Dear Reader,

I hope you’ve been enjoying my Echo Falls books as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them. It’s always a little sorrowful when I come to the end of a series, but soon I’m looking forward to the next project.

This story came out of a conversation I had with another writer a few years ago, when we discussed the difficulty of someone actually pretending to be Amish. While it’s fascinating to think of a hero or heroine hiding from danger in an Amish home, it would be very hard to pull off in reality because of the language. The Amish speak Pennsylvania Dutch to each other, and young children don’t usually learn much English until they start school. So the average person would be totally lost in an Amish home, since very few people outside the Amish community know Pennsylvania Dutch.

But my heroine, Rachel, is different. The child of a runaway Amish mother and an English father, Rachel grew up spending her summers with her mother’s Amish family on the family farm. So when danger thrusts its way into her ordinary life and she needs a place to hide, she can sink back into the world she loved as a child. Her time spent on the farm allowed me to contrast Rachel’s fear and anxiety with the calm, peaceful life at the farm, and I found it fascinating to write about the differences.

I hope you’ll let me know how you like my book. You can find me online at www.martaperry.com and at www.Facebook.com/martaperrybooks. If you’d like to receive a signed bookmark and my Pennsylvania Dutch recipe brochure or sign up for my newsletter, just let me know at either place.

Best,

Marta Perry