Impulse - Softcover

Ramsay, Frederick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1458739570 ISBN 13: 9781458739575

Publisher: ReadHowYouWant, 2012

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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 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 Smith at Scott, a mystery 25 years old. 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? In doing so, he 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. Warm yet suspenseful, rich with a floodtide of emotions and packed with little nuggets of pure gold characterizations, Ramsay explores the role of impulse on many levels.

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Review

..."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.

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

*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.

About the Author

Dr. Frederick Ramsay was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Upon graduating from Washington and Lee University in Virginia, he received his doctorate from the University of Illinois - Westside Medical Campus. After a stint in the Army, he joined the faculty of the University of Maryland, School of Medicine, teaching Anatomy, Embryology and Histology; engaged in research and also served as an Associate Dean. During this time he also pursued studies in theology and in 1971 was ordained an Episcopal priest. He is the author of several scientific and general articles, tracts, theses, and co-author of The Baltimore Declaration. He is an accomplished public speaker and once hosted a television spot, Prognosis, on the evening news for WMAR-TV, Baltimore. He is also an iconographer with works displayed around the world. He lives in Surprise, Arizona, with his wife and partner, Susan. Secrets is his second novel.

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