Praise for P. L. Gaus’s
AMISH COUNTRY MYSTERIES
“Gaus does an excellent job of incorporating the religious discussion. He does it so well that he teaches us about the Amish and Mennonite faiths without ever forgetting the main problem, Juliet’s murder. . . . [It] all comes together beautifully in the end, making for an excellent read.”
—Big Muddy: A Journal of the Mississippi River Valley
“A fascinating look into the unique and complex worlds of the Amish and academia.”
—Booklist
“Gaus’s eye for detail gives depth and power to a simple tale about complicated people.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“The author portrays the conflicts among the various Amish sects whose varying degrees of strictness in some instances cause them to shun each other. Eschewing any academic pedantry, Gaus manages to expertly enlighten as well as entertain.”
—Publishers Weekly
CAST A BLUE SHADOW
AMISH COUNTRY MYSTERIES
by P. L. Gaus
Blood of the Prodigal
Broken English
Clouds without Rain
Cast a Blue Shadow
A Prayer for the Night
Separate from the World
Harmless as Doves
CAST A BLUE SHADOW
AMISH COUNTRY MYSTERIES
P. L. Gaus
Ohio University Press
Athens
Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701
© 2003 by P. L. Gaus
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved
New revised paperback edition 2020
Paperback ISBN 978-0-8214-1114-8
Ohio University Press books are printed on acid-free paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gaus, Paul L.
Cast a blue shadow: an Ohio Amish mystery / P.L. Gaus.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-8214-1529-8 (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 0-8214-1530-1 (paper : alk. paper)
1. Amish Country (Ohio)—Fiction. 2. College teachers—Fiction. 3. Amish—Fiction. 4. Ohio—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3557.A9517C37 2003
813'.54—dc22
2003058094
For Laura and Amy, and dedicated to my father, Robert L. Gaus, 1924–2002, one of the quiet heroes of the twentieth century.
I Timothy 6:10
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced their hearts with many griefs.
I am always humbled by the infinite ingenuity of the Lord, who can make a red barn cast a blue shadow.
—E. B. White
Contents
A Journey to Places Real and Imagined
Discussion Questions for Reading Groups
Preface
ALL of the characters in this novel are purely fictional, and any apparent resemblance to people living or dead is entirely coincidental. The Holmes County setting for this story is authentic, but Millersburg College is fictional.
The sensational trial of an Amish midwife in Holmes County at time of press was not used as a model for anything in the present story, and no similarities with, or conclusions about, this trial or the people involved are intended.
The author wishes to thank his editors, David Sanders for insight, and Nancy Basmajian for vast expertise. Also, appreciation is due to the many fine professionals at Ohio University Press, an institution of great charm and grace, because of those who labor there. Thanks also to Pastor Dean Troyer, Heyl Road Church of Christ, Wooster, Ohio.
Map by Brian Edward Balsley, GISP
A Journey to Places Real and Imagined
The village of Millersburg, Ohio, is the Holmes County seat. At the village’s center square, there is a sandstone courthouse and a red brick jail, just as I have described them in my novels. Here is the center of my stories, and as you will see, it is all quite real. Other locations that I have used in the novels are also real. Joel Pomerene Memorial Hospital is certainly one of them. It is on a steep hill, beside the Wooster Road, which is Ohio State Route 83. When I first began writing, the hospital was fairly new, and few trees had grown up around it. Today, there are many trees, and the hospital is well used. And as for Sheriff Robertson’s red brick jail next to the courthouse? Well, a new and modern jail complex was constructed several years ago, north of the village, on a hill overlooking the Wooster Road. I still write about the old jail on courthouse square because it suits Bruce Robertson so well.
However, if you tour around Millersburg, you will discover that other locations in my novels are fictionalized. For instance, Missy Taggert’s coroner’s labs are not found in the basement of Pomerene Hospital. Sorry, folks, but I had to put them somewhere, and this seemed like a logical place for her work. The same is also true of Millersburg College and the Brandens’ brick colonial on a cul-de-sac at the top of the hill. These would have been worth searching for, but all you’d actually find there is only an old cemetery. The college, the brick colonial, and the cliffs at the back of the Brandens’ yard all exist quite clearly in my imagination, but nowhere else. I assure you, however, that they are so real to me that I have nearly convinced myself that they are right there where I wrote them into my stories.
Cal Troyer’s little church building and parsonage are also fictional, yet they are completely authentic. I know of dozens of little churches like Cal’s, and it hasn’t required much imagination to portray them as I have. For all the places I have invented, and for the real ones that I have used in my stories, I hope that they occupy a clear and lasting place in the reader’s imagination. I suspect they do, and I will long remember the fellow who buttonholed me after one of my library talks to say that he “loved Millersburg College, and he knew right where it was.”