‘Shadows of Lancaster County’
by Mindy Starns Clark
Published by Harvest House. January 2009.
ISBN: 978-0-7369-2447-4

Five youngsters, nearly or recently out of high school, become enmeshed in a tragedy and its aftermath one evening when among them they have start setting off fireworks, break out the beer, and become amorous; a fire breaks out in a nearby farmhouse, killing the inhabitants, an Amish couple and their infant son.  Anna Bailey, 17 years old; her brother Bobby, 19 years old; Anna's best friend, Haley Wynn, and her boyfriend, Doug - - all are convicted on charges ranging from reckless endangerment to involuntary manslaughter to public drunkenness, with the oldest, 21-year-old Reed Thornton, with whom Anna had fallen in love, and who was badly burned in the fire, being sentenced to a year in jail and three years of probation.  The others, as juveniles, receive lighter sentences, and all are roundly condemned in the community and the media as drunken murdering revelers. 

The book begins eleven years later.  Anna Bailey is now living in California, where she fled four years after the fire, when she receives a desperate call from her sister-in-law, Lydia, who pleads with Anna to help her:  Bobby has disappeared, and Lydia believes that only Anna's knowledge of her brother, "how he thought, how his mind worked," as well as her high-tech skills as a skip tracer, can help her find him.  Anna immediately goes to Pennsylvania.  Her ensuing investigation turns up evidence that Bobby and Doug had uncovered proof of illegalities in the lab where they worked; Bobby is now missing, and shortly afterwards Doug's dead body is discovered, and the police are searching for Bobby as a 'person of interest.'  Both young men, as well as Reed, had years before become interns in the same lab, which works with DNA research and gene therapy, but Reed is now working in Washington, D.C. as a medical ethicist working in the field of DNA

Anna is a young woman sustained by her faith, ever-present but not dwelled upon, despite the challenges facing her when she must again confront the event that changed her life, and the danger she faces as her search continues.  The book gives the reader insight into the lives of the Amish, going beyond what most people know about the sect, the closeness of the families and of the larger Amish community.  The tale is at once suspenseful and touching, and the conclusion is hugely satisfying.  With today's headlines of expanded stem cell research and the related field of gene therapy thereby effected, it is also quite timely, and is recommended.
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Gloria Feit