SWORN TO SILENCE by Linda Castillo

This mystery/suspense novel is the opening salvo for Romance writer Linda Castillo. Her writing is tight and evocative but a bit short on action after the first pages. After the first horrifying and graphic prologue she spends a bit too much time delving into her protagonists mind. It takes a bit of diligence to get past this but after that the pace picks up considerably. The main character, Kate Burkholder, is the police chief in Painters Mill,Ohio and a former member of the Amish community. Chief Burkholder is thrown into a case of violent murders that may be linked to her past as a young Amish girl. I read this book in 5 hours which gives it credence as to it's ability to pull the reader into the story. Unfortunately I was able to discern the identity of the murderer half way in to the novel. While Ms. Castillo  has a firm grasp on the basics of forensics and police procedure she leaves too many overt clues as to the identity of the killer. I enjoyed the book and will definitely read the next one in this series however I hope that in future books Ms. Castillo is a little more adept at creating red herrings for those of us who read a lot of mysteries.