Review: A FATAL LIE, Charles Todd

• 
  this edition an e-book from Libby through my local library
  
• #23 Inspector Rutledge series
• published 2021
• ISBN: 9780062905574
• ISBN 10: 0062905570
• Imprint: William Morrow
• Pages: 352 

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

In one of his most puzzling cases, Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge must delve deep into a dead man’s life and his past to find a killer determined to keep dark secrets buried.

A peaceful Welsh village is thrown into turmoil when a terrified boy stumbles on a body in a nearby river. The man appears to have fallen from the canal aqueduct spanning the valley. But there is no identification on the body, he isn’t a local, and no one will admit to having seen him before. With little to go on, the village police turn to Scotland Yard for help.

When Inspector Ian Rutledge is sent from London to find answers, he is given few clues—a faded military tattoo on the victim’s arm and an unusual label in the collar of his shirt. They eventually lead him to the victim’s identity: Sam Milford. By all accounts, he was a good man and well-respected. Then, why is his death so mysterious? Looking for the truth, Rutledge uncovers a web of lies swirling around a suicidal woman, a child’s tragic fate, and another woman bent on protecting her past. But where among all the lies is the motive for murder?

To track a killer, Rutledge must retrace Milford’s last journey. Yet death seems to stalk his every move, and the truth seems to shift at every turn. Man or woman, this murderer stays in the shadows, and it will take desperate measures to lure him—or her—into the light.

My Take

You'll notice from the list below that I haven't read all of this series, but they are certainly worth following.

While each adds to the development of Ian Rutledge's character, each certainly works quite well as a stand alone. Most are set in the decade after World War One and Rutledge, an Inspector with Scotland Yard, is battling the aftermath of the war. The complexity of this case is typical of most of the stories. The body of an ex-soldier turns up in a river in Wales, and from there Rutledge establishes the identity of the man, and looks for the reason why he is so far from home.

It is typical of Rutledge that he goes that extra mile, looking for why Sam Milford has been killed and by whom. It is a tangled trail that leads him to look for a missing child, why she has been kidnapped, and to uncovering deaths of people who at first glance don't seem to have anything to do with the original case.

The main plot is surrounded by a number of sub-plots, many of them giving us further background to Rutledge himself.

My rating: 4.7

I've also read

• A TEST OF WILLS -#1
• SEARCH THE DARK -#3
• 4.8, A FEARSOME DOUBT -#6
• A PALE HORSE -#10
• 4.5, A DUTY TO THE DEAD - Bess Crawford series
• 4.7, A LONELY DEATH -#13
• 4.6, THE CONFESSION - #14
• 4.7, HUNTING SHADOWS - #16
• 4.7, NO SHRED OF EVIDENCE - #18
• 4.7, RACING THE DEVIL - #19 
• 4.7, THE GATEKEEPER - #20
• 4.5, THE BLACK ASCOT - #21
• 4.8, A DIVIDED LOYALTY - #22
  

Review: A DIVIDED LOYALTY, Charles Todd

• 
   this edition an e-book on Libby through my local library
  
• Originally published 2020
• #22 in Ian Rutledge series

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge is assigned one of the most baffling investigations of his career: an unsolved murder case with an unidentified victim and a cold trail with few clues to follow

A woman has been murdered at the foot of a megalith shaped like a great shrouded figure. Chief Inspector Brian Leslie, one of the Yard’s best men, is sent to investigate the site in Avebury, a village set inside a prehistoric stone circle not far from Stonehenge. In spite of his efforts, Leslie is not able to identify her, much less discover how she got to Avebury — or why she died there. Her killer has simply left no trace.

Several weeks later, when Ian Rutledge has returned from successfully concluding a similar case with an unidentified victim, he is asked to take a second look at Leslie’s inquiry. But Rutledge suspects Chief Superintendent Markham simply wants him to fail.

