The Names of Our Tears - The Eighth Amish-Country Mystery by P.L. Gaus

The eighth Amish-Country Mystery, The Names of Our Tears, will be published by Plume, a division of Penguin Group USA, and its projected ‘on sale’ date is May 28, 2013.  This will be the first Plume paperback original in the series.  As in the other novels, Sergeant Ricky Niell, Sheriff Bruce Robertson, Pastor Cal Troyer, and Medical Examiner Melissa Taggert play important roles in Holmes County, Ohio, where most of the story is set.  But Professor Mike Branden and his wife Caroline, who are vacationing on Longboat Key west of Sarasota, join the action in the normally tranquil Pinecraft Amish community. In addition to the soft-cover Plume edition, there will be electronic versions and a large print edition.

Synopsis:

When Ruth Zook returned home to Holmes County, Ohio, she was carrying a heavy suitcase and a heavier heart.  Coerced into transporting drugs on the bus, Ruth retaliated by destroying her illicit burden, and she paid for it with her life.  When Fannie Helmuth learns of Ruth’s murder, she goes immediately to Sheriff Bruce Robertson to confess that she was similarly coerced while working at a restaurant in Sarasota.  Robertson realizes that the drug dealers’ operations reach all the way to Florida, and he quickly moves the investigation South, where more innocent lives are in jeopardy.  The theme of the story is taken from Psalms 34: 17-18.

Opening passage:

    It was Coblentz chocolate that had Mervin Byler awake so early that morning—fine Coblentz chocolate, and the artful widow Stutzman who made it. This would be his seventh trip this spring up to the heights at Walnut Creek, and he knew the best gossips in the valley would be making sport of him again today.