Set in the period just prior to the Civil War, Soul Catcher follows the dangerous journey of professional slave hunter, or soul catcher, Augustus Cain to bring back two runaway slaves of wealthy plantation owner Eberly to whom Cain has gambling  debts. The prose is descriptive and evocative with its greatest strength in characterization. Cain is a scarred, laudanum addicted, Milton reading, veteran of the Mexican War whose journey will bring him face to face not only with the nature of his task but his own past. This book had me hooked within a page and a half.

A detailed review can be found here and here.