Coming Spring 2009:

Sworn to Silence
St. Martins/Minotaur

Some secrets are too terrible to reveal . . .
Some crimes are too unspeakable to solve . . .

The Amish came to America to escape persecution and establish a separate, unique and peaceful way of life. A few settled in the sleepy rural town of Painters Mill, Ohio, where for two centuries the Amish and "English" residents have lived side by side.

Sixteen years ago, a series of brutal murders shattered the peaceful farming community. A young Amish girl, Katie Burkholder, lived through the terror of the Slaughterhouse Murders. In the aftermath of the killings, the town was left with a sense of fragility, a loss of innocence, and for Katie, a realization that she didn't belong.

Now, two dead parents and a wealth of experience later, Kate has been asked to return to Painters Mill as Chief of Police. Her Amish background combined with her big-city law enforcement experience makes her the perfect candidate. Kate is certain she's come to terms with the past...until the first body is found, brutally slaughtered in a field of pristine snow.

Kate vows to stop the killer. But no one knows about the secrets she kept as a fourteen-year-old Amish girl. Dark secrets that bind her to a madman and threaten the life she's built for herself in Painters Mill. Kate knows if she doesn't succeed, the violence of her past will repeat itself, and this time she may not survive...