Out this June from Poisoned Pen Press
Excerpt >> Read Chapter 1 of Impulse (pdf)

At the start of Ramsay'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. Ramsay (Artscape and Secrets ) 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) -- Starred review. Publisher’s Weekly

Partly to escape scrutiny by police, who suspect him of murdering his disappeared wife, mystery writer Frank Smith decides to attend the fiftieth reunion of Scott Academy -- the 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 school ----the 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 From Booklist
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Famous crime writer Frank Smith has two real-life mysteries on his hands. His beloved wife Sandy disappeared four years ago and Manny Ledezma, a dogged officer with the McMicken AZ Police Department, is convinced Frank murdered her and hid the body in the desert. The cop hasn’t been able to prove it, but it’s not for lack of trying. The single-minded Sgt. Ledezma has a new superior officer, who gives him an ultimatum: either solve the cold cases by the end of the month or close them. So he’s hot to find evidence that will pin the murder on Frank.

Frank isn’t aware of Sgt. Ledezma’s new fervor … he’s attending his 50th reunion at Scott Academy , a Maryland prep school. While there, some alumni 25 years Frank’s junior, challenge the writer and his childhood friend, Rosemary Mitchell, to solve an old mystery. It seems four pre-teen boys walked into the woods near Scott Academy 25 years ago, never to be seen again. Rekindling his friendship with Rosemary, an attractive widow, doesn’t endear Frank to his daughter Barbara, with whom he’s staying while in Maryland . Barbara’s not sure she’s altogether convinced her dad didn’t kill her mother. Whether he did or not, his daughter doesn’t believe Frank should be spending long evenings with her. Frank Smith is a great protagonist. I cannot think of another 60-something mystery hero who is as realistically and lovingly portrayed as he is. It’s unfortunate many older characters are either written for laughs, or as stereotypical old geezers or pathetic nursing home residents. Frank is a living, breathing older gentleman who is smart, interesting and very attractive. He frets about growing older but those worries don’t consume him.

Impulse is a can’t-put-it-down mystery that I started and finished in a single afternoon. The writing is terrific, the story intriguing and fast-moving, the characters multi-dimensional, the pacing perfect and the author’s subtle humor wonderful. Readers need not be in their golden years to enjoy Impulse – it should attract a broad audience. I can’t wait to pick up Frederick Ramsay’s two earlier mysteries, Artscape and Secrets.

By Diana. First published in Mystery News, June-July 2006 edition.
 

Here's a book that should grab you. Especially if you've ever in your life done something out of pure impulse. Right. That's the title of the book. Most of our impulsive behavior or utterances are inconsequential, at least as far as we know. But sometimes things go awry. Sometimes impulse leads to destruction, ruined lives, decades-long bitterness. Here's a novel that operates effectively on two separate planes. Here we have distinct plot lines separated by twenty-five years and two thousand miles.

Frank Smith is a successful mystery author. He lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Recently his wife of many years has disappeared. No body, no evidence of stolen credit cards in use. No possible sightings. Nothing. Who do the police look too? The impulse, of course, is the husband. A prime suspect, he had the most to gain in various ways. He's a mystery author. He's studied crime and is an insider. But he can't be charged, at least not yet, because there is zero evidence to get a warrant.

While this scenario is playing out, Frank goes to his twenty-fifth class reunion. The school is private Scott Academy outside of Baltimore, Maryland. It's Smith's first time back to the campus, even though his brother went to the same academy and his father taught there. Smith feels the residual bitterness rising anew when he walks back on a changed campus. His impulse is to can the whole thing and go home. He doesn't and at an early cocktail party discovers the nasty impulsive actions that lead to his brother's ejection from the school. Impulsively, others at the reunion decide to approach the minor celebrity Smith has become for help solving a school mystery. Twenty-five years ago four young schoolmates disappeared from the campus never to be seen or heard from again. What happened? Smith reluctantly agrees to review the case files. What happens then becomes the body of this novel as it moves rapidly and effectively through plot number two.

Author Ramsey is well-equipped by education to handle this story and it shows. It shows in the meticulous pacing, the gradual unwinding of the disappearance, even as the other plot tightens. The language is excellent, the scenes nicely evoked. Readers will walk with Smith through the difficult pieces of his life and feel his nervousness his satisfaction, his anxiety. The scenes with his grown and married daughter and her troubles add nice counterpoint to the main themes. This is an excellent novel with an important message served up in a very enjoyable manner.
-- Carl Brookins Bookloons

One morning mystery writer Frank Smith’s wife went out walking, but never returned home. The police especially the detective in charge believe he killed her for the insurance money. The cops never pursued any other potential suspects concentrating exclusively on Frank.

The writer attends his fiftieth prep school reunion in Maryland having not been on the campus since he graduated because his brother committed suicide after being expelled from there after an accusation by another student. At the school Frank meets his childhood sweetheart Rosemary. The two seniors hit off romantically. Frank is challenged to solve a mystery that has haunted the school for twenty-five years. A group of boys were seen entering Old Oak Woods, but never came out. Frank and Rosemary search the records and interview people when his wife’s body is found. Sergeant Ledezma digs deep to prove Frank killed her.

