When Secrets Strike
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
In Laurel Ridge, Pennsylvania, a community once united must suspect one of their own
Amish quilter Sarah Bitler's dreams no longer feature a husband and family. Instead, she searches for success in the quilt shop within Blackburn House, a place once tarnished with deadly secrets. She refuses to let the past influence her future…until an ominous fire forces them to collide.
Firefighter Aaron King was the first to touch Sarah's heart—and the first to break it. Now a widower and father of two small girls, his return to Sarah's life brings her buried feelings to the surface. As a string of horrific incidents tears apart their community, an arsonist's wrath threatens to destroy them all. With Aaron as the only suspect, Sarah must follow her instincts to find the truth. But to protect an innocent man, she might risk her heart to Aaron again…and risk her life to an unknown killer.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Perry's entertaining second House of Secrets romantic mystery (after Where Secrets Sleep) is set in the largely Amish community of Laurel Ridge, Penn. Sarah Bitler is a single businesswoman, partnering with Allison Standish (the previous book's heroine) to run a quilt shop. The love of her life, Aaron King, married someone else and is now a widower with two daughters, and she assumes she's lost any chance of gaining his affection. They're brought closer together by a series of arsons that seem to be targeting local farms, which also puts Aaron's life at risk, as he's a volunteer firefighter. As the investigations continue, with subplots involving a shady real estate deal and an aging widow, the stakes rise. Perry weaves a deft tale, taking a solid traditional cozy mystery plot and melding it nicely with a largely chaste romance. The spatterings of Amish culture and German phrases ("that makes gut sense," "was ist letz") are either explained contextually or explicitly, and they serve the story well.