Leslie was right—Avebury refuses to yield its secrets. But Rutledge slowly widens his search, until he discovers an unexplained clue that seems to point toward an impossible solution. If he pursues it and he is wrong, he will draw the wrath of the Yard down on his head. But even if he is right, he can’t be certain what he can prove, and that will play right into Markham’s game. The easy answer is to let the first verdict stand: Person or persons unknown. But what about the victim? What does Rutledge owe this tragic young woman? Where must his loyalty lie?

My Take

A very well plotted story, lots of red herrings, and a number of plot strands. This is another of those series where it pays to read the books in order, so that you follow the various by-stories that earlier titles bring with them. 

Rutledge is a very competent investigator and eventually he manages to untangle the plot that Brian Leslie didn't want anybody to know about. But even then he nearly gets it wrong.

My rating: 4.7

I've also read

A TEST OF WILLS -#1
SEARCH THE DARK -#3
4.8, A FEARSOME DOUBT -#6
A PALE HORSE -#10
4.5, A DUTY TO THE DEAD - Bess Crawford series
4.7, A LONELY DEATH -#13
4.6, THE CONFESSION - #14
4.7, HUNTING SHADOWS - #16
4.7, NO SHRED OF EVIDENCE - #18
4.7, RACING THE DEVIL - #19 
4.7, THE GATEKEEPER - #20
4.5, THE BLACK ASCOT - #21

Review: THE BLACK ASCOT, Charles Todd

• this edition published William Morrow 2019
• ISBN 978-0-06-267874-4
• 342 pages
• source: my local library
• #21 in the Inspector Rutledge series

Synopsis (author website)

Scotland Yard’s Ian Rutledge seeks a killer who has eluded Scotland Yard for years.

An astonishing tip from a grateful ex-convict seems implausible—but Inspector Ian Rutledge is intrigued and brings it to his superior at Scotland Yard. Alan Barrington, who has evaded capture for ten years, is the suspect in an appalling murder during Black Ascot, the famous 1910 royal horserace honoring the late King Edward VII. His disappearance began a manhunt that consumed Britain for a decade. Now it appears that Barrington has returned to England, giving the Yard a last chance to retrieve its reputation and see justice done. Rutledge is put in charge of a quiet search under cover of a routine review of a cold case.

Meticulously retracing the original inquiry, Rutledge begins to know Alan Barrington well, delving into relationships and secrets that hadn’t surfaced in 1910. But is he too close to finding his man? His sanity is suddenly brought into question by a shocking turn of events. His sister Frances, Melinda Crawford, and Dr. Fleming stand by him, but there is no greater shame than shell shock. Questioning himself, he realizes that he cannot look back. The only way to save his career—much less his sanity—is to find Alan Barrington and bring him to justice. But is this elusive murderer still in England?

My take

It is January 1921, and Eddie Wade has come to a small village in Gloucestershire looking for his wife at an address that doesn't exist. Desperate, he climbs the church roof and threatens to throw himself and the Vicar's daughter off unless someone finds his wife for him.

Rutledge is travelling back to London when he is stopped outside the village and helps get Eddie Wade down from the roof. He manages to reunite Wade with his wife and in return Wade tells him a story he's heard in prison. The man in the cell next door saw a man alight from the ferry from Ireland and swore that he had recognised the man thought to be responsible for the death of a woman on the road after Black Ascot.

Rutledge decides to pass on the story to his superior officer at the Yard, and is assigned the role of seeing if he can find Barrington, the man who was going to be brought to trial in 1910.

Rutledge gets close to the killer and is shot himself. The strange thing is that it looks as if he might have turned the gun on to himself.

There are characters in this series who provide threads between the books, and so I think it is series that works best for the reader if you have read some of the series before.  I enjoy them for their historical flavour and for the well constructed mysteries. Readers of the series will not be disappointed with this one.

