Amish Fiction Mystery

Sarah Kauffman sought permission from her church elders to paint murals on a few of the Amish community's barns. Each was designed like an old-fashioned quilt square, representing a piece of the Amish traditions Sarah loved. The works of art were intended to draw more tourists to the Home Valley in the struggling economy. But instead, they invited a menace. One by one, each barn is set ablaze and destroyed.…The arson fires spread fear through the community - amongst Amish and Englischers alike. Now Sarah wonders if she's being punished for her pridefulness…or whether there's a more malevolent will at work.

When a historic barn burns to the ground in the middle of the night, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is called in to investigate. At first it looks like an accident, but when the body of 18-year-old Daniel Gingerich is found inside - burned alive - Kate suspects murder. But who would want a well-liked, hardworking Amish man dead? Kate delves into the investigation and discovers Daniel had a dark side. He was a sexual predator. His victims were mainly Amish women, too afraid to come forward, and he's been getting away with it for far too long. Now someone has stopped him, but who?

As a violent thunderstorm rages in Painters Mill, Kate Burkholder receives a call from a frantic young Amish woman: Her two-year-old son is missing. Kate and her officers brave the downpour to search for the toddler, fearing he may have been swept away in the rising creek waters. But an explosive family secret leads Kate to believe this disappearance may be more complicated than anyone is letting on. Can she find the boy and uncover the truth before darkness falls?

There’s more to the quaint northern Indiana town of Shipshewana than handcrafted quilts, Amish-made furniture, immaculate farms, and close-knit families. When a dead girl is found floating in a local pond, murder is also afoot. And Reuben Fisher is in jail as the suspect! Reuben refuses to divulge any information, even to clear himself of a crime Deborah is certain he didn’t commit. So, with her English friend, Callie—fellow sleuth and owner of Daisy’s Quilt Shop—Deborah sets out to uncover the truth.

It's a scorching hot summer in Pleasant Creek, Indiana, but the temperature isn't the only thing that's boiling. Everyone's on edge, including Liz Eckardt and her quilting group, the Material Girls. So when charming Anglophile Cyrus Whittington arrives in an antique car to stay at Liz's bed-and-breakfast, it's like a breath of cool, fresh air. Liz feels an immediate connection with the elderly eccentric. Like her, he came to Pleasant Creek searching for long-lost Amish relatives. She sets out to help him find his family.

Three days before Thanksgiving, two boys disappear without a trace. Eleven-year-old Aaron Kuhns is Amish. Kevin Dennison is 12 and "English". They're adventurers, explorers, and inseparable best friends. When they don't return home from what was supposed to be a fun afternoon of fishing, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder must find the missing boys before the first winter storm of the season bears down on Painters Mill.

In this first book of a three-book series, author Vannetta Chapman brings a fresh twist to the popular Amish fiction genre. She blends the familiar components consumers love in Amish books - faith, community, simplicity, family - with an innovative who-done-it plot that keeps readers guessing right up to the last stitch in the quilt. When two women - one Amish, one English - each with different motives, join forces to organize a successful on-line quilt auction, neither expects nor wants a friendship.

With so much to do between running her shop and spending time with her new boyfriend, it's amazing Angie is able to help organize the Rolling Brook library's annual book sale. Luckily she's working alongside brash librarian Austina Shaker, a lady who isn't afraid to make waves to get books to her patrons - even the Amish. Unfortunately this draws the ire of cranky Bartholomew Belier, an Old Order Amish bishop who publicly vows to ruin Austina.

Two years ago Joseph King was convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to life in prison. He was a "fallen" Amish man and, according to local law enforcement, a known drug user with a violent temper. Now King has escaped, and he’s headed for Painters Mill. News of a murderer on the loose travels like wildfire and putting Chief of Police Kate Burkholder and her team of officers on edge. A nightmare scenario becomes reality when King shows up with a gun and kidnaps his five children from their Amish uncle’s house. He’s armed and desperate with nothing left to lose.

Amanda Flower presents Book 2.5 in the Amish Candy Shop Mystery series.

