Amish Fiction Mystery

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?

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.

As local merchants unite to attract tourists for a much anticipated weekend quilting event, business is sure to spill over into eateries like Daisy's Tea Garden. Reese Masemer had been dating one of Daisy's employees, Tessa, an artist, though their last interaction was as strained as a cup of loose leaf tea. Now Reese has been found dead near a covered bridge where Tessa's been practicing her sketches.

Keri Wolf has joined the crew of The Seekers, a show that searches for paranormal phenomena, as they explore a supposedly haunted old inn on the road between Philadelphia and Harrisburg. The place is famous for its warm welcome - and infamous for being the site of an ax murder rampage in the 1920s. They’ve barely begun when a very real dead body is discovered in the basement. As a nonfiction author, Keri is supposed to be the rational one, but she can’t explain a terrifying apparition that seems to be both a threat and a warning.

When a young woman is found murdered in a Painters Mill motel, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is shocked to discover she once knew the victim. Rachael Schwartz was a charming but troubled Amish girl who left the fold years ago and fled Painters Mill. Why was she back in town? And who would kill her so brutally?

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.

Wedding bells will soon ring at the Olde Mansion Inn. Liz Eckardt is thrilled to be hosting an autumn wedding at her bed-and-breakfast, and the celebration is even more special because the bride is the goddaughter of her good friend Mary Ann Berne. While planning the joyous event, Liz revels in her new life as innkeeper in the picturesque town of Pleasant Creek, Indiana. On the morning of the ceremony, Liz and her friends in The Material Girls quilting group put the finishing touches on the inn.

Sparks fly when Ruthie enters her whoopie pies in the bake-off at the harvest festival and discovers a local bakery owner used her recipe to enter the same bake-off.

Everyone in Painters Mill knows the abandoned Hochstetler farm is haunted. But only a handful of the residents remember the terrible secrets lost in the muted/hushed whispers of time - and now death is stalking them, seemingly from the grave. On a late-night shift, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is called to the scene of an apparent suicide - an old man found hanging from the rafters in his dilapidated barn.

Pleasant Creek, Indiana's first annual summer arts and crafts fair has Liz Eckardt beaming. Tourists are coming out of the woodwork to get their hands on Amish-inspired goods, and the Olde Mansion Inn, her bed-and-breakfast, is full to the rafters. But when sawbucks start disappearing from the vendors, and Mayor Jackson Cross' furniture samples are marred, it's clear someone is trying to throw a monkey wrench into the festivities.

Daisy's orange pekoe is flowing at a fundraiser - and she's also made a new friend, Piper, a young woman whose hopes for motherhood were dashed by a foul-up at a fertility clinic. But before they can settle into a long conversation, the event is disrupted by masked protestors who object to building a shelter in Willow Creek. Among the angry crowd is Eli - who left his Amish community some time ago, with help from a lawyer named Hiram.

When a baby - only hours old - is discovered on the Amish bishop's front porch in Painter's Mill, Ohio, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is called in to investigate. The newborn is swaddled in an Amish crib quilt, and the only other item found with the child is a hand-carved wood rattle, which Kate also recognizes as Amish.

While enjoying a sleigh ride with his children, Amish widower Adam Lengacher discovers a car stuck in a snowdrift and an unconscious woman inside. He calls upon Chief of Police Kate Burkholder for help, and she is surprised to recognize the driver: fellow cop and her former friend, Gina Colorosa. Years before, Kate and Gina were best friends at the police academy and patrol officers in Columbus, but time and distance have taken them down two very different paths. Now, Gina reveals a shocking story of betrayal and revenge that has forced her to run for her life.

When Jacob Schrock's body is found at the foot of his barn early one morning, it was assumed that he had simply fallen to his death and the community gather around the widow to offer support. Hannah Byler has never married, at 25 she half believes it is too late and she half lives in regret at what she might have done in the Englisch world. As she watches Jacob's body being lowered into the ground her mind starts working and she feels that there may be more to the accident than meets the eye.

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.

Jonah thinks his life is finally back on track when he agrees to stay in the Amish faith and plans to marry his love, Mary Lou. The bliss is short-lived because Mary Lou falls into a coma. While waiting for Mary Lou to awaken, Jonah tries to make amends with his past and prepare for the future. Jonah enlists the help of his childhood best friend, Samuel, to build Mary Lou’s dream house. Samuel convinces his younger sister, Catherine, who’s now all grown up, to help as well. Will Mary Lou wake from her coma? Will Catherine’s presence distract Jonah? Does God have other plans? This is ...

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.

Jonah’s fiancée is in a coma, and he’s wondering if life is still worth living. Do they still have a chance at happiness? Jonah can’t catch a break. While his fiancée, Mary Lou, is in a coma, he loses hope for their future, so he decides to numb the pain with alcohol. In a drunken stupor, he kisses his best friend’s beautiful younger sister, and he gets caught in the act by Mary Lou’s parents. Now, Jonah is wondering if life is still worth living. He’s made a mess of things, and even if Mary Lou does wake up, she will probably never forgive him. Will God redeem Jonah’s ...

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.

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.