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...

It's Passover. Gamaliel and his physician friend, Loukas, are crime-solving a third time—reluctantly. Pontius Pilate has been accused of murder. He denies the crime. If convicted, he might escape death but would be removed from Judea. Those rejoicing urge the Rabban to mind his own business. But Gamaliel is a just man which is, as Pilate says to him, "your weakness and also your strength."Knowing that exonerating the Roman could cost him his position, possibly his life, Gamaliel, a...

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...

With a Foreword by Frederick Ramsay"Ramsay nicely mixes town and gown, sophisticates and rustics, thugs and masterminds. Ike Schwartz seems destined for a bright future." — Publishers WeeklyIke Schwartz is the new sheriff of Picketsville, Virginia. He's also trying to shake the demons of his past, the memories of a day that went horribly wrong in Switzerland.Aside from its Civil War history, Picketsville's one claim to fame...

"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...

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 kill...

"A thought-provoking examination of serious pastoral issues and a thoroughly entertaining mystery that succeeds on all levels without recourse to bombast or carnage." — Publishers WeeklyThe Reverend Blake Fisher was ambitious and naïve, a combination that led to his exile to Picketsville, Virginia, where his bishop has named him the new vicar. He's off to a poor start what with a corpse in the sanctuary, his gun stolen, his congregation in open rebellion, ...

"Sure-footed plotting and easy banter make Ramsay's sixth Sheriff Ike mystery a brisk, entertaining read." — Kirkus ReviewsOn the same evening a body is left in Picketsville's urgent care clinic, a mysterious break-in occurs at the house of one of Callend University's faculty. Sheriff Ike Schwartz thinks both events might be connected to The Virgin of Tenderness, an icon in the faculty member's possession.Then, what appears to be a microdot is foun...

Two seedy murders interrupt the wedding festivities of an ex-CIA agent turned smalltown Virginia sheriff in this mystery by the author of Scone Island.Ethyl Smut, everyone agreed, deserved to die. But even a life wasted deserves justice. When a second body is unearthed in Ethyl's shallow grave and the nightmarish George LeBrun finds his way to Ike's desk, things get messy fast.Then there is Ethyl's missing daughter, Darla, who could testify against...

"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...

"The author combines a Tom Clancy-like knowledge of ground-to-air missiles with a Robert Ludlum-like spy adventure to leave the reader awaiting the next Ike Schwartz." — Library Journal STARRED reviewNick Reynolds, his pilot's rating barely a month old, drops off the radar one night over the Chesapeake Bay. Investigating agencies call it another tragic pilot-error accident. No trace of the plane is found. But Charlie Garland, Sheriff Ike Schwartz' old frie...

"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...