Daisy's worried one of her employees at Daisy's Tea Garden may be in a spot of trouble. Lately Karina's been loading up on soup and second-day baked goods at the end of her shift - and while the shop's scrumptious treats may be hard to resist, Daisy suspects there's more going on, especially since Karina has been seen hanging out in a rundown part of Willow Creek. Planning her own daughter's wedding is enough to keep her busy, but Daisy can't help feeling a protective maternal instinct - and an instinct to investigate.

The faculty of Willow Creek High School are having a get-together after the spring concert with refreshments provided, courtesy of Daisy's Tea Garden. Oolong tea and chocolate biscuits are just what the staff needs to help them unwind from Althea Higgins's demanding curriculum. Her lessons on such controversial subjects as school uniforms and under qualified substitute teachers are earning her an F from her colleagues. But a failing grade was preferable to Althea falling victim to foul play.

Newlywed Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is awakened by an urgent midnight call summoning her to a suspicious fire in the woods. When she arrives at the scene, she discovers a charred body. According to the coroner, the deceased, an Amish man named Milan Swanz, was chained to a stake and burned alive. It is an appalling and eerily symbolic crime against an upstanding husband and father.

Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is called upon by the sheriff's department in rural, upstate New York to assist on a developing situation that involves a reclusive Amish settlement and the death of a young girl. Unable to penetrate the wall of silence between the Amish and "English" communities, the sheriff asks Kate to travel to New York, pose as an Amish woman, and infiltrate the community.

It's autumn in Painter's Mill, and 14-year-old Katie Burkholder has been tasked with picking apples in Zimmerman's Orchard with her brother. It's just another day filled with chores - until her best friend, Mattie, arrives to help. Somehow boredom transforms into fun and games whenever the girls are together. The innocent fun comes to an end when Billy Marquardt and his gang of friends interrupt. Katie is no prude, but she knows better than to associate with the older English boys.

Mary Lou, a young Amish woman with cancer, is staying in the big city to receive treatment. When her housemates have to move out, she cannot return home because she has been shunned by her parents. Jonah, Mary Lou’s fiancé, is desperate to figure out how to care for her. In a moment of quiet, God speaks to Jonah. Will Jonah choose to embrace the Amish faith and marry his sickly love, or will he run again? Will Mary Lou recover to enjoy the married Amish lifestyle she so desperately craves? This is the 3rd book of a 5-book series.

Liz Eckardt still has a lot to learn about life in Pleasant Creek, Indiana. Expecting the dreary months of February and March to be an "off season" for her newly opened bed and breakfast, she is surprised to find that the Olde Mansion Inn will be filled with a lively group of alumni, graduates of the local high school. It is sectional time for the area's high school basketball teams, and the town is swept up in "Hoosier Hysteria". Liz can't help but get into the spirit, and she looks forward to the upcoming game.

Pleasant Creek, Indiana, buzzes with anticipation as thousands of people converge on the sleepy little town for the annual Harvest Festival. The Kappel Apple Race and the Hog Wild Ride draw groups of cyclists and bikers to Liz Eckardt's Olde Mansion Inn. But tension between the rival groups threatens to ruin the festive atmosphere. As Liz attempts to keep the peace, the conflict among her guests pushes her patience to the limit. The tension escalates when Trent Cleveland, the egotistical champion cyclist, sets his womanizing sights on one of the biker's girlfriends.

The peace of a perfect November afternoon is shattered when Agatha hears the frantic bleating of goats across the river from her B&B. Agatha kayaks over with retired detective Tony and two guests-Bishop Henry and his wife Emma. They find the goats huddled together in a terrified group and Nathan lying face up beneath the Live Oak trees, lifeless eyes staring at the Texas sky.

ver a decade ago, beloved Amish bishop Ananias Stoltzfus disappeared without a trace. When skeletal remains showing evidence of foul play are unearthed, his disappearance becomes even more sinister. The town’s elders arrive in Painters Mill to ask chief of police Kate Burkholder for help, but she quickly realizes she has a personal connection to the crime. The handsome Amish man who stands accused of the murder, Jonas Bowman, was Kate’s first love.