Choker: A Ike Schwartz Mystery

Ike Schwartz, former CIA operative and now sheriff of Picketsville, the small Virginia hamlet, takes a long-delayed vacation on the Maryland shore of Chesapeake Bay. Only it turns out to be a busman's holiday. A friend and former colleague at the CIA asks him to look into the disappearance of his niece's fiancé who was flying over the bay on July Fourth when his plane disappeared from the radar. Meanwhile, back in Picketsville, trouble was brewing among the high school crowd, giving Ike's deputy trepidations: Should he take action or not? Also, some communion silver has gone missing from the church. What to do about this as well? And are the two things related? While the two separate story lines progress smoothly, the more exciting tale is the one Ike begins to unravel as he looks into the disappearance of the plane. The result is an exciting thriller, well worth the effort to read. This is the third in a well-constructed, finely written series, and let's hope a fourth is in the works. Recommended.

Reviewed by Olivera Baumgartner-Jackson for Reader Views (4/09) If I ever stop thinking and talking about writing a book and actually write one, my only wish is that it would be good enough to be published by the Poisoned Pen Press. Over the last few years I've read a good few of the books they've published and every single one of them was outstanding - always professionally edited and proofread, always gripping, always satisfying... Frederick Ramsay's "Choker" is no exception to this rule - if anything, it's probably one of the more relevant and contemporaneous works I've read recently, down to the clearly "tongue-in-cheek" inclusion of a "recipe," as seems to be the fashion nowadays. On the surface, the story is quite simple. Ike Schwartz, Sheriff of Picketsville, is taking an extended, very much deserved and needed vacation, when he receives a call from an old friend, Charlie. Charlie needs Ike's help in a missing person case. Nick, who was engaged to Charlie's niece, disappeared together with his plane on the 4th of July and although the authorities believe his inexperience led him into a death-spiral, Charlie thinks there's more to the case, especially in view of a rather puzzling phone call Nick made just minutes before his plane disappeared from the radar screens. Since Ike is not big on doing nothing, he accepts the task. Very soon he realizes that Charlie was right and that Nick's "accident" was part of a much more sinister plot. While Ike is puzzling out what happened to Nick, back home in Picketsville they are dealing with their own mystery. A black cat disappears, the church silver goes missing, a bloodied altar, and some bones are discovered and all of that points to a Satanistic group, quite possibly connected to the local high school. Feathers are ruffled, parents are upset and the local priest is being called all sorts of things for refusing to let the matter go. "Choker" would be enjoyable just as a simple action story alone, but when we add to the mix the relevance of the events in the wake of 9/11, as well as the musings on evil, personal responsibility, self-initiative and the government, we end with a highly entertaining as well as thought-provoking book. Frederick Ramsey's "Choker" is also a beautifully written book, with some truly outstanding lines, such as, "Sunsets he knew. Sunrises were a relative rarity for him," and, "If women were serious about snagging a man with scent, he thought, they might try something called Diner #1." Seemingly vague lines, but they tell you so much about the hero of this book! With "Choker" by Frederick Ramsay, Poisoned Pen Press has clearly found yet another winner...

Picketsville, Virginia Sheriff Ike Schwartz is relaxing at the Delaware shore on a vacation when a former associate at the CIA Charlie Garland asks for his help. Charlie wants Ike to investigate the disappearance of his niece's fiancé, Nick Reynolds. Charlie agrees to make inquiries though he wonders why Charlie did not go to official channels A former US Navy pilot, Nick left a strange voice mail message just before he disappeared over Chesapeake Bay. Ike begins to find frightening information that makes the sheriff wonder if the missing aviator observed a threat to national security that required his being eliminated or going underground. CHOKER is an exciting investigative thriller that freshens up the Schwartz police procedurals (see STRANGER ROOM) with the CIA connection. The story line is superb as Ike delicately balances espionage agents, military brass, and cantankerous civilians. However, when the tale returns to Picketsville where Frank Sutherlin is acting sheriff, the plot loses steam as his inquiry into high school students conducting satanic rites subtracts from the prime investigation. Still with great characterizations and a fascinating main plot, Frederick Ramsay provides readers with an entertaining Ike Schwartz mystery. Harriet Klausner