The year is 29 C.E., and Jerusalem chafes under the Roman Empire's oppressive rule. A badly scorched body is found behind the Veil of the Holy of Holies—the Temple's inner sanctum, the most sacred space on earth for the Jews. No one except the high priest may enter this place and he only on the Day of Atonement. This is no casual violation, and the authorities are in an uproar.Gamaliel, the rabban of the Sanhedrin, is the ranking rabbi in all of Judea. Now he must solve this delica...

The child Judas, illegitimate offspring of a Jewish woman and a Roman soldier, struggles to understand his mother's god, a god who allows terrible things to happen to him and his family. Despairing, he becomes a survivor in the brutal streets of the first century Roman Empire.Later, as a young man determined to avenge the wrongs committed against his family, he joins the rebels led by Barabbas, only to be betrayed by them as well. Beaten and broken, he is brought to the community o...

"All the fast-paced action and danger readers have come to expect." — Kirkus ReviewsIke Schwartz, Sheriff of Picketsville, Virginia, and his fiancée Ruth Dennis, the President of a local university, seek asylum from a trying year of academic and local politics on Scone Island, four miles off the coast of Maine. Its lack of electricity, reliable water supply, and phone service guarantee their seclusion and peace. The suspicious accident that resulted in the...

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...

"Ramsay evokes a time and a place so vividly through Jesse's voice that I didn't read this novel so much as savor every page." —Dana Stabenow, New York Times bestselling authorIt's 1928, Jesse Sutherlin now has his own family and has made a success at the sawmill below Virginia's Buffalo Mountain working for JG Edwards. The country's economy is booming. And then David Privette, the sheriff who succeeded Dalton P. Franklin with whom Jesse had a run-in or tw...

"Set in 1920, Ramsay's satisfying prequel to his contemporary Ike Schwartz series provides fascinating details of a soldier's life during WWI. It's a genuine pleasure to read a story of detection that depends purely on observation and logical deduction to reach its conclusions." —Publishers WeeklyIt's 1920. Jesse Sutherlin has returned to Buffalo Mountain a war hero, having after survived the trenches of World War I. Not only did he fight the enemy, reachi...

"Ramsay demonstrates once again that he is a superb storyteller, adroitly mixing the spy and small-town mystery genres and shocking us with one walloping big surprise midway through the book." — BooklistIt's midwinter and the Shenandoah Valley is poised on the brink of an unusually icy and snowy season. Alexei Kamarov's body is discovered in a forest within the Picketsville town limits. His driver's license identifies him as Randall Harris. The last Sherif...

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 killi...

Frank Smith, famed writer of murder mysteries, boards Southwest Airlines heading from Phoenix to Baltimore. His goal is his 50th class reunion at Scott Academy, but behind him he leaves the highly suspicious disappearance of his wife into apparent thin air four years ago and the relentless quest of Officer Ledezma whose impulse is that Smith has killed her and buried the body. But another mystery awaits Frank at Scott—a mystery 25 years old.A group of young boys walked from the cam...

"Ramsay skillfully weaves historical fact into his story, all the while blending brisk action with excellent characterization." — Publishers WeeklyElderly Jonathan Lydell III is proud of his lineage. He is related to the Virginia Lees and to the Custis family. For Lydell, family, status, and history are the only realities—that and his antebellum house.Lydell's house has a very colorful history, and Lydell is committed to restoring it to its pre-Civ...

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 catapu...

The World Cup, which arrives in June, has ripple effects on all 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 a...