[amazon_link id=”0452297869″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]Title : Harmless as Doves
Author : P. L. Gaus
Genre : Mystery
Pages : 224
Publisher : Plume
Source : Publisher ARC
Rating : 4/5

Bishop Leon Shetler is the religious leader of his people, a small Amish community. His placid serene world is upset one day when an Amish young man Crist Burkholder confesses to the murder of Glenn Spiegle. Crist loves 17-year old Vesta and she him, but Vesta’s father, close-minded Jacob Miller has arranged her marriage with Spiegle, a wealthy Amish convert 20 years Vesta’s senior. Vesta and Crist rebel, and when Crist has an altercation with Speigel on the issue, Speigel is found beaten brutally to death.

People talk and point fingers at the unholy influence of Darba Winter’s Rum Room, a little barn area where Amish kids have an opportunity to see the wild side, i.e.; a room with a tv, vcr, computer etc. Besides this Darba’s husband Billy is good friends with Speigel and has helped settle him in the Amish community. Sheriff Bruce Robertson and the rest of the policing community have trouble believing that Crist has actually murdered Speigle, and when the evidence backs this up, Robertson realizes that something bigger is afoot. Meanwhile Jacob Miller is killed while in Pinecraft, a little vacation spot, where the Amish go to enjoy the beach. Robertson then calls upon Sgt. Ricky Neills and Professor Michael Branden to help unearth the truth.

I haven’t read P.L.Gaus before and the last time I read a book about the Amish community it was Jodi Picault’s “Plain Truth”. Gaus’s writing style is slow and meticulous; he describes people, their surroundings and their thoughts in great detail, which helps one steep in the atmosphere. I do appreciate this kind of languorous writing because it gets me, as a reader, firmly ensconced in the story and the lives of the characters, and once you are in and hooked, you stay. As I did.

The story took its own time, even though the muder occurred early on. Gaus does a good job describing the Amish culture and the interactions and influences on the community from outside, “English” world. He fleshes out Shetler, his wife Katie characters and sheds light on Crist and Vesta’s predicament. I didn’t quite get Pastor Cal Stroyer and his daughter Rachel’s issues with Robertson – possibly because I haven’t read the other books in the story? Then there was Michael’s wife Caroline’s remorse over having killed a man in self-defense – probably also a reference to past events in a previous book. Barring these minor references, which don’t really impact the story, this book stands quite well alone.

I thought that the book did have a religious undertone, with Bishop Shetler harping on about being thankful – be “as wise as serpents and harmless as doves”, and the need for remorse and forgiveness. Also the murder mystery is straightforward, no loopholes and no surprises, once you know how it happened, so that was a tad disappointing. Overall though this was a good read, and well worth the time.