cover image Her Last Breath

Her Last Breath

Linda Castillo. Minotaur, $25.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0-312-65857-1

Bestseller Castillo’s fifth Amish thriller featuring Painters Mill, Ohio, police chief Katie Burkholder (after 2012’s Gone Missing) is a stunner. In the prologue a hit-and-run driver crashes into the buggy of Paul Borntrager, killing him and two of his children and seriously injuring a third child. Katie, who was a good friend of Paul’s wife, Mattie, before Katie left the Plain Life, now has to inform Mattie about the accident. An examination of the scene provides clues that the crash may have been deliberate, and more police work strongly suggests that it was premeditated murder. Meanwhile, kids discover human bones in an abandoned grain elevator—bones that have a connection to Katie’s past. Those twin dramas play out, each in surprising fashion, as the search for the hit-and-run vehicle and the killer continue. Castillo once again displays her mastery of edge-of-your seat suspense. Author tour. Announced first printing of 100,000. Agent: Nancy Yost, Nancy Yost Literary Agency (June)