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Zusatztext PRAISE FOR P.L. GAUS AND HIS AMISH-COUNTRY MYSTERIES "Spellbinding." –Marilyn Stasio! The New York Times Book Review "This is definitely a series worth reading." -- Booklist "Gaus is a sensitive storyteller who matches his cadences to the measured pace of Amish life! catching the tensions among the village's religious factions." – The New York Times Book Review "Precise! detailed descriptions of Amish practices and full-bodied! unhurried! well-measured prose. A pleasure to read." -- Library Journal "Gaus captures the steady cadence of Amish life and offers a vivid depiction of both the world they live in and their particular vision of human experience." --Christian Science Monitor "Gaus has done successfully what would seem nearly impossible: to meld a mystery novel with a description of Amish life in Holmes County without scanting either one." -- Ohioana Quarterly Informationen zum Autor Paul Louis Gaus lives with his wife, Madonna, in Wooster, Ohio, just a few miles north of Holmes County, home to the world’s largest settlement of Amish and Mennonite people. Klappentext P. L. Gaus's widely praised Amish-Country Mysteries continue to "probe the tension between the self-reliance of the Amish world and the urgencies of the English world” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). In Whiskers of the Lion, Sheriff Bruce Robertson is charged with finding a young Amish woman on the run from a murderous drug ring so she can testify in federal court. Wrestling with a recurring childhood nightmare of a deadly lion, the Holmes County sheriff finds himself torn between allegiance to the legal system he upholds and the beliefs of the people he is sworn to protect. CONTENTS PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS THE THEME of this novel is taken from the Scriptures, but Sheriff Robertson’s story arose from a modern song, “Pacing the Cage,” written several years ago by the Canadian musician Bruce Cockburn. I particularly like the version sung by Jimmy Buffett on his 1999 CD, Beach House on the Moon . As I wrote the novel, and as the sheriff’s story unfolded for me, I found myself listening to this song often. I greatly admire both the writer and the singer. Cockburn wrote (and Buffett sang) about the inside of the cage. I have written about the outside. I am especially and continually grateful to my wife, Madonna, for reading my novels with a critical eye, and for her insights on this one in particular. I also thank my two older grandsons, Noah McKee and Grant McKee, for their enjoyable and enthusiastic discussions with me on the content and direction of the story’s ending chapters. They are very insightful young men. Next, I wish to thank the editors at Plume, and especially Denise Roy, senior editor, who has believed steadfastly in this series and whose support has been of great encouragement to me personally and of great benefit to me as a writer. I am also most grateful for the fine work of Mary Pomponio, publicity manager at Plume. Many thanks are due also to my agent, Jenny Bent, for her critical and useful comments on the manuscript. I finally thank Steve and Dawn Tilson and Kate Clements for an engaging evening of literary discussions, which helped me to discover the title for this novel. 1 Wednesday, August 17 4:50 A.M. STAN ARMBRUSTER had been a Holmes County deputy sheriff long enough to know that even the best day could skip sideways on you like a ricochet. With the instincts of all patrol officers, he had ridden his entire career knowing that the positive could flip to the negative with the single bark of a gun. A bark as arresting and irreversible as the clang of a bell. But Stan Armbruster wasn’t going to ride in patrol cruisers any more. He was done with that. Done with the uniforms a...
