Murder in Rat Alley

Castrique, Mark de. Murder in Rat Alley. Naperville, Illinois: Poisoned Pen Press, 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 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.

Tupelo Honey Cafe in Asheville

Enjoyed lunch today at the Tupelo Honey Cafe in Asheville, North Carolina.


This was their wonderful Charleston Chicken Sandwich that comes with a cranberry mayonnaise on it!


Of course, we had to take a photo of the official jar of Tupelo honey. One person in our party ordered the rosemary peach lemonade. She said it was very good.


They brought biscuits to everyone (along with honey and some preserves).


Three LibraryThing friends meet up at the Tupelo Honey Cafe.

Boston Diary - June 14

Departure Day! My plane didn't depart until almost 4:30 p.m., but I knew that I'd need to allow time to get to the T and to transfer to the silver line (bus) to get to the airport. I spent the morning in the hotel until it was time to leave. I didn't want to run around Boston because there was a big parade in town. I just didn't think I wanted to be in the crowds with what was left of my luggage.

I ate a chicken caesar wrap when I got to the airport. My plane was leaving from a small gate that was in "terminal E" but was separated from most of the other gates. All that was close was Hudson News and one food place. Rather than going up two floors to the other gates and food court, I decided the wrap would be okay. I had a book with me, and I just sat down, ate, and read until time to board the plane. I finished the one book in the airport and started another when I got on the plane. That plane was really large (one of those with 6 seats across) but there were so few of us that the crew told us we could move to empty seats. Many of us ended up having a row all to ourselves!

We actually got to Detroit ten or fifteen minutes early. I decided to eat at A & W since we don't have those in East Tennessee. I continued to read. I will say that I'm surprised that I had no gate changes all day. The track and field team from Western Carolina University was on the plane returning to Asheville. They had been to a meet in Iowa and told us all about the flooding they'd seen while driving around and while on the plane. I finished the second book before I landed in Asheville. We arrived 20 minutes early. There was no one to open the door from the breezeway into the airport. We had to open it ourselves, and we all wondered if we'd set off an alarm. We saw no airport or airline employees in the terminal except for the TSA folks at the security checkpoint. That's really strange! I got home (to my house) at 12:40 a.m.