In Rebecca Barrett’s new novel She Had To Die (2025), murder in a small-town near Mobile Alabama sets off a riveting police procedural steeped in late-sixties atmosphere. A beautiful young woman, Ruby Stanton, is found shot dead in a shabby motel, and Mobile detectives Hugo August and his longtime friend Junior Knight are called in. Their assignment quickly grows complicated by small town gossip and complex entanglements—and a rising body count. Barrett delivers a taut, character-driven mystery that blends Southern noir with historical realism, and which also offers up a surprising climax.
Hugo and Junior, friends since childhood, first appear in Barrett’s 2023 novel The Rat Catcher as detectives in the Mobile Police Department. In She Had To Die, the partners are pulled from Mobile to investigate in Spanish Fort because Ruby was a close relative of the local chief of police, Buzz Stanton. Their involvement raises suspicions, especially given the stonewalling and lack of cooperation they soon face. Hugo begins to wonder if they’re being set up as scapegoats. “Something heavy was about to go down and Hugo and Junior would be in the crosshairs.” Or perhaps they’re a smokescreen, as Buzz and a rejected, love-sick deputy named Boo hint at vigilante justice. As more people die, Hugo and Junior ask: “Was Ruby Stanton the unknown curse? Or was she cursed?”
The title stems from Junior’s harsh exchange with Alma, a woman embittered by her unrequited love for Boo: “Don’t you see? She had to die. As long as she was alive, no one could ever be happy.” With those words, Alma becomes one more suspect—along with Boo, Ruby’s married lover or his wife, and several others.
Readers meet Ruby gradually, just as Hugo and Junior do, through the gossip, confessions, and half-truths from townspeople. In a place like Spanish Fort, everyone knew—or claimed to know—Ruby. Much of what’s said is malicious, but Hugo and Junior agree: whoever Ruby was, she didn’t deserve to die. As Junior observes, “[T]o be shot through the heart in a dingy motel in no-man’s land. That was tawdry.”
A college dropout—whether from grief over her father’s death or too much partying depends on who’s telling the story—Ruby worked in a law firm. She kept flexible hours and did little actual work. She was romantically involved with her boss, an attorney willing to create a scandal and an economic disaster by divorcing his wife for Ruby. That messy situation makes both the attorney and his shrewd wife suspects. But the list of potential killers only grows as more murders occur. As a frustrated Hugo rants to a recalcitrant person of interest, “Four people are dead. There has to be a reckoning. You know that.”
Though rumors paint Ruby as frivolous and promiscuous, another portrait emerges through Nelson, her childhood neighbor. Born with brain damage, Nelson never matured mentally, and Ruby became his only true friend. Her apartment is filled with children’s books she read aloud to him. Nelson’s role is both pivotal and poignant, complicating the view of Ruby as just a “party girl.”
As a Vietnam veteran, Hugo suffers from PTSD from his brutal war-time experiences. The author handles this with great care and realism, and her author’s notes thank some Vietnam veterans for sharing their experiences honestly. Hugo also suffers from a scarred childhood as an orphan and from long-term love for a woman socially out of his reach. Junior, in some ways the softer of the two, feels guilty he didn’t go to Nam. He lives happily with his grandmother who cooks for him, dotes on both him and Hugo, and who adds considerable charm and warmth to the story.
A third character, Evie, a kind of hardscrabble forensic team member, rounds out the essential trio first introduced in The Rat Catcher. Though Evie does not get the exposure that Junior and Hugo do, she is nonetheless a sympathetic character worthy of more attention in the next book in the series. Evie is very much a woman in a man’s world working as she does on a forensic team of the Mobile Police Department. She is part of an unrequited love triangle. As Hugo sadly ponders, “The heart wanted what the heart wanted. Junior wanted Evie, Evie wanted Hugo, and Hugo wanted Bebe. No one was happy because love was cruel that way. And now, Alma wanted Boo who had wanted Ruby who had wanted… Who had Ruby wanted?”
Barrett writes with confidence, weaving suspense and psychological depth. The late-sixties setting feels authentic, from front-porch chatter to the shadow of Vietnam. While readers don’t need to start with The Rat Catcher to enjoy this sequel, both novels read together create a richer portrait of Hugo, Junior, and Evie—and a Southern region where secrets never stay buried.
All told, She Had To Die is a sharp, immersive mystery that keeps readers guessing until its surprising but satisfying conclusion. Barrett avoids clichés, offering instead complex characters, an authentic setting, and storytelling that lingers long after the last page.
Rebecca Barrett
Rebecca Barrett is the author of historical fiction, cozy mysteries, post-apocalyptic fiction (as Campbell O’Neal), children’s stories, and Southern short fiction. She also co-authors the Callahan cozy mystery series with Susan Tanner. A lifelong storyteller, she lives in South Alabama. Visit her at https://rebeccabarrett.com/.
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