Even with some uptight Feds in his way, laid-back sheriff Ike Schwartz is able to untangle a tricky murder puzzle. Louis Dakis, an artist and instructor at Virginia's Callend University, returns home from class to find his rented digs ransacked, though nothing's been taken. Across town at the Picketsville Hospital emergency room, nurse Laurie Kratz discovers that the quiet man waiting patiently for treatment is actually dead. Dakis's estranged wife Lorraine phones him from Washington to accuse him of a similar break-in at her (formerly their) shop, though she's really more concerned about her missing boyfriend Franco. Picketsville's easygoing sheriff Ike, who catches both cases, sees a potential connection when his keen eye spots an old listening device on a valuable icon from the Dakis collection that didn't happen to be in either ransacked location. This device, and the need to identify the corpse in the emergency room, brings the CIA in the person of Charlie Garland and his team, whose interaction with Ike and his deputies has a good dose of friction. The dead man was Farouk Zaki, aka Franco Sacci, the new boyfriend Lorraine evidently plucked from the terrorist watch list. On the personal front, Ike becomes engaged to his longtime ladylove Ruth, and the whole department deals with the pregnancy of one of its deputies. Sure-footed plotting and easy banter make Ramsay's sixth Sheriff Ike mystery (Choker, 2009, etc.) a brisk, entertaining read.
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?
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?
Editorial Reviews
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940169661323 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Blackstone Audio, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 07/15/2010 |
| Series: | Ike Schwartz Series , #6 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
Videos