IMPULSE is an entertaining cerebral mystery that contains two simultaneously running investigative subplots. Frederick Ramsay effortlessly guides his audience back and forth between the police inquiry and Frank’s prep school case keeping readers’ attention on both. The protagonist proves that life continues in spite of the clouds hanging over him and his advancing years. Mr. Ramsay tells a strong tale that keeps fans guessing whether Frank did it or not until the final moment.
-- Harriet Klausner

People doing things without considering the consequences—this is defined as Impulse. How long does someone need to carry the guilt of an impulsive action?

Frank Smith is finally planning to attend the reunion of Scott Academy, his childhood school. What makes this unusual is that this is the first time he is returning to the school in fifty years. During the past, Frank is now a well-known mystery writer and is still being investigated as the chief suspect in his wife's disappearance four years ago. The faculty naturally sees this as an opportunity for Frank to make a donation to his former school. When this doesn't materialize quickly, Frank is challenged to solve the mystery of four students that disappeared twenty-five years ago.

Did Frank kill his wife? He definitely possesses the three criteria for murder which are; the means, a motive, and the opportunity. Why does Frank have hostile feelings toward the school? Between having his father teach at the school and his brother committing suicide after being accused of homosexual relations, does Frank have reason? Why are there inconsistencies in the stories of the alumni who were friends with the boys who disappeared twenty-five years ago? Why would a boy who was unquestionably the most likely to succeed, fall-apart after the disappearance of the boys and become a drunk unless he felt guilty because of his involvement? Who do you believe? Who is lying? Why?

Impulse is paced with the reader's heartbeat. Through Frank's eyes, the characters are constantly intertwined. The reader is suspicious of Frank's actions and motives while also wondering if Frank did kill his wife. The writing style of Impulse will engulf the reader in the world of the protagonist, Frank Smith. This is a delightful escape into fiction at its best!
-- Teri Davis on Dorothy L

In his third published novel and first standalone, Frederick Ramsay proves himself to be an author worth watching. His style is solidly in the style dubbed "medium boiled" by fans of suspense fiction - with a bare minimum of graphic blood and gore. Instead the reader enjoys an emphasis on the characters, their histories and motivations.

IMPULSE introduces us to Frank Smith, who has a reasonably successful career as an author of mysteries. He is also a suspect in the mysterious disappearance of his wife almost four years ago, a target of determined fund raisers who work for his alma mater, a fond grandfather, an uneasy participant in his relationship with his adult daughter and discovering to his bemusement that he is once more an active player in the dating game.

Ramsay's characters include a single minded Arizona cop, a widow who converses out loud with a type of alter ego as a way of staving off loneliness, a confused young mother seeking the best for her children and jeopardizing her marriage in the bargain, an inept fund raiser hiding a long buried secret, an ambitious wife dissatisfied with her husband's passivity, and a chronic ne'er do well who finds himself on the path to straightening out his life, almost in spite of himself.

Ramsay skillfully keeps his story moving forward. There are flashbacks to a tragic afternoon some 25 years in the past as well as parenthetical references to various events in the present. Not a word is wasted or unnecessary, and the final disclosure of the truth is a scene solidly in the tradition of classic detective fiction.
--Woodstock -- Crimespree Magazine

A multifaceted suspense story, this standalone by Frederick Ramsay marks a departure from his previous work but the plot and characters are just as intriguing as they were in ARTSCAPE and SECRETS.

The novel is constructed around mystery writer Frank Smith's involvement in two very dissimilar disappearances which occur at opposite ends of the country. One day, four years ago, Smith's wife left their Phoenix home for a walk and never returned. Since he had recently taken out a million dollar life insurance policy on his spouse, Frank is naturally the primary suspect in her mysterious disappearance. Although a local detective is convinced the author killed his wife, without a body there's little he can do to prove that Smith has done anything more than just create fictional murders.

Desiring a change of scenery, Smith decides to attend the 50th class reunion of the prep school he attended as a youth. While revisiting the campus, the 68-year-old Scott Academy graduate is challenged to try his hand at solving a puzzling missing persons case. Its been twenty-five years since four boys wandered into the woods that surround the school and were never seen again.

The authorities have given up trying to solve the mystery but Smith and a former childhood friend, Rosemary Bartlett, accept the challenge of discovering what happened that day in Old Oak Woods. As Frank and Rosemary sift through clues and interview staff and alumni who were on campus at the time of the disappearance, back in Arizona the investigation continues into the whereabouts of Smith's wife.

Although not directly connected, the two strains of the plot are linked in a very subtle manner. Rather than spell it out, Ramsay will let the reader draw his own inferences. (Hint - consider the novel's title carefully, for therein lies a partial explanation as to what happened to both the schoolboys and Smith's wife.)