My rating: 4.5
 
I've also read
A TEST OF WILLS -#1
SEARCH THE DARK -#3
4.8, A FEARSOME DOUBT -#6
A PALE HORSE -#10
4.5, A DUTY TO THE DEAD - Bess Crawford series
4.7, A LONELY DEATH -#13
4.6, THE CONFESSION - #14
4.7, HUNTING SHADOWS - #16
4.7, NO SHRED OF EVIDENCE - #18
4.7, RACING THE DEVIL - #19
4.7, THE GATEKEEPER - #20 

review: THE GATEKEEPER, Charles Todd - audio book

• format: audio book from Audible
• Narrated by: Simon Prebble
• Series: Inspector Ian Rutledge, Book 20
• Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
• Unabridged Audiobook
• Release date: 02-06-18
• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio

Synopsis (Audible)

On a deserted road, late at night, Scotland Yard's Ian Rutledge encounters a frightened woman standing over a body, launching an inquiry that leads him into the lair of a stealthy killer and the dangerous recesses of his own memories in this 20th installment of the acclaimed New York Times best-selling series.

Hours after his sister's wedding, a restless Ian Rutledge drives aimlessly, haunted by the past, and narrowly misses a motorcar stopped in the middle of a desolate road. Standing beside the vehicle is a woman with blood on her hands and a dead man at her feet.

She swears she didn't kill Stephen Wentworth. A stranger stepped out in front of their motorcar, and without warning, fired a single shot before vanishing into the night. But there is no trace of him. And the shaken woman insists it all happened so quickly, she never saw the man's face.

Although he is a witness after the fact, Rutledge persuades the Yard to give him the inquiry, since he's on the scene. But is he seeking justice - or fleeing painful memories in London?

Wentworth was well-liked, yet his bitter family paint a malevolent portrait, calling him a murderer. But who did Wentworth kill? Is his death retribution? Or has his companion lied? Wolf Pit, his village, has a notorious history: in medieval times, the last wolf in England was killed there. When a second suspicious death occurs, the evidence suggests that a dangerous predator is on the loose and that death is closer than Rutledge knows.

My Take

Set in 1920. Rutledge is still suffering from post traumatic stress from the war and the recent marriage of his sister brings painful reminders of what life might have held for him.

The investigation he takes on into the shooting death of a motorist in the middle of the night in a sense provides a welcome distraction from his war memories and personal life, but in reality there is no getting away from the war and the impact it had on people's lives.

The title is a puzzle right to the end. The plot is intricate, and some of the strands tested credibility but as always the character portrayal was excellent.

Simon Prebble does a superb job of the narration.

My rating: 4.7

I've also read
A TEST OF WILLS -#1
SEARCH THE DARK -#3
4.8, A FEARSOME DOUBT -#6
A PALE HORSE -#10
4.5, A DUTY TO THE DEAD - Bess Crawford series
4.7, A LONELY DEATH -#13
4.6, THE CONFESSION - #14
4.7, HUNTING SHADOWS - #16
4.7, NO SHRED OF EVIDENCE - #18
4.7, RACING THE DEVIL - #19 

Review: RACING THE DEVIL, Charles Todd

• this edition published by Harper Collins, 2017
• #19 in the Ian Rutledge series
• ISBN 978-0-06-238621-2
• 341 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

Scotland Yard's Ian Rutledge finds himself caught in a twisted web of vengeance, old grievances, and secrets that lead back to World War I in the 19th installment of the acclaimed best-selling series.

On the eve of the bloody Battle of the Somme, a group of English officers having a last drink before returning to the front make a promise to each other: if they survive the battle ahead - and make it through the war - they will meet in Paris a year after the fighting ends. They will celebrate their good fortune by racing motorcars they beg, borrow, or own from Paris to Nice.

In November 1919, the officers all meet as planned, and though their motorcars are not designed for racing, they set out for Nice. But a serious mishap mars the reunion. In the mountains just north of their destination, two vehicles are nearly run off the road, and one man is badly injured. No one knows - or will admit to knowing - which driver was at the wheel of the rogue motorcar.

Back in England one year later, during a heavy rainstorm, a driver loses control on a twisting road and is killed in the crash. Was it an accident due to the hazardous conditions? Or premeditated murder? Is the crash connected in some way to the unfortunate events in the mountains above Nice the year before? The dead driver wasn't in France - although the motorcar he drove was. If it was foul play, was it a case of mistaken identity? Or was the dead man the intended victim after all?

