Murder in Rat Alley

October 21, 2019
At the start of de Castrique’s nicely plotted seventh Sam Blackman mystery (after 2017’s Hidden Scars), the skeletal remains of a body are found near Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, once a NASA tracking station but now a weather research center, outside Asheville, N.C. When the bones are identified as those of Frank DeMille, a software engineer who disappeared in 1971 while working on the Apollo space mission, the FBI is called in to handle the case. Cory DeMille, Frank’s niece, approaches her PI friends, Sam and Nakayla Robertson, and asks them to investigate, as she’s certain that the FBI will stonewall her. Sam and Nakayla agree to assist. The subsequent murder of Loretta Case, who was Frank’s girlfriend and the secretary for the head of PARI back in 1971, raises the stakes. De Castrique skillfully entwines the reasons for the two deaths and provides a fascinating motive that spans the decades. Intelligent, kind protagonists and an eye-opening historical background help make this one winner. Readers will look forward to seeing more of Sam and Nakayla.

December 1, 2019

In 1971, computer programmer Frank DeMille disappeared from Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) in North Carolina, where he and coworkers were tracking the Apollo 12 mission. Nearly 50 years later, his body is uncovered near the facility. 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. Initial suspects include the brothers of DeMille's fiancée; additional suspects arise when Sam 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? VERDICT The seventh "Sam Blackman" mystery (Hidden Scars) has the right amount of action, humor, and intrigue. Fans of the humor of Robert B. Parker's "Spenser" series with some North Carolina history thrown in will enjoy Sam's relentless pursuit of the truth.--Edward Goldberg, Syosset P.L., NY

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2019
A murder in the past spawns violence in the present for PI Sam Blackman and his partner in life and work, Nakayla Robertson. Skeletal remains dug up on the grounds of Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) near Asheville, North Carolina, prove to be those of brilliant NASA software engineer Frank DeMille, who vanished in 1971 during an Apollo moon launch and is found to have been killed. Working on behalf of a close friend who's DeMille's niece, Blackman plans to talk to Loretta Case Johnson, who also worked at PARI and was DeMille's fianc�e, but he finds her garroted just after she sang a song at her band's pub appearance that hints at knowledge of her true love's killer. Someone trying to bury the past kills again and threatens Blackman and Robertson before the full, convoluted scheme, involving more decades-old murder and espionage, is revealed. A fellow army vet advises Blackmun that Disinformation creates doubt, chaos breeds confusion, words that also show this solid entry in the Sam Blackman series to be particularly pertinent today.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)