Stranger Room
An
Ike Schwartz Mystery
Frederick
Ramsay
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-59058-535-6 (1590585356)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-535-1 (9781590585351)
Publication Date: August 2008
List Price: $24.95
Synopsis (from
the publisher): The elderly Jonathan Lydell III is proud of his family history. He is related to the Virginia
Lees (both Light Horse Harry and Robert E. Lee) and to the Custis
family (and thus to George Washington). But these connections
don’t seem to matter to the current generation. In fact, they
seem utterly disinterested in family, history, or position. But for
Lydell, family history is the only real thing left—that and his
antebellum house.
Lydell is committed to restoring the home to its antebellum
configuration, complete with a stranger room—an attached room
with its own entrance, separately locked and kept for use by unknown
travelers. Found in many family homes in the 1800s, the room was
intended to protect the family from unsavory guests.
Nearly 150 years ago, an inexplicable murder took place in the locked
stranger room of the Lydell house. The murderer was never caught. As
far as Lydell is concerned, this brutal history just adds to the rich
character of the house. But when a new, identical murder is committed
in the same room, not even sheriff Ike Schwartz and FBI agent Karl
Hedrick can explain it. Why would history repeat itself? What could
explain these identical murders? Could the Lydell family history hold
the key?
Review:
Picketsville sheriff Ike Schwartz investigates two deaths, one clearly
a murder, the other possibly a tragic accident, at an antebellum
mansion in Stranger Room, the fourth mystery in this series by Frederick Ramsay.
The murder is a curious case. The dead man, a visitor to the area, was
found locked inside a stranger room, historically a room for passing
travelers that was part of the main house but featured a separate
entrance. There was no window nor was they any other means of entry.
That he had been murdered is not in doubt; how it happened is the
question at hand. The owner of the estate, Jonathan Lydell, claimed to
not know the man. But what is even more unusual is that in 1864,
another murder had taken place in the very same room under similar
circumstances; that case was never solved. Ike's investigation gets
more complicated when Lydell's daughter dies after falling down a
flight of stairs. Was it an accident? Or could the two cases somehow be
connected?
Stranger Room is much
more than a locked room mystery. In many ways, it's an overview of a
couple of weeks in the life of a small town sheriff. His relationship
with the president of a local woman's college, his management of the
police force, dealing with simmering moral issues and race relations in
the town, and possible drug trafficking. That none of these disparate
subplots interfere with the primary plot involving the murder
investigation is quite remarkable. In fact, in many ways, it helps put
everything into perspective.
As Ike ponders the case, he keeps coming back to the why. "The case is
full of whys. Never mind the how the murder was done ... it's the whys.
Someone shot Grotz who then went to the trouble to make it look like a
locked room mystery. Martha Marie, for no reason at all, launches
herself down the stairs." As Ike works out the why he also comes up
with the how. And for everything else that happens, this is basically a
locked room murder mystery.
The good ones promise an ingenious solution and Stranger Room delivers.
Special thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for providing an ARC of Stranger Room for this review.
Review Copyright © 2008 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.
Mysteries in this series ...
Artscape
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover), July 2004
ISBN-10: 1-59058-127-X (159058127X)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-127-8 (9781590581278)
Secrets
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover), August 2005
ISBN-10: 1-59058-188-1 (1590581881)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-188-9 (9781590581889)
Buffalo Mountain
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover), August 2007
ISBN-10: 1-59058-369-8 (1590583698)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-369-2 (9781590583692)
Stranger
Room
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover), August 2008
ISBN-10: 1-59058-535-6 (1590585356)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-535-1 (9781590585351)
Omnimystery keywords for Stranger Room ...
Location(s) referenced: Virginia.
