Cart
  • Sign In
Author

Frederick Ramsay

Frederick Ramsay

  • In Botswana, people of the north live in harmony with the wildlife, yet predators and poachers roam freely. The lions may be kings, but hyenas will steal their prey. A Chobe Game Park pack led by the alpha female is especially fearless. The locals call her Kotsi Mosadi, Setswana for Danger Woman.

    Following a recent rash of deaths and dismembered body parts appearing in the park, District Superintendent Sanderson is alerted to the discovery of a ravaged human skull, believed to be the work of the Russian Bratva. Fresh from St. Petersburg, led by Oleg Lenka, these mafiosi think it will be a cinch to take over the region’s high-end tourist trade and in particular the casino/hotel operation that is the fiercely held, final dream of American billionaire Leo Painter.

    Sanderson’s friend and, it must be said, her lover, Inspector Kgabo Modise of the Botswana Police Service, is tasked to remove them. Arriving from Gaborone, deploying limited staff undercover, Modise is quickly swept into a complex set of moves orchestrated to outwit not so much Lenka, a traditional kind of thug, but his mistress Irena Davidova, the Bratva’s own Danger Woman. She’s the alpha of the Russian pack―but for how long?

    Aided by Sanderson, who has some clever moves of her own, Modise and his team gradually undermine the Bratva’s assumption that the intimidation tactics that worked in St. Petersburg will work in Botswana, a country where the police are unarmed. And Leo has a ruthless Russian of his own in play, plus resources from Chicago. In parallel, a very pregnant Kotsi Mosadi is fully engaged keeping control of her pack and outwitting relentless lions.

    Within the majestic park, the interplay of predator and prey, the unpredictability of conflicting interests, and the heartlessness of the Bratva culture finally collide to upend an otherwise ordinary night on the Chobe River.

  • 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 killing―or domestic terrorism? The town plunges into mourning, and Ike’s wife Ruth, the president of the local college, puts on a brave face as the sheriff’s department organizes a manhunt, the likes of which Picketsville has never seen.

    Back at the CIA, Ike’s old colleague Charlie Garland joins the hunt, becoming fixated on a blurry videotape of the crime scene. Charlie’s elastic job description includes monitoring Ike’s life. Investigations―led by more than one player―fan around and out of Picketsville as far as a small town in Idaho where Martin Pangborn, head of the radical militia called the Fifty-First Star, runs his organization. If some banks and businesses are too big to fail, are some people too deeply connected or too wealthy to bring to justice? Is Martin Pangborn such a person? The Fifty-First Star’s tentacles run long and deep. But the Vulture is something no one, not even Martin Pangborn, is prepared for.