows all the evidence pointed to King as a vicious murderer, but she remembers him as the caring, toothy-grinned boy on whom she once had a crush. When an angry, brooding King shows up in Painters Mill, he swears that he didn’t kill his wife and implores Kate to prove his innocence. In short order, there emerge a surprise witness, startling villains, crucial mistakes on Kate’s part, and enough violence to shatter the town’s rural tranquility. Kate’s true love, John Tomasetti, an agent with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, has her back as always, and Castillo skillfully sets each scene, compelling readers to fear the raging stream, sense the tension in a room, and yes, even smell the manure. [em]Author tour. Agent: Nancy Yost, Nancy Yost Literary Agency. (July) [/em]