A young Amish woman is found dead in a pond with the back of her head bloodied. Although it appears that she was a stranger to Shipshewana, there are indications that Reuben, the owner of the land where she died, knew her. Unfortunately, Reuben refuses to speak to the police, and Tobias (his cousin) and Esther (Tobias's fiancee) are worried that he'll be blamed for a murder they're sure he didn't commit.

Deborah (an Amish woman) and Callie (an Englischer - a non-Amish person) do what they can to help their friends, but with Reuben refusing to say anything in his own defense, their options are limited. Meanwhile, a young Amish man is hiding in the woods - he knew the dead girl, and he may be the key to this mystery.

I feel like my description makes more of Deborah and Callie's amateur sleuthiness than is really warranted - for the bulk of the book, they do very little investigating. Granted, Reuben gives them almost nothing to go on, but it made for an odd mystery. This actually worked better for me if I approached it as general Amish fiction rather than as a mystery.

I got an ARC of this book at a conference (and may have met the author, based on the autograph on the title page). Although I like cozy mysteries, I rarely read inspirational fiction and have never read Amish fiction before. The glossary at the beginning of the book was helpful, and Callie's "outsider" status (Deborah considered her to be as close as family, but she definitely wasn't Amish) gave Chapman plenty of opportunities to work explanations about Amish life and traditions into the text.

This is the second book in a series and I hadn't read the first, so that was a bit of a problem. There were lots of characters with very intertwined relationships, and it was hard for me to keep track of all of them. It didn't help that Chapman spent so little time focused on any one character that it was hard for me to get to know the cast. I learned basic information about several of them (and almost resorted to taking notes in order to keep it all straight - a character list would probably have been as useful as the glossary) but that was pretty much it. As a result, I didn't finish this with a desire to see more of any of the characters - I just wasn't that connected to any of them.

It's a shame, because several of these characters could have been very interesting. Deborah, a married Amish woman with several small children, seemed to be more inclined to amateur sleuthing than Callie, although she had to work it in around taking care of her family. Callie, meanwhile, was a widow (whose husband may have been a murder victim in the previous book? it was tough to tell) who was originally from Houston and somewhat surprised and pleased to find that Shipshewana was beginning to feel like a real home to her. She had not one, not two, but three potential love interests - unfortunately, it was handled in such a lukewarm way that I kept forgetting about the existence of one of the love interest possibilities, and it's probably a good thing that Chapman opted to pair one of those options up with Callie by the end of the book rather than keep the uncertainty going.

All in all, this was an okay read, but a fairly disappointing mystery. The revelation about what really happened to that girl made the bulk of the book feel like a waste of time - the side story about Ira Bontrager's missing daughter turned out to be much more interesting and satisfying, with more amateur sleuthing. I don't intend to read more of this series.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

A perfect Square is about a group of friends. That group of friends seems to bring Mysteries to an English friend that become an owner of Daisy Quilt Shop. When a dead girl is found and an Amish young man is the center of it.

Callie and her friend Deborah need to find out who killed her or what happened to her. Who is Ruben Fisher covering for? Why will he not clear his name? There seem to be more going on than anything when and Old elderly man shows up at Daisy Quilt Shop, claiming to find his long-lost daughter? Will, it seems that this long lost daughter is really a clue to the dead young girl they find in a pond?

Vannetta Chapman does a wonderful job of giving the readers something to hang on to. Will God grace help and mend. There seems to be a family that thinks that their daughter is running and living in the English world? What happens when the parents find out the truth about their daughter? What about the young man that on the run? What happens on Palm Sunday in 1965 with the Tornadoes? ( )

Callie and Deborah are becoming fast friends despite their different cultures. Callie is learning more about the Amish, and Deborah is glad to be her helping friend. They are anticipating with great joy a mutual friend’s wedding when the upcoming nuptials are marred by the discovery of a young Amish woman’s body floating in a pond on the groom’s land. When a cousin is arrested for her murder, Deborah and Callie get involved, trying to find real guilty party. Much of this novel concerns the relationships between the characters and the beliefs of the Amish community. The story is really character driven as there isn’t much of a mystery. Still, it is well written and much of the interest in the story comes the side stories of the characters, with the story being told in flashbacks alternating with the present day. ( )

The Amish living in the town of Shipshewana are shocked when the body of a young woman is found floating in a local pond. They are devastated when Reuben Fisher is arrested as a suspect in her death. Deborah Yoder is convinced he did nothing wrong and she, with the help of her English friend Callie Harper, sets out to try to prove his innocence. Their task won't be easy as Reuben refuses to speak about the case. When not trying to help Deborah, Callie is trying to help an elderly Amish man find the daughter he insists went missing years ago - a daughter no one else seems to know ever existed. Both Deborah and Callie have their hands full and the truth behind the Amish girl's death may be devastating for all involved.

After having read several Amish romances, I was curious to see what an Amish mystery was like and "A Perfect Square" did not disappoint. Author Vanetta Chapman has done an excellent job of blending the Amish life, their English friends, and the mystery. This isn't the type of mystery where you try to figure out who the killer is; instead you find out how the girl died, why Reuben won't talk, and why Samuel is hiding. Chapman takes her time unveiling the story and when the truth comes out it is truly heartbreaking. I think this book would be a good choice for a book club because there could be a prolonged discussion of the actions and decisions of some of the characters, especially Samuel and Reuben. At the end of the book, I'm still not sure whether or not I liked Samuel. After reading the book, my heart ached for so many of the characters. The one thing I didn't like is Callie's tangled love life - three love interests were two too many for my liking.

"A Perfect Square" is a perfect mystery set in the Amish Community. ( )

This was another fantastic book by Vannetta Chapman that I found hard to put down. The characters were so real I felt as if I knew them personally.

Deborah and Callie are investigating the death of a young Amish irk from another community. Reuben has been arrested for her murder and, though he knows the truth, he remains silent. ( )