Book Review: Down to the Bone

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Down to the Bone     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Karen Harper
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Ethnic
Mira, Jul 2000, $6.50, 408 pp.

Three years ago, forty-one members of the Maplecreek Amish community move across Ohio to buy affordable farmland and end their zoo-like attraction to tourists. Among the re-locaters are Sam and Rachel Mast and their twin sons. However, only two years of bliss in their new home passes when Sam dies in what is believed to be a freak accident. A year later, Rachel has radically changed and her neighbors feel she has become a rebel defying the conformity code of her people.

Rachel works her own farm and refuses to marry church leader Eben Yoder. Even more scandalous is her friendship with her English neighbor and with Englishman Mitch Randall, a restorer of barns. Mitch wants to repair Rachel’s barn, which leads to a forbidden attraction between them. While Rachel struggles with this crisis of the heart, someone begins to terrorize her in actions that she feels are linked to Sam’s death.

Anyone who wants an insider’s look at the religious, cultural, and political lifestyle of the Amish will want to read DOWN TO THE BONE. Karen Harper makes her characters seem alive although readers will wonder why Rachel does not seem to suffer heartache from her sudden loss nor qualms about breaking rules that she adhered to all her life. The exciting story line will retain the audience’s attention throughout a tale where suspects are eliminated one at a time in a strange manner.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner