Mr. Patton Barker, a Maine moneyman who built himself a resort empire in the Pine Tree State and a railway to bring vacationers to it, has a target on his back. Though he's often relied on the Pinkerton Agency for protection, a recent string of robberies and threats has made him anxious about the safety of The Barker, his secluded, lakeside hotel which sits at the foot of Bald Mountain in Oquossoc, Maine. The arrival of Agent Morgan does little to assuage his fears and when his worst nightmares are realized, he finds that his story is only part of a much larger conspiracy. The first book in the Ragamuffin Trilogy, The Night The Barker Burned Down is part mystery, part comedy, part metareal adventure set at the time of Holmes yet a world away, on the other side of the Atlantic. It will be followed in the years to come by The Murder of Madame Restell, Abortionist and Babis the Knife.