Murder in Rat Alley

By Mark de Castrique

In this unusual spin on the classic spy novel, murder strikes from our wartime pasts…

Iraq War veteran Sam Blackman with his prosthetic leg and his no-nonsense private eye partner Nakayla Robertson love their investigations which always carry a thread from the past—and they love each other. An interracial couple in the new South, the Asheville, NC, pair has surrounded themselves with a terrific support team including an unorthodox lawyer and a veteran cop. They deploy humor both to bind them together and to deflect insults. Plus, it helps deal with the tragedies their work uncovers.

Such a tragedy interrupts a meeting between the PIs and the neighboring law office when a body is unearthed from the grounds of the nearby Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute. During the Cold War it monitored developing space programs. Today it plays a vital role gathering weather and climate data. The body has been in the ground a long time. Why would its discovery spark off a new murder in Asheville's mountain music scene, the victim found amid the garbage of dark, dank Rat Alley?

She was the fiancée of the man murdered long ago. But surely this case is more than a domestic drama playing out over time….

The Blackman Agency Investigations excel at merging past and present, bringing little-known history to light, and are perfect for fans of James Lee Burke, Stephen Mack Jones, Margaret Maron, and Robert B. Parker.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sourcebooks
• Release date: Dec 31, 2019
• ISBN: 9781492699415

Mark de Castrique

Mark de Castrique grew up in the mountains of western North Carolina where many of his novels are set. He's a veteran of the television and film production industry, has served as an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte teaching The American Mystery, and he's a frequent speaker and workshop leader. He and his wife, Linda, live in Charlotte, North Carolina. www.markdecastrique.com

Reviews for Murder in Rat Alley

[edgoldberg · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In 1971, computer programmer Frank DeMille disappeared from Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) in North Carolina, where he and co-workers were tracking the Apollo 12 mission. Nearly 50 years later, his body is uncovered when a construction crew creates a control line to stop a forest fire by the facility. Forensic evidence indicates DeMille was murdered. His niece enlists private detectives Sam Blackman and his partner/lover, Nakayla Robertson, to pursue a parallel investigation to that of the police. The initial suspects include the brothers of DeMille's fiancee who disapproved of DeMille. Additional suspects arise when Blackman learns that DeMille sent a letter to his brother-in-law, Eddie, an intelligence officer during the Vietnam War, seeking advice about anomalies at PARI. Eddie died several months after receiving DeMille's letter and pushing it up the ranks. Could these deaths, as well as recent murders, have something to do with military intelligence? Could this killing spree be related to something 50 years earlier?This seventh Sam Blackman mystery (Hidden Scars) has the right amount of action, humor and intrigue. Fans of the Spenser series' humor and action with some North Carolina history thrown in would enjoy Blackman's relentless pursuit of the truth.

[thornton37814 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Sam Blackman and his partner Nakayla Robertson investigate a death linked to the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute near Asheville. The man's remains were found when equipment was brought in to help with current operations. He had been missing for decades. His former fiancee does not trust federal officials to get to the bottom of things because she thinks PAGI and other agencies covered up his disappearance. In the meantime someone burns Nakayla's home. Sam and Nakayla must work with several jurisdictional law enforcement agencies to get to the bottom of the case. I enjoy the series, but this installment did not hold my attention as much as some, likely because of some espionage elements. I learn odd bits of Western North Carolina history because of this series. The setting always delivers! This review is based on an advance review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[tymfos · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This latest installment in the Sam Blackman series was a good one. Like all the entries in this series, it's a little unusual. In the process of bulldozing an emergency fire break during a forest fire, the long-buried body of a long-missing computer scientist is found at a facility with past ties to the Apollo program. The family of the dead man -- one of whom is a friend of Sam and Nakayla's -- asks them to investigate. Is this in any way tied to the death of the dead man's brother, a military intelligence officer, in Vietnam? Both seem to have died at about the same time. This case proves to be dangerous, as other murders and a firebombing seem tied to Sam and Nakayla's investigation.As always with this series, in the process of following the investigation, the reader is introduced to more interesting locations in the Asheville, North Carolina area.

[cathyskye · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I never would have known how interesting a spot Asheville, North Carolina is if not for Mark de Castrique's Sam Blackman mysteries. de Castrique is a master at blending past and present into engrossing tales, and Murder in Rat Alley is certainly no exception. Much of the action revolves around the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, a real place that monitored space programs during the Cold War and now plays a vital role in gathering weather and climate data. The dead man was a computer genius who worked there, and the dead woman was his fiancée. Everyone assumed that the dead man just got cold feet and disappeared one night, but the discovery of his body close to the Institute buildings tells Sam and Nakayla that something more sinister is afoot. The two begin teasing out clues to what happened with some hair-raising results. When the killer was revealed, I told myself that I should have known-- much, much earlier the character had said something that should have made my clue detector go TILT.I really enjoy this series for what I learn about Asheville's history and for the mysteries that are always fun to solve, but the glue that holds everything together is the team of Sam and Nakayla, an interracial couple who are first-rate investigators. They also have a great sense of humor and a fantastic support group that includes an eccentric lawyer and a veteran cop-- and a coonhound named Blue who likes to sleep a lot. Whenever I know there's a new Sam Blackman mystery, I start packing my bags for Asheville. If you like the perfect blend of mystery, history, humor, and characterization, you should join me.