Clouds Without Rain — (2001)

An Ohio Amish Mystery

By P. L. Gaus

“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

In the wake of a fatal accident involving an Amish horse-and-buggy and an eighteen-wheeler, Professor Michael Branden, working with the Holmes County Sheriff’s Department, becomes suspicious about the true nature of the crash. His suspicions grow when the trustee of the dead man’s estate disappears a few days later, and Branden knows he has more on his hands than a buggy crash on a sleepy country road.

Faced with Amish teenagers robbing buggies on dusty lanes, land swindles involving out-of-town developers, several people dead, and a bank official missing, Branden struggles to understand the connections that will eventually link all of the pieces together.

Clouds without Rain is a well-plotted story about the core of the human condition, as illustrated by the thought and faith of the Amish, and by their stewardship of the land they hold sacred. Once again, P. L. Gaus provides compelling intrigue along with an insight into a culture making its way side by side with contemporary American life.