Murder in Rat Alley, Mark de Castrique
Murder in Rat Alley, Mark de Castrique
List: $20.99 | Sale: $14.70
Club: $10.49

Murder in Rat Alley

Author: Mark de Castrique

Series: Blackman Agency Investigations

Narrator: Peter Berkrot

Unabridged: 8 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/28/2026

Synopsis

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―and they love each other. An interracial couple in the new South, the Asheville, North Carolina, 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 . . .

About Mark De Castrique

Mark de Castrique is the author of the Sam Blackman series as well as several other novels and series. 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 is a frequent speaker and workshop leader. He and his wife, Linda, live in North Carolina, where he grew up and has set many of his novels. For more information, visit MarkDeCastrique.com.

Reviews

Goodreads review by PamG on September 21, 2019

MURDER IN RAT ALLEY by Mark de Castrique is a well-written mystery set in and around Asheville, North Carolina. This novel is the seventh book in the Sam Blackman series and can be read as a standalone. The author is a native of western North Carolina and this showed up in how well he depicted the a......more

Goodreads review by Ivonne on December 07, 2024

Mark de Castrique’s Blackman and Robertson novels invariably involve a cold case’s repercussions (usually involving murder) into the present. It may sound derivative, but I have loved every novel, and this seventh novel is no exception. This latest book featuring one-legged veteran Sam Blackman and......more

Goodreads review by Lori on November 28, 2019

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 feder......more

Goodreads review by Chuck on May 14, 2020

Nothing real deep here, but a good mystery set in places that I know like PARI (Pisgah Astromomical Research Center) and Grove Arcade). For me, that makes the story feel real. One potential mistake, I think the author has one of the sheriff's replaced by a special election. That is not generally, ho......more

Goodreads review by Mystica on January 27, 2020

My first read of this author - this book is fine as a stand alone as well. We have a pair of private investigators ex Veterans who somehow find themselves surrounded by the mystery of dead bodies and in this case the body is decades old. Missing from his work station, Frank was a quiet, hard working......more

Pre-Order
Add to Wish List