Rice Channon is a reporter, but he's not Clark Kent. He seems to have a superhuman ability to sniff out murderers, but he's no Superman. The cops simply call him the Ratcatcher. Some of them think he's brilliant. Some think he's just lucky. And a lot of them don’t like him. His boss wants to take him off the police beat. His ex-girlfriend wants him to quit calling her. But there are other souls in his life, and Rice is the only one who sees them. Or is it just his imagination? When he starts looking into the murder of a local atheist activist, everybody seems to want him doing something else. But he just won't stay away from this case. And it might get him killed. Ratcatcher, Be Still. The first book in a new paranormal mystery series by multiple BRAG Medallion honoree, Dennis Anthony.

It was a murder so casually brutal that no one believes it actually happened. Not the police. Not the editor of the local newspaper. The paperboy who saw the crime tells the only person he trusts. That person is reporter Rice Channon, known to the police as the Ratcatcher for his past success in identifying murderers. The cops and Channon’s boss think the boy’s claim is a case of simple hero worship. Nothing more. Rice isn’t so sure. His intuition and his faith in the boy’s story convince him something happened. That and his visions of spirits and angelic beings that follow the boy’s claim. The time is 1972 and society is in turmoil. Gender roles are in flux. The hippie culture is winding down. Madness may be creeping into Rice Channon’s life. Close friends are betrayed. Others die. Now an innocent woman and her son are at risk. And the Ratcatcher, tricked and sidelined, may be unable to save them.

When the son of a wealthy businessman disappears from Navy boot camp, reporter Rice Channon is sent to investigate. What he finds is a confusing whirl of lies, misdirection, and threats. In early 70s Chicago, Rice meets weary hippies, a half-ass mystic, and a retinue of spirits who may want to help him. Or console him. Or kill him. Everything is a jumble, but one thing he knows for someone wants to do him harm and will not stop until he hurts bad. Or is dead. Sometimes the certainty of lies is the only truth.

When police begin discovering the bodies of local teenage girls, it looks at first like each death is an open-and-shut case of suicide. But there are some disturbing anomalies. No blood is found inside the bodies. And none on the ground. Ratcatcher Rice Channon is invited to assist the police in the investigation. They’re desperate, and hopeful that the police reporter’s rumored ability to see the ghosts of the recently departed might help them discover what’s going on. As usual, the reporter’s life is a mess. His true love is getting married to another man. His girlfriend won’t talk to him. And his editor thinks Rice needs to decide if he’s working for the police or for the newspaper. Nothing and no one is what they seem. One thing is for sure, though. The Ratcatcher is going to hurt bad before this is all over.