Choker (Ike Schwartz Mysteries)

Frederick Ramsay
Poisoned Pen Press (2009)
ISBN 9781590586358
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…

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