An Amish-Country Mystery Series

Book 9

P. L. Gaus’s widely praised Amish-Country Mysteries continue to “probe the tension between the self-reliance of the Amish world and the urgencies of the English world” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).

In Whiskers of the Lion, Sheriff Bruce Robertson is charged with finding a young Amish woman on the run from a murderous drug ring so she can testify in federal court. Wrestling with a recurring childhood nightmare of a deadly lion, the Holmes County sheriff finds himself torn between allegiance to the legal system he upholds and the beliefs of the people he is sworn to protect.

Cast a Blue Shadow

by P. L. Gaus

Published 17 November 2003

In Cast a Blue Shadow, his fourth Amish mystery, P. L. Gaus spins a suspenseful tale of power, pride, and tested faith. As always, Gaus explores the threshold of culture and faith among the Amish sects and their English neighbors, combining it here with the political divisions unique to the academic world.
After an early winter blizzard in Holmes County, Ohio, a wealthy socialite is found murdered in her mansion. That same morning, a troubled student, Martha Lehman, turns up at her psychiatrist’s office, bloody and unable to speak.
Professor Michael Branden and Sheriff Bruce Robertson begin an investigation that threatens to tear Millersburg College apart. Mute for many years as a child, Martha is once again unable (or unwilling) to speak. As Branden wrestles with the murder of the college’s leading benefactor, the real story of Martha Lehman begins to emerge—born Amish, converted to Mennonite, and drawn to the “English” world for the worst of reasons.
This new edition of Cast a Blue Shadow features an exclusive interview with the author, reading group materials, and a detailed map and driving guide to Holmes County, Ohio, with everything one needs to visit the iconic scenes depicted in the story.

Clouds Without Rain

by P. L. Gaus

Published 1 February 2001

In the wake of a fatal accident involving an Amish horse-and-buggy and an eighteen-wheeler, Professor Michael Branden, working with the Holmes County Sheriff's Department, becomes suspicious about the true nature of the crash. His suspicions grow when the trustee of the dead man's estate disappears a few days later, and Branden knows he has more on his hands than a buggy crash on a sleepy country road. Faced with Amish teenagers robbing buggies on dusty lanes, land swindles involving out-of-town developers, several people dead, and a bank official missing, Branden struggles to understand the connections that will eventually link all of the pieces together. Clouds without Rain is a well-plotted story about the core of the human condition, as illustrated by the thought and faith of the Amish, and by their stewardship of the land they hold sacred. Once again, P. L. Gaus provides compelling intrigue along with an insight into a culture making its way side by side with contemporary American life.

Separate From The World

by P. L. Gaus

Published 16 June 2008

As another college year draws to an end, Professor Michael Branden is weary after nearly thirty years of teaching. Sitting in his office on a warm spring day, he receives an unexpected visit from an Amish man who claims his brother, a dwarf like himself, has been murdered. Their discussion of the odd details of the case is interrupted by a commotion on campus, which turns out to be the apparent suicide of a young woman, who, it seems, has leapt to her death from the college bell tower. The investigations of these two deaths become intertwined as Professor Branden again teams up with his colleagues Pastor Cal Troyer and Sheriff Bruce Robertson to seek explanations for these bizarre events. Separate from the World is a story of a rift between two Amish factions, one that favors the use of medicine and that participates in a college study of genetic traits particular to the Amish community, and the other that rejects any outside influence. Once more, P. L. Gaus takes us inside a separate culture and, in a manner both gentle and grim, highlights the complex relationship of the Amish and the \u201cEnglish\u201d as they live inside or outside each other\u2019s orbits.

A Prayer For The Night

by P. L. Gaus

Published 14 March 2006

Amid a whirlwind of drugs, sex, and other temptations of the "English" world, a group of Amish teenagers on their Rumschpringe test the limits of their parents' religion to the breaking point. The murder of one and the abduction of another challenge Professor Michael Branden as he confronts the communal fear that the young people can never be brought home safely.

Along with Holmes County Sheriff Bruce Robertson and Pastor Cal Troyer, Professor Branden works against the clock to find a murderer and a kidnapper, and to break a drug ring operating in the county, determined, wherever the trail may lead him, to restore the shattered community. In his desperate search, Branden struggles with the reluctance of the Amish to trust the law to help them find the answers to their problems.

In A Prayer for the Night, his fifth Ohio Amish Mystery, P. L. Gaus deftly balances the pace and practices of Amish life in northern Ohio against the unfolding urgency of a hostage situation. As Gaus has proven before, the mystery gains from its exploration of the ever-widening chasm between the traditional life of the Amish people and their interaction with the outside world.

Blood of the Prodigal

by P. L. Gaus

Published 1 June 1999

P. L. Gaus's Blood of the Prodigal, a mystery in the tradition of Tony Hillerman, is back in a new edition, including an exclusive interview with the author, discussion questions for reading groups, and a detailed map and driving guide to Holmes County, Ohio, with everything one needs to visit the iconic scenes depicted in the story.

In Holmes County, Ohio--home to the largest Amish and Mennonite settlements in the world--mystery and foreboding lurk in the quiet Old Order Amish community led by Bishop Eli Miller.

P>The illusion of peace is shattered one early morning when a young Amish boy goes missing--abducted from his home and from Bishop Miller's care. At first, the bishop suspects the child's father, who was exiled from the Old Order ten years ago, but a murder soon casts doubt on the bishop's theory. With a strong distrust of law enforcement and the modern "English" ways, the bishop must put his faith in an unlikely partnership with Professor Michael Branden before it's too late.

With the help of the peaceful pastor Cal Troyer and the reckless Sheriff Bruce Robertson, Branden plunges headlong into the closed culture to unravel the mystery of the missing child and uncover truths many would prefer to leave undisturbed.