Choker

The fifth in the Ike Schwartz series splits into parallel mysteries, one involving terrorists hoping to cause national chaos, the other involving teenagers and devil worship. Ike, retired "spook," now sheriff of Picketsville, Virginia, is on vacation when his old friend and former colleague Charlie Garland asks him to help find the missing friend-of-a-friend. What Ike finds involves a complicated, very-real threat to national security. Meanwhile, Picketsville's back-up law enforcement, Frank Sutherlin, and Episcopal priest Blake Fisher investigate possible Satanic rituals. Lloyd James provides an intelligent narration. Ike has a likable energy, Charlie is appropriately prickly, and Fisher sounds like a man on a mission. Ramsay's engrossing double mystery and James's smart reading are two good reasons to listen. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

April 13, 2009
Ike Schwartz returns to his CIA roots in Ramsey's awkward cozy-thriller hybrid, the fifth in the series to feature the Picketsville, Va., sheriff (after 2008's Stranger Room
). While vacationing on the Delaware shore, Schwartz is asked by former CIA comrade Charlie Garland to look into the mysterious disappearance of his niece's fiancé, Nick Reynolds. Reynolds, a pilot and ex-navy man, left an enigmatic voice mail message before he vanished off the radar over the Chesapeake Bay. Schwartz's investigations indicate that Reynolds may have witnessed activities that threaten national security. A Picketsville subplot involving satanic rituals by high school students and missing Communion vessels distracts rather than contributes to the narrative. Ramsay is best when contrasting the smooth professional spies and military men with lively amateurs like the cranky Bunky Crispins, a fiercely independent waterman who shows that it's possible to be a patriot and a rebel at the same time.