Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Cast a Blue Shadow: An Amish-Country Mystery
    Unavailable
    Cast a Blue Shadow: An Amish-Country Mystery
    Unavailable
    Cast a Blue Shadow: An Amish-Country Mystery
    Audiobook6 hours

    Cast a Blue Shadow: An Amish-Country Mystery

    Written by P. L. Gaus

    Narrated by George Newbern

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    Read the ebook instead

    About this audiobook

    After the first blizzard of an early winter, a Mennonite college girl with a troubled past appears curled up and bloodied outside the office of her childhood psychiatrist. Mute for many years as a child, Martha Lehman is again not talking. That same morning, the wealthy mother of Martha's boyfriend is found murdered in her mansion in the country west of Millersburg, Ohio. Professor Michael Branden and Sheriff Bruce Robertson begin an investigation that, in the space of a single weekend, implicates Martha, threatens to tear apart the fabric of Millersburg College, pits one professor against another, and brings Caroline Branden near to a breaking point over the girl she once tried so fervently to help and who now seems determined to let no one help her at all. As Martha struggles to understand her enigmatic past and as Professor Branden wrestles with the murder of the college 6's leading benefactor, the real story of Martha Lehman emerges-born Amish, converted to Mennonite, and drawn to the English world for the worst of reasons.

    In Cast a Blue Shadow, his fourth Ohio Amish Mystery, P. L. Gaus continues to explore the thresholds of culture and faith among the Amish sects and their English neighbors of northern Ohio. Through interwoven plots, Gaus portrays these ways of life at odds with one another despite their seeming harmony. Coupling those clashes with the petty and desperate scufflings of academic politics, Gaus spins a suspenseful tale of power, pride, and tested faith. With Cast a Blue Shadow, Professors Branden and Gaus have done it again.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateDec 20, 2011
    ISBN9780449009277
    Author

    P. L. Gaus

    P. L. Gaus is the author of seven books in the Amish-Country Mystery series. He lives in Wooster, Ohio, an area that is close to the world’s largest settlement of Amish and Mennonite people. Gaus lectures widely about the lifestyles, culture, and religion of the Amish. Visit his website at P. L. Gaus

    Related to Cast a Blue Shadow

    Related audiobooks

    Mystery For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Carrying Love’s Heavy Weight

      Oct 29, 2018

      HOW DO YOU LOVE AUTHENTICALLY WHEN LIES FEEL SO FAMILIAR? That’s the question Kiese Laymon explores in his devastating personal story, Heavy: An American Memoir. Laymon begins the book with an earnest missive to his mother, a professor who raised h

      1 min read

    • Article

      What To Read This Summer

      Jun 5, 2020

      What To Read This Summer
      8 min read

    • Article

      Murders Old & New

      Jun 11, 2023

      Civil rights-era clashes and violent opposition to desegregation may be historically more associated with the American South, but Boston author Dennis Lehane (Mystic River; Gone, Baby, Gone) turns the lens on the hypocrisy and hate of his hometown in

      2 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Prose, Johnson, Sestanovich, and More

      Jun 29, 2021

      This week we're looking at new titles from Francine Prose, Diane Johnson, and Jason Mott. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Prose, Johnson, Sestanovich, and More appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Red Star Rising

      Jul 11, 2021

      With THE VIXEN (HarperCollins, $35), acclaimed writer Francine Prose explores a rich and tense period of American history in the early 1950s, when McCarthyism is waging a cultural cold war and communist sympathisers Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, who ar

      3 min read

    • Article

      Writing Your Memoir

      Feb 15, 2021

      Writing Your Memoir
      8 min read

    • Article

      The 10 Best Novels

      Dec 19, 2016

      The 10 Best Novels
      3 min read

    • Article

      Read This Now

      Sep 28, 2021

      Get exactly 100 words into Jonathan Franzen’s new novel, Crossroads, and you know something’s up with the protagonist. Russ Hildebrandt is an assistant pastor at First Reformed Church in suburban Illinois. It’s Christmas 1971, and Russ can’t think of

      1 min read

    • Article

      July’s BOOK CLUB

      Jun 3, 2021

      When Isla, a 65-year-old grandmother, is left nothing in her mother’s will, her curiosity leads her on a journey of self-discovery. Embarking on a road trip with her reluctant teenage granddaughter, along the way, family truths and secrets come to li

      2 min read

    • Article

      Sins of Admission

      Jun 16, 2022

      Sins of Admission
      7 min read

    • Article

      Leonard Pitts Jr.: America’s nightmare

      Oct 31, 2021

      This is a column about nightmares. On January 28, 1856, Margaret Garner slit the throat of her 2-year-old daughter, killing her. Slave catchers had closed in on the Cincinnati safe house to which Garner, an African-American woman, had fled, seeking

