Customer Reviews

Choker (An Ike Schwartz Mystery)(Library Edition)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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

"Choker" is a very well written work of fiction. Frederick Ramsay has a natural gift of story telling that shines here in a story that otherwise goes way over the top for my general tastes.

Basically, what you have here are two story lines. One follows a cop on vacation who is dragged into looking for a downed airplane. The other follows the police officer left in charge of the town and a local priest. This officer gets dragged into investigating a satanism cult. The priest helps out in investigating.

The story that follows Ike, the cop on vacation, gets so overblown that is kind of stupid. The good writing cant rescue a plot line that becomes laughable after a while. Sadly I cant get into details without giving away the plot. But trust me, its just too much.

All in all, the story misses on two fronts. As I have said several times, the plot gets a little crazy and more than unbelievable. The other front that bothered me was the character development. Its a little hard to put a finger on, but I think that it could be best summed up by saying that the three main characters (the two cops and the priest) are all pretty much the same. They act and react to problems and moral questions in the same way. In my mind, this "problem" I am trying to talk about is the greatest hurdle an author can create for themselves. Ramsay avoids the biggest problem most writers encounter... the narrative is clean and does not feel like it skips from one disjointed narrative to another every chapter. Its sort of like if a movie, say StarWars, had Harrison Ford star not just as Han Solo, but as Luke Skywalker and Obie Wan as well. Thats how it felt skipping from one character to the next here. Like they were very much the same.

So, Two big thumbs up for the writing. Its as smooth as can be. A negative strike for character development and another for story line (silly beyond redemption). I think this is Ramsay's first book unless I have things wrong. If thats the case, he has a lot of room to grow. And I will look forwards to many more of his stories in the futur

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.