Plain Confession

Miller’s superior fifth Amish mystery (after 2017’s Plain Missing) opens with the funeral of Daniel Fisher, a well-liked young Amish man who apparently shot himself by accident while out hunting in the Stone Mill, Pa., woods. Soon after the funeral, Daniel’s oddball brother-in-law, Moses Studer, confesses to killing Daniel, and he’s arrested, to everyone’s surprise. Moses’s mother pleads with B and B owner Rachel Mast, who no longer practices her original Amish faith, to prove Moses innocent. Rachel talks to Moses, who won’t retract his confession, but indirectly indicates that he could use her help. She later interviews and re-interviews a number of people, including Moses’s 14-year-old brother and a reclusive non-Amish neighbor, who all shed new and unflattering light on Daniel. The plans for Rachel’s forthcoming wedding to Pennsylvania state trooper Evan Parks are both a prod and a hindrance as she seeks, at great personal peril, to find answers to Daniel’s murder. Miller does an excellent job of portraying Amish life and its often conflicted relationship with mainstream culture. Agent: Evan Marshall, Evan Marshall Agency. (Apr.)