Frederick Ramsay – författare

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 into a complex set of moves orchestrated to outwit not so much Lenka, a traditional kind of thug, but his mistress Irena Davidova, the Bratva''s own Danger Woman. She''s the alpha of the Russian pack—but for how long?

Aided by Sanderson, who has some clever moves of her own, Modise and his team gradually undermine the Bratva''s assumption that the intimidation tactics that worked in St. Petersburg will work in Botswana, a country where the police are unarmed. And Leo has a ruthless Russian of his own in play, plus resources from Chicago. In parallel, a very pregnant Kotsi Mosadi is fully engaged keeping control of her pack and outwitting relentless lions.

Within the majestic park, the interplay of predator and prey, the unpredictability of conflicting interests, and the heartlessness of the Bratva culture finally collide to upend an otherwise ordinary night on the Chobe River.

The past has always felt near in the historic house of Jonathon Lydell III, who proudly advertises his family connection to the Virginia Lees. But now, history is repeating itself in a truly bizarre and spooky way. One hundred and fifty years ago, a guest staying in the Lydell family house was murdered in the “stranger room,” a guest room that is unconnected to the main house. The windowless room’s single door was closed and locked from the inside. The murder, never solved, fell into the background of the Civil War. But the town is shocked and mystified when, a century and a half later, another guest is murdered in the same stranger room, with the door again locked from the inside. Sheriff Ike Schwartz and FBI agent Karl Hedrick are dispatched to resolve the mystery of the strangely identical murders, but they meet with obstacles and resistance at every turn.

Sometimes clues just fall out of the sky.

Nick Reynolds, his pilot’s rating barely a month old, drops off the radar at night over the Chesapeake Bay. Investigating agencies call it another tragic pilot-error accident. No trace of the plane is found in the Bay’s murky waters. Ike Schwartz, erstwhile sheriff of Picketsville, on vacation, is approached by Charlie Garland, an old CIA friend, to look into the disappearance. Ike’s wide-eyed entry into a simple missing person’s case catapults him into an international thriller with intimations of terrorism that might threaten the nation and its leaders.

Sekoa is a male lion who shares with humans the misfortune of being a bearer of the HIV/AIDS virus. He has lost his place as the alpha male in his pride, and now, weakened by disease and harassed by hyenas, he seeks only a place to die in peace.

Leo Painter, the CEO of a large development firm, has traveled to Botswana to consult with the government about accessing their extractable resources. Pursued by his own “hyenas,” Painter wishes only to find a last resting place where he can further his dream: to build a resort-casino on Botswana’s Chobe River.

When Leo and Sekoa’s paths cross with tragic consequences, the police, a plucky woman game warden, and myriad local authorities, hoteliers, and tribesmen vie over what happened and to whom.

Ike Schwartz is the sheriff of Picketsville, a small town not far from Washington, D.C. A former CIA agent, Ike remains connected to the Agency through a friend who sometimes still involves him in cases on the side. Ike is also courting Ruth, the fiercely independent president of the town’s new university. All this is usually enough to bring some interesting conflicts Ike’s way.

A new one arises when a body is found in Picketsville’s urgent-care clinic, a body sitting in a chair but dead for hours. Perhaps not coincidentally, there is also a break-in at the house of a new university faculty member whose expertise lies in icons. Can a specific icon called the Virgin of Tenderness be the spark to these crimes? Ike figures that any spycraft contained in the picture would be decades old. Or would it?

The World Cup, which arrives in June, has ripple effects on all of South Africa’s neighbors. The arrival of soccer fans, team owners, sponsors, and world dignitaries makes southern Africa, particularly Botswana, ripe for all sorts of intrigue and illicit activities. The American Secretary of State will visit the Chobe; the North Koreans, the Okavango; Arabs, French, Chinese, and Russians are scattered among the various lodges and hotels in the country before, during, and after the games—and all will be watching and waiting on the others.

Orgonise Africa, derived from Wilhelm Reich’s popularization of orgone energy and transmogrified by bad science and wishful thinking, is an effort by fanatics to push forward a plan to seed Africa with orgone, which they believe will purify the continent, rid it of drought, poverty, and HIV/AIDS.

To the north, Patriarche, a silverback mountain gorilla, is forced to share his habitat with coltan miners led by General Le Grande, one of the Congo’s many bloody warlords. The profits from the sale of coltan, so prized by electronics manufacturers, help fuel the seemingly endless civil wars that plague that poor country.

Sanderson, Game Ranger of Chobe National Park, finds a body. Tracking down the murderer opens doors that lead her and Inspector Kgabo Modise first to evidence of local bribery, then to smuggling, and finally to what could well provoke an international incident, if not for the shrewd action of Modise and Botswana’s intelligence community.