Investigating this perplexing case, Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge discovers that the truth is elusive - and that the villages on the South Downs, where the accident happened, are adept at keeping secrets, frustrating his search. Determined to remain in the shadows, this faceless killer is willing to strike again to stop Rutledge from finding him. This time, the victim he chooses is a child, and it will take all of Rutledge's skill to stop him before an innocent young life is sacrificed.

My Take

Some reading friends and I were talking the other day about authors aging their detectives in "real time" or not. The Charles Todd duo (mother and son) have chosen not to age Inspector Rutledge for here we are at installment #19 and we are still in 1920 with memories of World War One still fresh enough to impact of people's lives and actions. Many of the novels delve back into the past with incidents that took place during the war, and that now have impact post-war. There is a lot of information about the war and its economic and social impact on Britain, particularly on villages like the one where RACING THE DEVIL is set.

Little things like the story of Hamish McLeod are repeated from novel to novel, an attempt I think to ensure that a reader new to the series doesn't miss out on too much important background.

In many ways though Ian Rutledge feels like a "modern detective". Apart from the fact that getting from one place to another is pretty slow because mostly people are on foot or horseback (motorcars are still a rarety), and telephones virtually non-existent, Rutledge has relatively modern methods.

I wasn't totally clear by the end about all the links between the various plot lines. Perhaps I was just reading too fast in my attempt to get to the end of the book. It is a novel with a complex set of plot lines, and also lots of red herrings.

One interesting feature of this novel is that Rutledge contacts old friend Melinda Crawford, and so gets her daughter Bess Crawford (detective in the other Charles Todd series) to do some investigating for him. I have only read one title in the Bess Crawford series and this has sparked my interest to try another.

Overall, a satisfying read with just enough of a historical flavour.

My rating: 4.7

I've also read
A TEST OF WILLS -#1
SEARCH THE DARK -#3
4.8, A FEARSOME DOUBT -#6
A PALE HORSE -#10
4.5, A DUTY TO THE DEAD - Bess Crawford series
4.7, A LONELY DEATH -#13
4.6, THE CONFESSION - #14
4.7, HUNTING SHADOWS - #16
4.7, NO SHRED OF EVIDENCE - #18

Review: NO SHED OF EVIDENCE, Charles Todd ~ audio book

• format: audio book from Audible.com
• Narrated by: Simon Prebble
• Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins 
• Series: Inspector Ian Rutledge, Book 18
• Unabridged Audiobook

Synopsis (Audible.com)

In this absorbing new entry in the acclaimed New York Times best-selling series, Scotland Yard's Ian Rutledge is caught up in a twisted web of vengeance and murder.

On the north coast of Cornwall, an apparent act of mercy is repaid by an arrest for murder. Four young women have been accused of the crime. A shocked father calls in a favor at the Home Office. Scotland Yard is asked to review the case.

However, Inspector Ian Rutledge is not the first inspector to reach the village. Following in the shoes of a dead man, he is told the case is all but closed. Even as it takes an unexpected personal turn, Rutledge will require all his skill to deal with the incensed families of the accused, the grieving parents of the victim, and local police eager to see these four women sent to the infamous Bodmin Gaol. Then why hasn't the killing stopped?

With no shred of evidence to clear the accused, Rutledge must plunge deep into the darkest secrets of a wild, beautiful, and dangerous place if he is to find a killer who may - or may not - hold the key to their fate.

My Take

I have followed this series from the beginning, but have not read them all.

This story takes place in the early 1920s when 4 young women are accused of attempting to murder a young man in the river. Unfortunately he dies, and th charge become murder. Rutledge finds that he knows one of the accused, which does compromise him a little.

Memories of the war are still very raw, and some characters are physical reminders of what happened. 

Simon Prebble does a superb job of the reading.

