Broken English: An Amish Country Mystery

Broken English is the 2nd book I have read by P.L. Gaus , I reccommmend all of his books in this series .

Ever since I met the author and his wife, I have been wanting to sit down with a cup of hot tea and read these books back to back. Now that this one has arrived in the mail, I will be able to do that (well, almost). I thoroughly enjoyed this one as much as I enjoyed his first one. No, this one did not have as much information on the Amish as his first book (The Blood of the Prodigal) which focused on the shunning practice. This one though shows that a man can be redeemed in spite of his past. This one also shows that what goes around will come around. Professor Branden was asked again to solve the mystery. An Amish man's daughter was murdered in what was considered a break & entering gone wrong. The murderer was captured and put behind bars, apprehended by a man who just happened to be there down the street from the murder scene. Then within a few days, another person was murdered which threw the first murder case out of whack since the suspect is behind bars. Now instead of just one murderer, there's two and the second one is roaming free. This one is not as intense as the first book was but it is very well-done and intriguing enough to keep me turning the pages till the end. This one shows the author's knowledge of firearms and it is rather interesting to read about it. All in all, while this one doesn't have a personal feel of the characters to it like the last one did, it did have a suspense-feel to it and in my opinion, it is written much better than Grisham's books. 4/29/08

I hope Paul Gaus continues on with his Amish work. I am a fan of Amish Lit. and mystery. I have read many books before about the Amish and "their ways" by people who claim to be experts. They are not, but Mr. Gaus is. Right from the begining to the last page, his detail and knowledge, entangled with suspense and intrigue will make you too, a Gaus reader for life. His story lines and characters are easy to follow, and you will not put it down until you are finished.

Okay, I am biased. I grew up 20 minutes from where most of the story takes place and I like to read about home. However there is still a good mystery here. Even better is the fact that the ending is not entirely predictable. Gaus throws in enough twists that you might have to re-read the last 10 pages just to be sure that you figured it out correctly.The characters are likable, believable and Gaus works at developing them. No one is going to confuse Gaus with Agatha Christie, but this series is certainly as well written as Grisham.