Impulse - Softcover

At the start of Ramsey's superb, perfectly paced stand-alone, Phoenix mystery writer Frank Smith heads for his 50th prep school reunion-at Scott Academy, near Baltimore-anxious about all the attendant grudges, passions, jealousies and nostalgia. More seriously, Smith must contend with the suicide of his brother, Jack, 50 years earlier; the disappearance of four teenage schoolboys during the 1980s; and, back home in Arizona, the relatively recent murder of his wife, Sandy, a crime for which he's now the chief suspect. Ramsey (Artscape andSecrets ) treats these traumas in a manner at once intriguing and believable yet somehow breezy and joyous. Seldom in crime fiction does one meet lead characters as likable as Smith and his long-lost friend/new love interest, Rosemary Mitchell. Both are "pushing seventy" but try to solve the various mysteries with the style, audacity and intelligence of a Sun City version of Nick and Nora Charles. Their senior viewpoint with commentary on various generations-"Greatest," Boomers, Xers-makes for a perspective that's at once tart, worldly and compassionate and that nicely balances the genuine evil in the air.(June)--Publishers Weekly starred review "Partly to escape scrutiny by police, who suspect him of murdering his wife, who has disappeared, mystery writer Frank Smith decides to attend the fiftieth reunion of Scott Academythe place where he spent his childhood, where his father taught and he attended school, and where his younger brother committed suicide. At a cocktail party, he's challenged to solve a real-life mystery that occurred at the schoolthe 25-year-old disappearance of four students who were last seen in a wooded area on the school grounds, an area where Frank and his brother played as children. Unable to solve his wife's disappearance, he throws himself into this new crime. Playing Nora to his Nick is widowed Rosemary Mitchell, a friend from childhood, who helps Frank tie the present to the past and step toward the future. Wrapped in a mystery-frame story, this is a touching reflection on the changes that come with growing older in a society prejudiced against the elderly." Stephanie Zvirin Booklist "Partly to escape scrutiny by police, who suspect him of murdering his wife, who has disappeared, mystery writer Frank Smith decides to attend the fiftieth reunion of Scott Academythe place where he spent his childhood, where his father taught and he attended school, and where his younger brother committed suicide. At a cocktail party, he's challenged to solve a real-life mystery that occurred at the schoolthe 25-year-old disappearance of four students who were last seen in a wooded area on the school grounds, an area where Frank and his brother played as children. Unable to solve his wife's disappearance, he throws himself into this new crime. Playing Nora to his Nick is widowed Rosemary Mitchell, a friend from childhood, who helps Frank tie the present to the past and step toward the future. Wrapped in a mystery-frame story, this is a touching reflection on the changes that come with growing older in a society prejudiced against the elderly." Stephanie Zvirin Booklist At the start of Ramsey's superb, perfectly paced stand-alone, Phoenix mystery writer Frank Smith heads for his 50th prep school reunion-at Scott Academy, near Baltimore-anxious about all the attendant grudges, passions, jealousies and nostalgia. More seriously, Smith must contend with the suicide of his brother, Jack, 50 years earlier; the disappearance of four teenage schoolboys during the 1980s; and, back home in Arizona, the relatively recent murder of his wife, Sandy, a crime for which he's now the chief suspect. Ramsey (Artscape andSecrets ) treats these traumas in a manner at once intriguing and believable yet somehow breezy and joyous. Seldom in crime fiction does one meet lead characters as likable as Smith and his long-lost friend/new love interest, Rosemary Mitchell. Both are "pushing seventy" but try to solve the various mysteries with the style, audacity and intelligence of a Sun City version of Nick and Nora Charles. Their senior viewpoint with commentary on various generations-"Greatest," Boomers, Xers-makes for a perspective that's at once tart, worldly and compassionate and that nicely balances the genuine evil in the air.(June)--Publishers Weekly starred review *STARRED REVIEW* At the start of Ramsey's superb, perfectly paced stand-alone, Phoenix mystery writer Frank Smith heads for his 50th prep school reunion-at Scott Academy, near Baltimore-anxious about all the attendant grudges, passions, jealousies and nostalgia. More seriously, Smith must contend with the suicide of his brother, Jack, 50 years earlier; the disappearance of four teenage schoolboys during the 1980s; and, back home in Arizona, the relatively recent murder of his wife, Sandy, a crime for which he's now the chief suspect. Ramsey (Artscape andSecrets ) treats these traumas in a manner at once intriguing and believable yet somehow breezy and joyous. Seldom in crime fiction does one meet lead characters as likable as Smith and his long-lost friend/new love interest, Rosemary Mitchell. Both are ""pushing seventy"" but try to solve the various mysteries with the style, audacity and intelligence of a Sun City version of Nick and Nora Charles. Their senior viewpoint with commentary on various generations-""Greatest,"" Boomers, Xers-makes for a perspective that's at once tart, worldly and compassionate and that nicely balances the genuine evil in the air. --Publishers Weekly, 04-17-06. ..."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 Weekly on Secrets. ..."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 Weekly on Secrets.

Praise for Impulse... "Seldom in crime fiction does one meet lead characters as likable...[or] a perspective that's at once tart, worldly, compassionate, and that nicely balances the genuine evil in the air." -Publishers Weekly starred review "A touching reflection on the changes that come with growing older in a society prejudiced against the elderly." -Booklist Frank Smith, famed writer of murder mysteries, boards a plane in Phoenix, heading for his 50th class reunion at Scott Academy near Baltimore, Maryland. Behind him he leaves the highly suspicious disappearance of his wife and the relentless quest of Officer Ledezma, who believes Smith killed her and buried the body out in the desert. But another mystery awaits Smith at Scott. A group of young boys walked from the campus into the woods 25 years ago and disappeared. What could have happened to them? Challenged to solve the mystery, Smith not only relives his own boyhood when his father was the upright head of Scott's English Department, but also that of the classmates of the missing boys, some of whom are back at Scott now for their 25th reunion. Dr. Frederick Ramsay was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and like his father before him, is a respected teacher, researcher, and scientist, having taught Anatomy, Embryology, and Histology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He is also an ordained Episcopal priest. Now retired from full-time ministry, he lives and writes in Surprise, Arizona. www.frederickramsay.com