Ruth Harris, Sheriff Ike Schwartz’s fiancée, is involved in a near-fatal automobile accident. But Ike is convinced the crash was rigged. Even though he is embroiled in a close election, has no jurisdiction over the investigation, and can find no support in the usual law enforcement community, he places himself on leave and goes rogue to investigate and seek the person or persons responsible for putting Ruth in a coma.

His efforts attract help from unexpected and irregular sources. Old friends in the covert community step up, and his loyal staff in Picketsville provide undercover assistance. The journey leads him to states’ rights organizations and then to several zealots and dissident academics before it finally ends at home in Picketsville.

The Eighth Veil is a mystery set in first-century 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 has already been 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 that there be an independent investigation into the murder. But Antipas will have none of Pilate’s men in the palace, and Pilate doesn’t trust Antipas. So Pilate turns to Gamaliel, the chief rabbi and head of the Sanhedrin, and coerces him to do the detective work. Gamaliel is a Talmudic scholar, not a sleuth, and he at first struggles; however, he is soon won over to the assignment as he learns more of the dead girl’s background and that of the other major players in the drama, particularly Antipas’ foster brother, Menahem. Soon, Gamaliel, in Sherlockian fashion, begins to fit the pieces together, or, as his “Watson” Loukas says, “strips the veils from his personal Salome.” Pilate, in spite of his impatience with the pace and direction of the investigation, is rewarded when it turns out that the girl is not the mere servant that everyone had assumed.

Meanwhile, the Battle of Actium and the fascinating histories of Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Herod the Great, Mark Antony, and Augustus Caesar become critically entwined with the investigation. And 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.

Ike Schwartz, sheriff of Picketsville, Virginia, and his fianc├®e, Ruth Harris, president of a local university, survived a trying year of academic and local politics and now seek some peace and quiet on Scone Island, a rocky piece of land four miles off the coast of Maine. Its lack of electricity, a reliable water supply, and phone service guarantees their peaceful seclusion. The fact that there has been a suspicious accident resulting in the death of the mysterious Harmon Staley need not concern them at all. And it doesn''t—until Ike''s past as a CIA agent rolls in on him like the area''s famous twelve-foot tides.

Two more murders involving former colleagues elsewhere in the country have Ike''s old friend from the agency, Charlie Garland, searching the files for a connection. However, stonewalling by the CIA, as well as conspiracies, real and imagined, mean that Ike and Ruth are alone on the island and facing an unknown number of determined assassins.

To complicate matters, Ruth''s mother decides to drop in on them just as the excitement begins. Late arrivals by the director of the CIA and Charlie Garland only make matters worse. Meanwhile, Ruth daydreams of Plan B—Las Vegas—in hopes that she and Ike will finally be able to get away from it all while lost in the crowds.

Frank Smith, famed writer of murder mysteries, boards a Southwest Airlines flight at Phoenix heading to Baltimore to attend his fiftieth class reunion at Scott Academy. Behind him he leaves the highly mysterious disappearance of his wife four years before, as well as the relentless quest of Officer Ledezma, who suspects that Smith killed his wife and buried the body. Another mystery awaits Frank at Scott Academy—a mystery from twenty-five years ago, when a group of young boys walked from the campus into the woods and disappeared. What could have happened to them? Who better than he to probe the mystery? When he does so, he relives not only his own boyhood when his father was the upright head of the academy''s English department but also that of the classmates of the missing boys, some of whom have returned to Scott Academy for their twenty-fifth reunion.

In a story warm yet suspenseful, amidst a floodtide of emotions and rich characterizations, Frederick Ramsay explores the role of impulse on many levels.

Jerusalem''s deadly secrets are emerging from the smoke.

The year is AD 29, and Jerusalem chafes under the Roman Empire''s continued presence and oppressive rule. In spite of that unpleasant fact, 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 burned body is found behind the veil of the holy of holies—the temple''s inner sanctum and 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.

Rabban Gamaliel of the Sanhedrin, the ranking rabbi in all Judea, is 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 they slowly unravel the tangled web of intrigue and murder, but not before more bodies, both literal and figurative, show up. All the while Yeshua, the radical rabbi from Galilee, continues to annoy the high priest and smoke—holy smoke—rises from the sacrifices in the temple.

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 far as a small town in Idaho where Martin Pangborn, head of the radical militia called the Fifty-First Star, runs his organization. If some banks and businesses are too big to fail, are some people too deeply connected or too wealthy to bring to justice? Is Martin Pangborn such a person? The Fifty-First Star’s tentacles run long and deep. But the Vulture is something no one, not even Martin Pangborn, is prepared for.