In the second half of the book, the authors have decided to introduce a second plot. My guess is that they felt they didn't have enough leeway to bring the main plot to a satisfactory ending, but it does have the effect of diverting attention a bit, at the same time as providing explanation for some unresolved earlier events.

Hamish makes fewer "appearances", perhaps a sign that mentally Rutledge is mending.

My rating: 4.7

I've also read
A TEST OF WILLS -#1
SEARCH THE DARK -#3
4.8, A FEARSOME DOUBT -#6
A PALE HORSE -#10
4.5, A DUTY TO THE DEAD - Bess Crawford series
4.7, A LONELY DEATH -#13
4.6, THE CONFESSION - #14
4.7, HUNTING SHADOWS - #16

Review: A FEARSOME DOUBT, Charles Todd - audio book

• Written by: Charles Todd
• Narrated by: Samuel Gillies
• Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins 
• Series: Inspector Ian Rutledge, Book 6, first published 2002
• Unabridged Audiobook from Audible

Synopsis (Audible)

In 1912 Ian Rutledge watched as a man was condemned to hang for the murders of elderly women. Rutledge helped gather the evidence that sent Ben Shaw to the gallows. And when justice was done, Rutledge closed the door on the case. But Shaw was not easily forgotten. Now, seven years later, that grim trial returns in the form of Ben Shaw's widow Nell, bringing Rutledge evidence she is convinced will prove her husband's innocence. It's a belief fraught with peril, threatening both Rutledge's professional stature and his faith in his judgment. But there is a darker reason for Rutledge's reluctance. Murder brings him back to Kent where, days earlier, he'd glimpsed an all-too-familiar face beyond the leaping flames of a bonfire. Soon an unexpected encounter revives the end of his own war, as the country prepares for a somber commemoration on the anniversary of the Armistice. To battle the unsettled past and the haunted present at the same time is an appalling mandate.

And the people around him - Among them the attractive widow of a friend, a remarkable woman who survived the Great Indian Mutiny; a bitter, dying barrister; and a man whose name he never knew - unwittingly compete with the grieving Nell Shaw. They'll demand more than Rutledge can give, unaware that he is already carrying the burden of shell shock, and the voice of Hamish MacLeod, the soldier he was forced to execute in the war. The killer in Marling is surprisingly adept at escaping detection. And Ben Shaw's past is a tangle of unsettling secrets that may or may not be true. Rutledge must walk a tortuous line between two murderers...one reaching out to ruin him, the other driven to destroy him.

My Take

If you are looking for some really authentic-feeling crime fiction based on the issues of  the social aftermath World War One, then here is a series for you. I haven't read them all, but I have in particular enjoyed the audio versions. Each of the titles seems to have a focus on an issue related to the War. The issues that emerge in  A FEARSOME DOUBT are the damage done to the survivors, whether physical as in the loss of a limb, or mental as in post traumatic stress or unresolved shell shock; another issue relates to those who profited by the war, while so many lost so much.

Highly recommended.

My rating: 4.8


I've also reviewed
A TEST OF WILLS -#1
SEARCH THE DARK -#3
A PALE HORSE -#10
4.5, A DUTY TO THE DEAD - Bess Crawford series
4.7, A LONELY DEATH -#13
4.6, THE CONFESSION - #14
4.7, HUNTING SHADOWS - #16

The full series according to Fantastic Fiction
1. A Test of Wills (1996)
2. Wings of Fire (1998)
3. Search the Dark (1999)
4. Legacy of the Dead (2000)
5. Watchers of Time (2001)
6. A Fearsome Doubt (2002)
7. A Cold Treachery (2005)
8. A Long Shadow (2006)
9. A False Mirror (2007)
10. A Pale Horse (2007)
11. A Matter of Justice (2008)
12. The Red Door (2009)
12.5. The Kidnapping (2010)
13. A Lonely Death (2011)
14. The Confession (2012)
15. Proof of Guilt (2013)
16. Hunting Shadows (2014)
16.5. Cold Comfort (2013)
17. A Fine Summer's Day (2015) 

Review: THE CONFESSION. Charles Todd - audio book

• format: audio book from audible.com
• Narrated by: Simon Prebble
• Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins 
• Series: Inspector Ian Rutledge, Book 14
• Format: Unabridged 
• Published in 20102

Synopsis (Audible)

Declaring he needs to clear his conscience, a dying man walks into Scotland Yard and confesses that he killed his cousin five years earlier during the Great War. 

