"tense medical murder thriller"

In Maplecreek, Ohio, school teacher Leah Kurtz's life long friend, more a sister than a pal, Barbara Yoder is dying from leukemia after giving birth just one month ago. Her husband Sam is not coping well and in some ways blames his infant daughter Becca. Before dying, Barbara, with Sam's blessing, asks Leah to raise Becca as her own. Leah agrees loving the child as if she is the biological mother.

Research Doctor Mark Morelli investigates natal accelerated aging, one of several genetic problems plaguing the Amish. He has a mixed welcome as some Plain People want him to stop playing God; while others welcome him. Leah has become knowledgeable with genetic illness since Barbara became sick; she wants the outsider to succeed. Mark realizes she is his liaison with the community. Leah starts having doubts that the infant she cares for is Becca; increasingly believing a switch occurred. Finding dead flowers everywhere adds to her paranoia, but perhaps someone is trying to drive her and Mark out of town before they discover the dark secrets that someone wants kept hidden.

DARK ANGEL, Karen Harper's third "Dark" Amish tale (see DARK ROAD HOME and DARK HARVEST) is more a medical murder thriller than a romance though the love subplot between the lead couple enhances the prime mystery. The story line provides terrific juxtapositions between frightening crimes and nurturing caring individuals. Early on the tale slowly establishes the cast and their but once the eerie intrigue takes over, the pace goes to jet speed until the finish as the audience wonders who is the DARK ANGEL?

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted June 12, 2005

Summary

Well-researched and rich in detail, this addictive follow-up to 2004's Dark Harvest transports readers back to the peaceful Amish community in rural Maplecreek, Ohio. Young spinster schoolteacher Leah Kurtz becomes involved in a conflict between her horse-and-buggy culture and futuristic genetic research after she agrees to adopt the infant daughter of a friend dying from one of the hereditary diseases that plague the Plain People (in real life as well as in fiction). Vicious graffiti targeting "English" outsider Mark Morelli, a doctor researching disease cures, sets a sinister mood that grows darker when his ultra-responsible, teenage Amish assistant mysteriously vanishes. After someone switches Leah's adopted baby in the cradle for another infant, Leah and Mark team up to investigate a series of unsolved disappearances that may lead back to Leah's former fiancé, who abandoned her at the altar years earlier. With its tantalizing buildup and well-developed characters, which ensure that the burgeoning romance between Leah and Mark is as potent as the book's suspense, this offering is certain to earn Harper high marks.