Plain Confession

February 1, 2018
Rachel Mast (Plain Missing, 2017, etc.) probes a murder in her parents' Amish community.Alma Studer never had much luck in life. Her first husband was a poor provider, and her second was sick for years. Even her Plain neighbors in Stone Mill, Pennsylvania, too unworldly to recognize the form of autism commonly called Asperger syndrome, can see that her older son, Moses, is somehow different. If her daughter, Mary Rose, hadn't married Daniel Fisher, the Studer family would likely have lost their farm. But now Daniel is dead, killed in a hunting accident. The English police--state police who don't always respect the ways of the Amish--insist that Daniel's death is no accident. And when brusque Detective Sharpe questions the Studers, Moses suddenly confesses. Alma, convinced that her son hasn't told the truth, enlists the help of Rachel Mast, who left the community years ago to seek more education than the Amish allow and returned to run a bed-and-breakfast not far from the place where she grew up. Rachel often runs interference between the Stone Mill community and the world outside. So even though she should be planning her wedding--only a few weeks away--to State Trooper Evan Parks, Rachel agrees to talk with Moses, assess whether his confession is genuine, and help him navigate the English justice system. She soon discovers that Daniel may not have been the upstanding family man his neighbors describe and that many both in and out of the Amish community have a motive for murder.Miller's fifth entry continues her streak of successfully combining local color and detection.

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Starred review from February 26, 2018
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.

March 1, 2018
Pennsylvania bed-and-breakfast owner Rachel Mast should be busy getting ready for her wedding to state trooper Evan Parks, but a murder in the Amish community where she grew up is increasingly stealing her attention. Shy Moses Studer has been arrested for putting two bullets in his brother-in-law on the first day of deer season. Moses' mother begs Rachel to prove her son's innocence. As she has in the previous four books in the series (Plain Missing, 2017), Rachel acts as cultural interpreter between the police and the Amish, advising police on what forms of address to avoid, for example, and occasionally translating from English to Pennsylvania Dutch. Nostalgic for some of the clear direction that life in a closed community provided, Rachel ruminates on topics that range from straight pins to cell phones to berry crumble. A gentle read for cozy fans, especially those curious about contemporary Amish lifestyles.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)