      2 min read

    • Article

      Leonard Pitts Jr.: America’s nightmare

      Oct 31, 2021

      This is a column about nightmares. On January 28, 1856, Margaret Garner slit the throat of her 2-year-old daughter, killing her. Slave catchers had closed in on the Cincinnati safe house to which Garner, an African-American woman, had fled, seeking

      2 min read

    • Article

      A Literary Feast

      Jun 11, 2021

      A Literary Feast
      12 min read

    • Article

      A Literary Feast

      Jun 11, 2021

      A Literary Feast
      12 min read

    • Article

      Disinformation Nation: On Francine Prose

      Apr 26, 2021

      The Vixen makes an implicit argument for good writing, and even good editing, as a form of political defiance. The post Disinformation Nation: On Francine Prose appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Best Books Of The Year

      Nov 26, 2019

      Angry Queer Somali Boy: A Complicated Memoir details Mohamed Abdulkarim Ali’s journey from wartorn Africa to the West. Lost in a strange country (the Netherlands, then Canada) and culture, Ali found it difficult to assimilate. His sexuality was sudde

      4 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Percy, Ho, Chan, and More

      Jan 4, 2022

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Benjamin Percy, Jean Chen Ho, Jessamine Chan, and more—that are publishing this week. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Percy, Ho, Chan, and More appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Best Books

      Feb 8, 2022

      Best Books
      1 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Franzen, Toews, Watkins, and More

      Oct 5, 2021

      This week we've got our eye on new books from the likes of Jonathan Franzen, Miriam Toews, and Claire Vaye Watkins. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Franzen, Toews, Watkins, and More appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    Reviews for Cast a Blue Shadow

    3.5/5

    20 ratings3 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Martha Lehman, a former Amish and now Mennonite woman, had a troubled childhood which caused her to stop speaking for a number of years. Now something has triggered a reaction that has suppressed her speech once again. She shows up at the steps of her counselor with blood on her apron and body. In the meantime, part-time sheriff's deputy and professor at Millersburg College Michael Brandon is called to investigate the death of Juliet Favor, a woman with deep pockets who was about to change her will, giving motives to a multitude of persons. Martha was dating the son of the woman and had been at the home the previous night as had most of the woman's family members and department heads and administrators of the college. Brandon and others do not believe Martha capable of murder but believe she is covering up for someone. The conclusion itself is fairly predictable based on the hints dropped. However, it was a pleasant way to spend a few hours. I personally believe the author was preaching the superiority of Mennonite faith to Amish faith. As a Christian, I do believe in salvation by grace through faith as the author portrayed the Mennonites. However, I'm not sure what the author's point was in bringing up the perceived reliance on good works in Amish doctrine. The material would have been more appropriate in an appendix than in the story as it was irrelevant to the plot. I listened to the audio book read by George Newbern who did a good job as he had in earlier installments.
    • 5/5
      Every action creates a reaction, and often the chain of events is unpredictable. P. L. Gaus spins a spellbinding tale of greed and motherly love careening out of control in this fourth book of his Amish mystery series. Set in Ohio, Gaus does a masterful job of describing the communities of the Amish and the English and what happens when the two interact. There is an undercurrent of despair and secrecy, of control and defiance. Clues are present for the astute reader: match your wits with the characters to solve the mystery.
    • 5/5
      The murder of a multimillionaire in her own home has the quiet county of Holmes stirred up. Being mostly Amish, there is little to no crime in the area, but when it happens the crime is BIG. The problem the police have in solving this case is it seems EVERYONE has a motive to murder Juliet Favor! She is a decidedly wicked woman with a vengeful streak and she has no problem telling people what she thinks of them, from her daughter to the president of the University….or cutting the funds her late husband endowed on Millersburg College and their children. Martha Lehman is a troubled young lady with a terrible past and even she doesn’t understand everything that has happened to her. Silent for years in her youth after this tragedy, Favor’s murder, she goes back to the trusted silence for protection again. Mike Braden is a professor at the college who is aiding the police and a friend of Martha. He is helping interview possible suspects when he gets a call that Martha has been found with blood all over her! The Amish community has never brought peace to Martha, so her friends get defensive when an old neighbor shows up to help Martha. She is either guilty of murder, covering up for someone or too traumatized to speak, but everything in the case hinges on Martha, and her silence is screaming.With a masterful story telling ability, Gaus has you turning the pages of this book as quickly as you can to determine ‘who done it’ and how they did! You don’t want to miss this installment of his Amish-Country Mystery Series!Reviewed by Ashley Wintters for Suspense Magazine