Artscape - Hardcover

Ramsay, Frederick

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1590581229 ISBN 13: 9781590581223

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Pr, 2004

Synopsis

Taking a job as sheriff in rural Picketsville, Virginia, to escape the pain of his wife's death in a CIA foul-up, recent widower Ike Schwartz is in over his head when he uncovers a plot on the part of a group sponsored by Middle Eastern fanatics to steal a fabulously valuable art collection, housed in an underground bunker. A first novel.

About this title

About the Author

Dr. Frederick Ramsay was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He received his doctorate from the University of Illinois. After a stint in the Army, he joined the faculty of the University of Maryland, School of Medicine. In 1971 he was ordained an Episcopal priest. He is the author of several scientific and general articles, tracts, theses, and co-author of The Baltimore Declaration. He is an accomplished public speaker and once hosted a television spot, Prognosis, on the evening news for WMAR-TV, Baltimore. He is also an iconographer with works displayed around the world. He lives in Surprise, Arizona with his wife and partner, Susan.

Reviews

Small-town sheriffs come in all shapes and sizes, but Ike Schwartz, who dominates Ramsay's solid debut, is both engaging and extravagantly overqualified for the job. Ike retreats to his hometown of Picketsville, Va., and wins the job of sheriff after a personal disaster in a botched CIA operation. In quiet Picketsville, Ike's biggest worries are domestic squabbles, speeding tickets and an occasional problem with a Callend College student. It's Callend's superb art collection, valued at half a billion dollars and protected by a state-of-the-art security system, that changes all that. Funded by terrorists, and using a disaffected federal agent, mobsters plan to hijack the collection and hold it for ransom. The smoothly planned operation goes off with several hitches, including a killing and the taking of hostages. Callend president Ruth Harris, who believes Ike to be the stereotypical small-town sheriff, is screaming for "higher" authorities to take charge. Laid-back but decisive, Ike does that, calling on his experience, his country roots and old allies as he matches wits with the savvy professionals who committed the crime. While Ike emerges as the most fully developed character, several secondary characters stand out as well, as Ramsay nicely mixes town and gown, sophisticates and rustics, thugs and masterminds. Ike Schwartz seems destined for a bright future.
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Not quite mystery, not quite espionage, this occasionally awkward hybrid still manages to juggle its various tangents well enough to keep the pages turning. When Sheriff Ike Schwartz is called in to investigate the theft of a multimillion-dollar art collection from a local college, the trail is almost cold, college officials having deemed local law enforcement incapable of handling anything more than drunken students and traffic violators. But Schwartz is no rube. A former CIA agent, he is better prepared than most to handle matters, and it doesn't take him long to find out that a former FBI agent is involved in the crime and that the thieves are merely henchmen for folks who want the art for something other than its black-market value. A romance for Ike adds spice to the mix, as does the unraveling of the events surrounding Ike's quitting the Company. Ramsay tries to get cozy with a few too many characters here, but Ike's personal story is appealing enough to get readers over the occasional bumps in the road. Stephanie Zvirin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Pr
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1590581229
• ISBN 13: 9781590581223
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 249