CHOKER

In the process of doing a favor for a friend, the sheriff of Picketsville, Va., stumbles over a terrorist plot.

His CIA buddy Charlie Garland asks Ike Schwartz to use part of his vacation on the Delaware shore to investigate a plane crash that killed Nick Reynolds, an inexperienced pilot who was engaged to marry Charlie’s niece. The plane remains undiscovered, but just before he crashed Nick called Charlie and left a cryptic message. Taking to the skies, Ike thinks he sees something in the water far from Nick’s planned course. With help from Bunky, a government-hating local waterman, and some equipment borrowed from the CIA, Ike finds the plane not far offshore, near a strangely placed duck blind. Bunky is furious when someone torches his boat, and Charlie and Ike are aghast when a photo on Nick’s cell phone shows a freighter unloading a missile near the duck blind. Checking back on satellite photos, they realize that six missiles somewhere close by are poised for attack. Ike figures that they’ll probably be launched on Yom Kippur, only five days away. Co-opted by the CIA, Ike, Charlie, Bunky and a team of Navy SEALs search for evidence to convince the reluctant higher-ups that in order to prevent an attack, they’ll have to destroy four freighters carrying missiles plus the still undiscovered weapons hidden on shore.

A fast-paced thriller that’s quite a departure from Ramsay’s Picketsville mysteries (Stranger Room, 2008, etc.).