Sometimes the past is best left buried
Meredith King longs for escape. Life in Deer Run is stifling, the Amish town too small for a modern woman staying just to care for her ailing mother. When a friend enlists her help in clearing the name of an Amish boy whose decades-old death is still shrouded in mystery, she welcomes the distraction. But when a ghost from her own past reappears, there is suddenly a lot more at stake.
Zach Randal was always a bad boy, and their romance never had a chance. As charming as ever, he returns to town on the heels of a deadly new threat. Is Zach as dangerous as Meredith was always led to believe? Or is the attraction they both feel the only thing that can save them from harm?
Praise for Marta Perry
âPerryâs story hooks you immediately. Her uncanny ability to seamlessly blend the mystery element with contemporary themes makes this one intriguing read.â
âRT Book Reviews on Home by Dark
âPerry skillfully continues her chilling, deceptively charming romantic suspense series with a dark, puzzling mystery that features a sweet romance and a nice sprinkling of Amish culture.â
âLibrary Journal on Vanish in Plain Sight
âMarta Perry illuminates the differences between the Amish community and the larger society with an obvious care and respect for ways and beliefsâ¦. She weaves these differences into the story with a deft hand, drawing the reader into a suspenseful, continually moving plot.â
âFresh Fiction on Murder in Plain Sight
âLeahâs Choice, by Marta Perry, is a knowing and careful look into Amish culture and faith. A truly enjoyable reading experience.â
âAngela Hunt, New York Times bestselling author of Let Darkness Come
âLeahâs Choice is a story of grace and servitude as well as a story of difficult choices and heartbreaking realities. It touched my heart. I think the world of Amish fiction has found a new champion.â
âLenora Worth, author of Code of Honor
âMarta Perry delivers a strong story of tension, fear and trepidation. Season of Secrets (4.5 stars) is an excellent mystery thatâs certain to keep you in constant suspense. While love is a powerful entity in this story, danger is never too far behind.â
âRT Book Reviews, Top Pick
This story is dedicated to my granddaughter,
Greta Nicole. And, as always, to Brian, with much love.
Dear Reader,
I hope youâll enjoy this second book in my latest Amish suspense series. I certainly enjoyed revisiting my fictional community of Deer Run. If you happen to visit my area of north-central Pennsylvania, youâll find many small towns that look very much like Deer Run, nestled in the valleys with the wooded ridges rising above them.
The Amish practice of marrying within their religion is very strong, and parents hope their children will find love within the Amish community, since marrying an Englisch person often results in the child leaving the faith. The strong feelings aroused on both sides seldom lead to murder, however, except in suspense fiction!
Please let me know how you felt about my story. Iâd be happy to send you a signed bookmark and my brochure of Pennsylvania Dutch recipes. You can email me at [email protected], visit me at www.facebook.com/martaperrybooks or at www.martaperry.com, or write to me at Harlequin HQN, 233 Broadway, Suite 1001, New York, NY 10279.
Blessings,
Marta Perry
Trickles tend to become streams,
and streams become torrents.
âAmish proverb
PROLOGUE
A THIN SHAFT of moonlight penetrated the shadows under the trees, turning the surface of the pond to silver. Strange, that the place should look so serene. No one knew; no one even imagined that murder happened here.
A shadow stirred within the densest shadows. Foolish to come here, but on sleepless nights the lure was too great. Stand here for a few moments, that was all that was needed. Remember.
It was safe enough. No one knew, no one watched. The darkness hid everything, just as it had hidden what had been done here twenty years ago.
Accident, theyâd all said. Deer Run locals knew how dangerous the dam was where the stream emptied into the pond below. Only a few feet high, but in times of heavy rain the dam could produce a current as strong as any riptide.
The boy had been careless, people had said. An Amish kid, maybe drinking, maybe showing off, trapped by the dangerous water and drowned. The Englisch spoke of putting up a fence; the Amish said it was Godâs will. Tragic, but understandable.
The secret lay forgotten for twenty years, until those two stupid women had come together again. Theyâd been children when Aaron Mast died, but theyâd loved him. They talked, they wondered, they asked questions.
Well, for all their questioning, what theyâd found was a good enough reason to call Aaronâs death a suicide. Tragic, wasnât it? The village had buzzed about it again for weeks, but now even the talk slipped away like a leaf on the current.