An Evil Heart, by Linda Castillo

An Evil Heart by Linda Castillo

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Linda Castillo’s novels require us to put aside our preconceived idyllic notions and reveal that humanity’s darker side is alive and well in the Mennonite community.



Spoiler alert: This novel reminded me of Miriam Toews’ book, Women Talking, which focused on a Bolivian community of Mennonites that had been experiencing unexplained mass sexual assaults for several years. (A movie based on these true events is now available on Apple TV, Google Play, Amazon Prime, etc.)



Obviously, the Bolivian victims were being drugged in some way, but it appeared that the Bolivian government declined for many years to intervene in the “self-government” of this remote Mennonite community. Indeed, it is, in part, thanks to Miriam Toew’s courageous exposure of this horror, and the impact of the movie adaptation of her book, that the silence surrounding sexual abuse in the Mennonite community is finally being addressed. Miram Toews: RESPECT!!!!



Major Spoiler Alert: In An Evil Heart the rural community of Mennonites in Painters Mill is experiencing a similar “drug-rape” epidemic amongst the younger members of Castillo’s fictional world. Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is tasked with capturing and exposing the perpetrator(s) of these heinous acts. But it appears that someone armed with a crossbow is also out to put a stop to such “unholy” behaviour in their community.



Graphic Violence Warning: The descriptions of various assaults and attacks were very detailed.

The heart-pounding ending had me cringing and kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Contrarily, I found the investigatory portions very slow, occasionally tedious, and repetitive, but I get that this attention to detail and “re-examination” is probably true to life in a real murder investigation. (In retrospect, I realize now that they were also a welcome respite in between all those aforementioned high impact scenes!)

On the bright side: this is also the installment in this ongoing series where Kate and Tomasetti are scheduled to tie the knot, finally! … Or will there be yet another delay?!!!



Highly recommended – a 4.3 rating from me. My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an ARC of the audiobook of this novel in exchange for an honest review. (I suspect I would have preferred to read the ebook ARC, but I was a bit late in the game when I noticed this title, so was grateful to receive this well performed audiobook.)

View all my reviews