Neve Campbell Solves AN AMISH MURDER

Nice Girl Rueben usually reviews Lifetime movies for us, but when the chance came to screen An Amish Murder, I grabbed it. The Lifetime movie is based on the novel [easyazon-link asin=”B00375LMT8″]Sworn to Silence[/easyazon-link] by Linda Castillo, a murder mystery I read a few years ago that stuck with me in a way few books do, and I had to see if the film adaptation lived up to the book. It did.

Neve Campbell stars as Kate Burkholder, the new Chief of Police in rural Painter’s Mill, Ohio, a small town in Amish country. A native of the area, Kate grew up Amish before a horrible experience forced her to leave behind friends, family, and the man she was supposed to marry. Seventeen years later Kate returns as Chief of Police, but has yet to reconnect with her brother or the Amish community – when she left, a ban was placed on her preventing the Amish from even looking at her let alone communicating.

When a local Amish girl is discovered raped and murdered in a field one snowy morning, the horrors of Kate’s past come flooding back. A serial killer who terrorized the area years ago appears to be back in action, or is it a copycat? When a second murder rocks the community, Kate and her staff race to unravel the mystery before the killer strikes again. Small town politics, reluctant witnesses, and family secrets combine with a twist you won’t see coming.

Campbell pulls off complicated Kate with apparent ease. She’s authoritative, vulnerable, smart, lonely – a character you want to spend more time with and uncover the layers of her personality. Noam Jenkins co-stars as John Tomasetti, a profiler sent in by the state to aid the investigation. As damaged as Kate, he challenges her like no one else. Jenkins plays Tomasetti with a bit more humor and a bit less sarcasm than in the book, which makes it easier to see him as a romantic interest for Kate. I was never completely comfortable with their relationship in the book, but it plays better here.

The movie deftly portrays the complicated relationship between Kate and the Amish community, primarily in the forms of her brother, Jacob, and former betrothed, Lucas. The shunning, and the events leading up to it, left Jacob grieving the loss of his sister. Now that she’s back, he’s forbidden to speak to or even look at her, and it’s eating him up inside. Meanwhile, Lucas never knew why Kate left all those years ago. He has since married and started a family, but those unanswered questions and unresolved feelings lead him to seek answers.

Time constraints prevent us from really getting to know the rest of Kate’s staff: rookie TJ, Army vet Nichols, old-timer Skid, and dispatcher Mona. They’re a colorful set of characters in the book and would add depth should Lifetime decide to continue Kate’s story.

Speaking with reporters last month, Campbell, who is also an executive producer of the movie, said she sees potential for An Amish Murder to become a TV series. “It’s an interesting character, an interesting concept,” she said. “I’ve definitely been talking to [Lifetime] about the fact that there’s enough there within this community and within this concept that we can tell years’ worth of stories.”

An Amish Murder certainly leaves plenty of opportunities to explore what makes Chief Burkholder tick, the juxtaposition of the Amish and English communities, and the relationships between Kate, her family, her staff, and Tomasetti. Until a TV series materializes, read more about Kate Burkholder and Painter’s Mill in [easyazon-link asin=”B004IK9E5K”]Pray for Silence[/easyazon-link], [easyazon-link asin=”B00AF46RH6″]Breaking Silence[/easyazon-link], and [easyazon-link asin=”0312658567″]Gone Missing[/easyazon-link]. The fifth book in the series, [easyazon-link asin=”0312658575″]Her Last Breath[/easyazon-link] will be on bookshelves in June.

An Amish Murder premieres Sunday, January 6 at 9/8c on Lifetime.