Ike Schwartz and Ruth Harris had to delay a vacation in Las Vegas because at the last moment, Ruth was required to go to Scone Island, Maine to settle an estate. But that task is soon complicated by one, and then another suspicious death. First, a long term resident slips off a cliff. Was he pushed? Then the woman, who found the body, is, in turn, discovered on a foot path dead from an apparent heart attack, but also with a not easily explained head wound. Ruth finds herself briefly cast as a person of interest in the last death. When things seem to be slipping out of hand, Ike arrives just in time to witness the discovery of a third body—Simon Weiss. Weiss had come to the island to purchase properties with an eye to turning it into a high-end resort. His tactics and personality so alienated the residents that it is no surprise his body is found under the community pier, with a very professionally placed bullet hole in his forehead. As his plans were allegedly financed by the New York mafia, it seems obvious who ordered the hit. This brings the FBI into play, to the distress of the local police. With an array of suspects, motives, and even the island’s history to confound the investigation, Ike, with the aid of local Deputy Sheriff, Tom Stone, and the able, if quirky, assistance of Ruth, unravel these three deaths, but not without heavy costs to villains, residents, and their children.

Review

Praise for Frederick Ramsay's Stranger Room:
''Ramsay skillfully weaves historical fact into his story, all the while blending brisk action with excellent characterization. Schwartz has matured throughout the series, and readers will eagerly await his next adventure.'' --Publishers Weekly

About the Author

FREDERICK RAMSAY was born in Baltimore, MD, graduated from Washington and Lee University and received his doctorate from the University of Illinois. After a stint in the Army, he joined the University of Maryland, School of Medicine faculty. In 1971 was ordained an Episcopal priest and served in several parishes until retirement. He currently lives in Surprise, Arizona, with his wife and partner, Susan. He writes the 'Ike Schwartz Mysteries', along with a series set in Botswana, and he has two stand alones.

Marry new technology to old-fashioned policing and you;ve got something special.The car is found just outside Picketsville, Virginia, a smoking ruin of twisted metal and shattered glass. It takes only a glance to confirm that this is Ike Schwartz;s car. Ever since he left the CIA, the incorruptible Picketsville sheriff has made enemies at home and abroad. Now, one has caught up with him, with a bomb powerful enough to turn quiet Main Street into a smoking crater. Is this a cop killing"or domestic terrorism?The town plunges into mourning, and Ike;s wife Ruth, the president of the local college, puts on a brave face as the sheriff;s department organizes a manhunt, the likes of which Picketsville has never seen. Back at the CIA, Ike;s old colleague Charlie Garland joins the hunt, becoming fixated on a blurry videotape of the crime scene. Charlie;s elastic job description includes monitoring Ike;s life.Investigations"led by more than one player"fan around and out of Picketsville as...

Ethyl Smut, everyone agreed, deserved to die. Drugs, child abuse, a life wasted. But murder is murder and killers must be brought to justice. But when a second body is unearthed in Ethyl's shallow grave and the nightmarish George LeBrun also finds his way to Ike's desk, things get messy fast. Then there is Ethyl's missing daughter, Darla, who could testify against some important people if she were found. And as if Ike hadn't enough on his plate, former CIA coworkers Karl Hedrick and Sam arrive to investigate the source of the second body. It's like old home week in Picketsville. Finally, there is the ongoing saga of Ike and Ruth's engagement that friend and foe alike insist be settled one way or another. Can Ike solve these cases before his altar date?

The year is 29 C. E. and Jerusalem chafes under the Roman Empire's continued presence and oppressive rule. But in spite of that unpleasant fact of life, life goes on—but not for everyone. People die, some because it is their time, others by misadventure. One death in particular brings the City's daily routine to a halt. A badly scorched body is found behind the veil of The Holy of Holies—the Temple's inner sanctum, the most sacred space on earth for the Jews. No one except the High Priest may enter this place and he only once a year on the Day of Atonement. This is no casual violation and the authorities are in an uproar.

Gamaliel, the Rabban of the Sanhedrin, the ranking rabbi in all of Judea, finds himself drawn into solving this delicate mystery while dark agents with unholy interests, plot to seize control of much of the trade in certain highly profitable imports from the east and west.

Loukas, the physician, plays "Watson" to Gamaliel's "Sherlock" as the tangled web...

Questions about JUDAS ISCARIOT tantalized scholars, clergy, and laypersons. Why did he betray JESUS, then no more than an obscure itinerant rabbi? Why did Jesus select him to be one of his closest and most trusted associates in the first place? Jesus claimed a special relationship with God. Should he not have anticipated his betrayal? Is it possible, then, that the two were co-conspirators in Jesus martyrdom? Unlike the many recent "Gospels of Judas" which appeared after the release of the National Geographic special, this book tells a plausible and compelling story-a story of a boy turned man but whose loyalty will be compromised by zealotry on the one hand and vanity on the other. The child Judas, the illegitimate offspring of a Jewish woman and a Roman soldier, struggles to understand his mother's god, a god who allows terrible things to happen to him and his family. Despairing, he abandons any hope of ever finding that god and becomes a survivor in the brutal streets that characterized the Roman Empire in the first century. Later, as a young man determined to avenge the wrongs committed against his mother and sister, he returns to the land of his birth hoping to join the rebels led by Barabbas, only to be betrayed by them as well. Beaten and broken he is brought to the community of Zealots at Qumran and eventually to the one forming around Rabbi Jesus. During this journey he discovers God and is baptized into messianic anticipation. His enthusiasm for revolution lead him to out-guess God. He proceeds down a path that will result in a difficult, and for him and others, fateful choice. In the end, faced with the consequences of that decision, friendless and without his master, he retreats to the outskirts of Jerusalem there to bring an end to his journey, perhaps to start another. Audience: Readers of religious fiction, historical fiction-believers and non-believers alike. Iscariot will appeal to all segments of society. It is primarily an unraveling of a mystery, not an espousal of a particular theological or religious point of view.  

