Clouds without Rain (Ohio Amish Mystery Series #3)
In this compact and tautly written mystery, the third in the  series (after Blood of the Prodigal and Broken English), Gaus  portrays vividly the clash of traditional Amish values with the  forces of land development and greed. The author knows his  setting and characters intimately from teaching in central Ohio,  the land of horse-drawn buggies, conservative bishops, and kids  who smoke, drink and otherwise defy their elders. Here Gaus's  series hero, Professor Michael Branden, goes undercover to  investigate teenage buggy robbers on mountain bikes, but soon  becomes involved in something far more sinister. Part of Gaus's  strength lies in graphic description, as in the horrifying  opening scene of auto, tractor-trailer and horse-cart carnage.  Dialogue, while often extended and intense, sounds authentic  when spoken by devout Germanic church members trying to resist  Branden, the police and the encroaching modern world. Gaus has  structured his novel Dragnet style, relating events day-to-day,  moment-to-moment, while the plot unfolds with deceptive  simplicity from the initial gruesome accident. The title is  emblematic of social problems in an old-fashioned land battered  by change. Rural Ohio is suffering from a summer drought, but  midway through his inquiry Branden learns the true biblical  significance of a "cloud without rain, blown along by the  winds." This revelation will also stir the reader. (June 1) FYI: The author is a professor of chemistry and alternative  cultures at Wooster College in Ohio. There's a simultaneous  paperback edition at $13.95, ISBN 0-8214-1380-5.Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.