Shadows We Remain by Mose J Gingerich

Private investigator Bruce Ellsworth is familiar with the Amish. In his previous job as Sheriff in Castleton, Illinois, he was occasionally summoned to the nearby Amish community of Caroline Creek to solve a minor disagreement. But when an Amish family arrives at his office seeking help in finding their missing son, Bruce quickly finds himself caught up in a tangled web of FBI informants, Mafiosos, and secret societies that threaten to upend his whole world, and possibly get him killed.

At seventeen, Maria Reader is destined to follow in the footsteps of all Amish girls that came before—baptism, marriage and about a dozen children. Unfortunately, it is Maria’s brother Eli who has disappeared, which changes everything. Maria faces an impossible dilemma: forget about her brother, as her church elders demand, or do the unthinkable to try and save him.

Maria teams up with Bruce, and together they uncover a decades-old secret—Eli is not the first from Caroline Creek to disappear under mysterious circumstances. What’s even worse is that the criminals may be getting help from someone inside the community.

Category: Thrillers – Psychological

A community is most vulnerable without its leader. When Bishop Mast disappears from the Amish community of Caroline Creek, rumors, gossip, and speculation quickly begin to dominate conversations. That speculation is soon replaced by worry, and then, fear. Someone, or something, is manipulating members within the community—an invisible force, playing God with their lives. Still, steeped in tradition and manmade rules, they try mightily to stay the course. Now, they must elect a new leader to replace the bishop. But even in this simple task, the invisible force intervenes.

Maria Reader, a controversial Amish teen who is perpetually at odds with the ministers, who lives with one foot inside the community and one foot out, is one of the only people asking the tough questions. Maria teams up with Bruce Ellsworth, an English private investigator, to search for the missing bishop.