The Rat Catcher by Rebecca Barrett

The Rat Catcher by Rebecca Barrett

The Rat Catcher is the first book in a new detective series by author Rebecca Barrett available Sept. 1 through the serialization platform Amazon Vella.

Set in the deep South of the late 1960s, the series, featuring Hugo August, has as its backdrop some of the most profound changes in American culture.

There are two types of citizens to be found in the port city of Mobile, Alabama, one of the oldest cities in the nation. There are the “old” Mobilians who descended from the original founders, and there are the “other.” Hugo August, raised in St. Thomas More’s Catholic Home for Boys, is definitely among the “other.” It is his task to determine why and how Ruth Prescott Camden, was murdered. In doing so he must revisit old wounds inflicted by the unattainable Bebe Prescott and find his way through the night terrors of flashbacks to his time in Vietnam as he sifts through the complications of the wealthy family’s business, social connections, dark secrets, and often tragic history.

“Rebecca Barrett gives readers a hero they can respect and cheer for in Hugo August, the detective at the heart of this robust historical mystery with a riveting police procedural gloss. With compellingly drawn and accurate history… Readers will find plenty to admire in this tightly woven, layered tale, including suspense, emotional depth, social commentary, conflicting loyalties…” Claire Matturro author of Privilege and Wayward Girls

I’ve been an avid reader all my life and I’m blessed to be the product of “front porch” socializing where all the best stories begin. Growing up on a farm in a very rural area where the phone was on the party line system (yes, there was such a thing) and neighbors socialized by coming to “sit a spell” on the front porch swing, I began my journey as a story teller. The love, laughter, heartache, and sometimes juicy gossip of those visits still whispers to me whenever I sit down at the keyboard and let my imagination run wild.

I’m very excited about a new detective series I’m working on: Hugo August. I find I really enjoy murdering people…on the page, of course.

If you’re interested in being an early reader of this new series, you can go here and download the first three chapters.