The Eighth Veil is a mystery set in the year 28 CE in Jerusalem during the feast of Tabernacles. A murdered servant girl is found in the palace of King Herod Antipas. The Prefect, Pontius Pilate is in attendance. The populace is still buzzing over the brutal death of one of their Prophets, John, known familiarly as the Baptizer, and scandal is in the air. Pilate wants no trouble and insists an independent investigation into the murder be made. Antipas will have none of Pilate's men in the palace and Pilate doesn't trust Antipas. Gamaliel, the chief rabbi and head of the Sanhedrin is coerced by Pilate to do the detective work. Gamaliel is a Talmudic scholar, not a sleuth, and at first struggles. But as he learns more of the dead girl's background and that of the other major players in the drama, particularly Menahem, Antipas' foster brother, he soon becomes eon over to the process and, Sherlockian-like, begins to fit the pieces together. Or, as his "Watson" Loukas says, strips the veils from his personal Salome. The girl turns out not to be the mere servant everyone assumed, in spite of his impatience with the pace and direction of the investigation Pilate is rewarded and the fascinating, little told but critically entwined, histories of Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Herod the Great, Anthony and Augustus Caesar, and the Battle of Actium suddenly seems more relevant to the Gospel narratives than anyone might have previously imagined. Meanwhile, the figure of Jesus, the rabbi from Nazareth, with his ragged band of enthusiasts and his habit of annoying Caiaphas, the High Priest, moves enigmatically in the background.  

Waldo Templeton was, at best, a mediocre organist. He was also careless, so his killer was able to follow him to the sanctuary of Stonewall Jackson Memorial Church in Picketsville, VA, and dispatch him. Then the Vicar’s secretary follows Waldo to an early grave. The Vicar, the Reverend Blake Fisher, sent to Picketsville when his ambition overcame his common sense, had had enough trouble in Philadelphia. He did not need a corpse behind his altar. He did not need his gun to be stolen, and he definitely did not need the local police breathing down his back as a suspect in a double murder. Aided by the computer wizardry of his newest deputy, Sam (Samantha) Ryder and the country wisdom of Billy Sutherlin, Sheriff Ike Schwartz must sort through false leads, the unsolicited helpfulness of a politically connected parishioner and missing counseling files belonging to Blake’s predecessor. Then the Vicar himself becomes the killer’s third target.... Secrets is the sequel to Ramsay’s first novel, Artscape, featuring Sheriff Ike Schwartz.

The elderly Jonathan Lydell III is proud of his family history. He is related to the Virginia Lees (both Light Horse Harry and Robert E. Lee) and to the Custis family (and thus to George Washington). But these connections donat seem to matter to the current generation. In fact, they seem utterly disinterested in family, history, or position. But for Lydell, family history is the only real thing leftathat and his antebellum house. Lydell is committed to restoring the home to its antebellum configuration, complete with a stranger roomaan attached room with its own entrance, separately locked and kept for use by unknown travelers. Found in many family homes in the 1800s, the room was intended to protect the family from unsavory guests. Nearly 150 years ago, an inexplicable murder took place in the locked stranger room of the Lydell house. The murderer was never caught. As far as Lydell is concerned, this brutal history just adds to the rich character of the house. But when a new, identical murder is committed in the same room, not even sheriff Ike Schwartz and FBI agent Karl Hedrick can explain it. Why would history repeat itself? What could explain these identical murders? Could the Lydell family history hold the key? The fourth novel in the Ike Schwartz series.

It's 1920. Jesse Sutherlin has returned to Buffalo Mountain a war hero, having after survived the trenches of World War I. Not only did he fight the enemy, reaching the rank of officer, he went a few rounds with some of his fellow soldier who viewed him as a hillbilly.Jesse is glad to be home. But his view of the world and of himself has changed. What next? He can't shake his training as an officer to follow the old lifestyle. He applies for a job at the local sawmill where his new boss quickly makes him foreman for a decent wage. And he meets the independent Serena Barker.His cousin and fellow soldier, Solomon McAdoo, was less fortunate in his war service. He's suffering from shell shock. One day, up on the mountain while tending to a family moonshine still owned by Big Tom McAdoo, he's shot in the back. When Jesse hears this, he knows violence is going to boil up. The west side of the mountain is McAdoo territory, while the east side belongs to the Lebruns. The dispute...

In Botswana, people of the north live in harmony with the wildlife, yet predators and poachers freely roam. The lions may be kings, but hyenas will steal their prey. A Chobe Game Park pack led by the alpha female is especially fearless. The locals call her Kotsi Mosadi, Setswana for Danger Woman.Following a recent rash of deaths and dismembered body parts appearing in the park, District Superintendent Sanderson is alerted to the discovery of a ravaged human skull, believed to be the work of the Russian Bratva. Fresh from St. Petersburg, led by Oleg Lenka, these mafiosi think it will be a cinch to take over the region's high-end tourist trade and in particular the casino/hotel operation that is the fiercely held, final dream of American billionaire Leo Painter. Sanderson's friend and, it must be said, her lover, Inspector Kgabo Modise of the Botswana Police Service, is tasked to remove them. Arriving from Gabarone, deploying limited staff undercover, Modise is quickly swept...