A review by jeanz
Lamb to the Slaughter by Karen Ann Hopkins

5.0

Please tell me this is the start of a new brilliant series!!

INITIAL THOUGHTS
Looking forward to this one with mixed feelings, trepidation and a little anxiety, as I truly loved the Temptation Series, will I love this too?"

MY REVIEW
I received a ARC of this one from the Author via Kismet Book Tours in exchange for my honest opinion and review.
The cover shows a pretty bleak sky over a large cornfield, which is an important place within the book as that is where Naomi Beiler's body is found. I love the Amish buggy on the cover too as well as the plainer, perhaps Amish like font.
So now to the actual plot, Serenity is the new Sheriff of the small rural town she grew up in, though the old Sheriff Tony Manning still seem's to think he is ruling the roost!
There is a large Amish community which also comes under Sheriff Serenity's jurisdiction so when an Amish girl is found dead in a corn field, she has to investigate. She learn's that the Amish prefer to "take care of their own" and Tony Manning takes great delight in goading her that she will never find out how the Amish girl was shot. After taking with her Deputy and the coroner about how to approach the Amish she visits Daniel Bachman, a man who was brought up the Amish way but left to "go English". Daniel agrees to help Serenity but only if she does things "his way" which means them pretending to be in a relationship and using the pretense that Daniel may he considering going back to being Amish. So alongside of the girls death plot we also have a fledgling romance too. I really enjoyed how the two plot lines ran along side each other. Finding out what happened to Naomi becomes even more personal when she finds out someone close to her is kind of involved (but I refuse to say who as that would be a large spoiler!).
The story is told from three points of view, you have Serenity in the "now" after the body has been found. Then there is what happened leading up to the death told by Naomi's point of view. Also towards the end of the book we have some of the story told my Daniel Bachman and his point of view.
I really enjoyed the mystery, suspense and drama in this book as well as it indulging me a little more in my fascination with the Amish culture. Karen Ann Hopkin's writes so well and the just flows brilliantly, I really enjoyed it. So much so as I was reaching the end I didn't want it to be over. I really hope that this book is just the beginning of a series. We can see Serenity and Daniels relationship develop as well as seeing Serenity solve other cases. There is a hint towards that at the end of this book.
So did I enjoy the book? Definitely Yes! Would I recommend the book? Again, definitely yes! Would you read another book in this series if there is one? I certainly would and I do hope we are going to have more of Serenity, Daniel, Todd, Bobby and the Amish. Would you read other titles by Karen Ann Hopkins? I would certainly take a close look at anything written by this author, I love her writing style and plots.