River Rats

River Rats is a mystery-love story set in the world of today's Ohio River towboats, a world few may enter. A series of shootings and the unexplained demise of an old-time steamboat bring three childhood friends together. Jerry Burnside, a romantic harbor owner, and Charlie Summers, a wealthy all-river man, compete as they did as youngsters for the love of Kay Kenny, the seductive owner of a barge line. The search for the sniper and the answers to the mystery that has haunted the three friends' lives takes the reader to dangerous out-of-the-way places of the river past and present: a tiny fishing village deep in the Kentucky backwoods; a depressed river town full of secrets; and the drought-stricken Mississippi banks where the old steamboat is sunk in the sand. Legends and lore of the river play a large part in the characters' lives and enrich the magical atmosphere and style of River Rats.