Review of Shunning Sarah, by Julie Kramer

Fast-paced with a sense of humor and a shiver of terror, Shunning Sarah uncovers layers of mire in the Amish community of Harmony, Minnesota and among the TV broadcast staff of Spartz’s Channel 3. Julie Kramer’s Riley Spartz, veteran TV reporter, is back after a Hamlet-sized ending of death in the last book. She’s limping a bit—her truly annoying new boss is crimping her style, and her nightmares and loneliness haunt her. When her mother calls with a tip about a boy trapped in a sinkhole, she thinks it might be a big enough story to catch her boss’s eye. That will be the least of her concerns. Staying alive would be good.

One doesn’t think of the Amish as creators of mayhem, but Kramer makes a convincing case for them as major trouble. Or perhaps the people closer to her really pose the danger. A naked dead woman pulled out of that sinkhole demands justice and Riley keeps going after it for her, even when she’d be wise to keep her mouth shut. In a climactic scene that I can’t give away or you’ll send me angry emails, the bad guy—one of them anyway—gets the most creative finishing off I’ve read in a long time, maybe ever. And then the scene of real hell-and-brimstone-style retribution comes. Kramer definitely knows how to keep you glued to the couch, flipping pages as fast as you can. And if you are interested in the Amish, you’ll be glad to hear she’s done her homework, a lot of it, very intelligently. The book is full of the fascinating details and background without overloading the pacing at all. You get an inside glimpse, sometimes a good hard stare, at the Amish. Have fun.