Rachel Kreutztrager
Fun stories for little ones, spooky for the teens, and grown-ups who like it macabre.
Picture books, young adult & adult fiction by Rachel Kreutztrager
Rachel writes from St. Louis, Missouri, where she lives with her husband and four kids — and the real ferrets and the real cat who star in her picture books. Her young adult novels trade the backyard for haunted shores. Everything here is shelved by audience, and her one book for grown-ups sits in its own separate, age-gated Adults Only section at the bottom of the page — never mixed in with the children's or teen books.
Picture Books
For children · Family friendly
Warm, funny read-alouds starring Rachel's own pets — a pair of ferret explorers and one very serious cat detective.
Ella & Beans: The Great Gateway Arch Adventure!
Picture Book · A St. Louis Adventure
Ella and Beans are two curious ferrets with a map, a backpack, and a whole city to explore. Their adventure takes them to the most famous landmark in their hometown — the Gateway Arch — in a story that doubles as a first tour of St. Louis for young readers.Based on Rachel's real pet ferrets: Ella, with the pink nose, and Beans, with the black nose — the same two who inspired every page.
Format: Paperback, 24 pages, 8.5 x 8.5 in · Ages: 3-8 · Setting: Gateway Arch, St. Louis
Dusty the Detective: The Silent Big Ben
Picture Book · Dusty the Detective, Case #1
One foggy morning in 1895, Big Ben — the great bell of London — goes completely silent. No BONNG at eight. No BONNG at nine. So Dusty polishes his magnifying glass, straightens his deerstalker, and climbs all 334 steps of the tower, where he finds three clues: grey feathers, scone crumbs, and the unmistakable smell of strawberry jam. A cozy mystery for ages 3 to 8, with four detective extras — a Clue Hunt, a tower maze, a design-a-disguise page, and a "My Case File" activity. Dusty is played, in real life, by Rachel's own tabby cat.
Format: Paperback · Ages: 3-8 · Series: Case #1
Dusty the Detective: The Phantom of the Thames
Picture Book · Dusty the Detective, Case #2
One foggy evening in 1895, boatman Old Tom knocks at Dusty's door: there is a phantom on the Thames — tall as a house, white as moonlight, wailing in the fog — and the boatmen will not row after dusk. Dusty follows giant wet paw prints, a rope chewed clean through, and a half-eaten fish supper into the fog, to find what the fog has been hiding all along. Case #2 is a mystery about a phantom who was never a ghost at all, just a very good dog waiting to be found. Includes four detective extras: a Paw Print Match, a Foggy Dock maze, a design-a-dog-collar page, and a "My Case File" activity. For ages 3 to 8.
Format: Paperback, $12.99 · Ages: 3-8 · Series: Case #2
For those who see the light in the dark and love in the cold.
— FROM NEVERMORE
Young Adult Fiction
For teens · Not adult fiction
Atmospheric stories for older readers — fog, grief, first love, and the people we refuse to forget.
The Lantern Man
YA Horror · Ages 13-18 · Standalone
Lilly Ellis is new to Harrow's Cove, a small Maine fishing town where the fog comes in off the water — and sometimes takes things with it. When her sketchbook starts filling with drawings she doesn't remember making, she uncovers a secret the town buried in 1897: twelve-year-old Clara Harrow vanished in the fog, and her father, the lighthouse keeper, has been walking the shore ever since, looking for her. Because the fog feeds on forgetting — and it has had its eye on Lilly from the very beginning. A standalone novel of about 67,000 words about grief, remembering, and holding on, with eight sketchbook-style illustrations.
Paperback: $14.99 · Kindle: $4.99 · Length: 258 pages
Nevermore
YA Supernatural Romance · Ages 16+
A Poe-inspired love story about Alexandria — and Julian, a boy who has been dead for over a century and has waited, all that time, in the cemetery on the hill. Loving someone who can never grow old beside you asks a hard question: do you spend your life waiting at the grave, or do you love him, lose him, and live? Tuck Everlasting meets Edgar Allan Poe. Nevermore is now available on Amazon, in Kindle and paperback.
Paperback: $14.99 · Kindle: $4.99 · Dedication: "For those who see the light in the dark and love in the cold."
About Rachel
Rachel Kreutztrager is an author from St. Louis, Missouri. By day (and plenty of nights) she works as a corrections officer; the rest of her hours belong to her husband, her four kids, and the pets who keep wandering into her stories.
Her picture books grew straight out of that household. Ella & Beans stars her two real ferrets, and Dusty the Detective is her tabby cat in a deerstalker, solving mysteries at proper cat size across Victorian London.
Her YA novel The Lantern Man — a Maine-coast ghost story about a lighthouse keeper's lost daughter — is her first book for older readers, and Nevermore, a Poe-inspired supernatural romance, is her second.
She is also writing a novel for adults — The Hanged Witch's Daughter, set during the Salem witch trials of 1692. Because it appears under her real name, it is listed on this site in a separate, age-gated Adults Only (18+) section, kept apart from the children's and teen books so there is no confusion about who it is for. She writes the way she lives: in the margins of a very full house, usually with an animal asleep on the manuscript.
Ella — ferret, pink nose; Beans — ferret, black nose
Dusty — tabby cat, white chest, professional detective
4 kids — her first and toughest audience
5 books published, for children & teens
1 adult novel in progress — in the Adults Only section
For Teachers & Classrooms
Rachel loves hearing that Ella, Beans, and Dusty have made it into a classroom — and she's happy to provide signed copies of the picture books for classrooms and school libraries. Dusty the Detective even comes with built-in classroom fun: a clue hunt, a maze, and a case-file activity page. Signed-copy requests for classrooms will open when the site officially launches — join the newsletter below to be the first to hear about it.
Please note: this section — and every classroom offer on this site — covers the children's and young adult books only. Rachel's adult fiction is kept completely separate in the age-gated Adults Only (18+) section and is never part of any classroom or school program.
End of the children's & teen shelves
For Grown-Up Readers
Rachel also writes fiction for adults, published under her real name. It lives here — behind this gate, in its own section — and nowhere else on this site. It is not part of the picture-book or YA catalog, and it is never included in classroom or school offers.
Age check before you enter
The book beyond this point is written for adults only. It is set during the Salem witch trials of 1692 and contains graphic sexual content, violence, and execution. If you're here for classroom or family reading, the picture books and young adult novels above are the right shelves.
The Hanged Witch's Daughter
Adult Historical Fiction · Salem, 1692 · 18+ Only
Salem, 1692. Susannah Carrow is nineteen, and her mother Eleanor has just been hanged as a witch on Gallows Hill. Susannah carries gifts of her own — the sight, which shows her the dead and shows her lies, and a knowledge of herbcraft learned at her mother's side. While the trials rage and the list of the accused grows, she has to hide what she is from everyone. Then Nathaniel Thorne comes to her door. He is twenty-four, he needs a remedy for his sister — and he is the son of Judge Amos Thorne, the magistrate who condemned her mother. Falling for the judge's son, with her own name never far from his father's list, is the most dangerous thing she could do.
Status: In progress — opening chapters drafted · Setting: Salem witch trials, 1692 · Readers: Adults only, 18+
Content warnings — Graphic sexual content, graphic violence and death, hanging and execution, religious persecution, and grief. Written for adult readers — not suitable for children, teens, or classroom use.