Review & Giveaway: Kingdom Come by Jane Jensen

When Detective Elizabeth Harris left the NYPD to return to her native Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, she assumed her professional duties would keep her busy. She hadn't, however, expected that one of her first cases would be murder.

Jane Jensen's Kingdom Come is a light police procedural mystery set in the heart of Pennsylvania Amish country. The novel starts with the discovery of the body of a teenage girl in the barn of a local Amish farmer. It is soon clear that the victim is English (not Amish), but her connection to the Amish community is just one of several puzzles surrounding the crime.

Jensen built up the story well. There were enough clues, false leads, and questionable characters to keep me from guessing the killer. In addition, I thought the main characters--Detective Harris, her partner Detective Grady, and her love interest Ezra--were well developed, and I had a clear sense of who they were and and what motivated them. On the other hand, not all of the secondary characters were as vivid, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the mystery.

Besides the murder, Kingdom Come touches on a number of issues. I was especially interested in the relationships between various categories of people: the English and the Amish, men and women, and city and country, for example. The novel also explores issues most Amish communities face: what happens when a community member decides to reject their way of life, what kinds of technology are allowed, attitudes about education, and the power (or pressure) of the church. The story also touches on darker topics, but listing these would give away too much of the book.

Recommendations: Kingdom Come is the first in a new series by Jane Jensen so you can get in on the ground floor. The novel will appeal to those who like police procedurals set in a small town and those who like stories involving the Amish. I sense the potential in the main characters, and I like the balance Jensen found between focusing on the crime and letting us see Harris's personal life. This is not a cozy but neither is it a hard-core crime novel.

Published by Berkley Books, 2016
ISBN-13: 9780425282892
Source: Review (see review policy)
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy)

The Giveaway: Thanks to the nice people from Berkley Prime Crime, I'm able to offer one of my readers with a US mailing address a copy of the paperback original of Jane Jensen's Kingdom Come. All you have to do to be entered for a chance to win is to fill out the following form. I'll pick a winner using a random number generator on January 25. Once the winner has been confirmed and the address is sent to the publisher, I'll erase all personal information from my computer. Good luck!