When Inspector Ian Rutledge presses for details, the man evades his questions, revealing only that he hails from a village east of London. 

With little information and no body to open an official inquiry, Rutledge begins to look into the case on his own. Less than two weeks later, the alleged killer’s body is found floating in the Thames, a bullet in the back of his head. 

The inspector’s only clue is a gold locket, found around the dead man’s neck, that leads back to Essex and an insular village whose occupants will do anything to protect themselves from notoriety. For notoriety brings the curious, and with the curious come change and an unwelcome spotlight on a centuries-old act of evil that even now can damn them all.  

My Take:

Another really good read from Charles Todd. Simon Prebble does an excellent job of the audio presentation. Although this is #14 in the series, it is only 1920 so we haven't progressed very far from the demons and ghosts of World War One. Ian Rutledge seems in better control of his own personal ghost Hamish, but even so wonders whether sometimes people hear him in conversation with Hamish.

Things are changing at the Yard. The Chief Inspector has had a heart attack and been hospitalised and so underlings like Rutledge are able to take advantage of the laxer supervision to operate this case on his own initiative. Of course that also means that the Yard doesn't actually know where he is and should anything happen to him, it will be some time before help arrives, if ever.

The audio versions of these books are produced to a very high standard, assisted by the fact that each story is carefully plotted and sufficiently tangled to be intriguing. World War One lurks there as a background without being intrusive.

my rating: 4.6

I've also reviewed
SEARCH THE DARK
A PALE HORSE
A TEST OF WILLS
4.5, A DUTY TO THE DEAD
4.7, A LONELY DEATH
4.7, HUNTING SHADOWS 

Review: HUNTING SHADOWS, Charles Todd - audio book

• Narrated by: Simon Prebble
• Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
• Series: Inspector Ian Rutledge, Book 16
• published  in 2014
• Format: Unabridged 

Synopsis (Audible.com)

A dangerous case with ties leading back to the battlefields of World War I dredges up dark memories for Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge in Hunting Shadows, a gripping and atmospheric historical mystery set in 1920s England, from acclaimed New York Times best-selling author Charles Todd.

A society wedding at Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire becomes a crime scene when a man is murdered. After another body is found, the baffled local constabulary turns to Scotland Yard. Though the second crime had a witness, her description of the killer is so strange it's unbelievable.

Despite his experience, Inspector Ian Rutledge has few answers of his own. The victims are so different that there is no rhyme or reason to their deaths. Nothing logically seems to connect them - except the killer. As the investigation widens, a clear suspect emerges. But for Rutledge, the facts still don't add up, leaving him to question his own judgment.

In going over the details of the case, Rutledge is reminded of a dark episode he witnessed in the war. While the memory could lead him to the truth, it also raises a prickly dilemma. To stop a murderer, will the ethical detective choose to follow the letter - or the spirit - of the law?

My Take

It is a couple of years since I've caught up with this series, despite the best intentions of reading them all. HUNTING SHADOWS makes me want to read more.

However Ian Rutledge hasn't moved on very far in that time. The setting is 1920, he is still working on demand out of Scotland Yard, and still suffering from post-war stress. World War One is still raw in the memories of rural England, where so many young lads went off to war and either did not return or came back maimed in body and soul.

Rutledge comes from London to the Fens to solve a murder at Ely Cathedral. The expectation both by his boss in London and the local Inspector in charge is that it won't take long. On the face of it there are no connections between the first murder and the second, nor with the shooting that follows. But of course there are connections as Rutledge will eventually ferret out.

The plots in this series are so well constructed, and there is enough of Rutledge's continuing story to maintain the reader's interest too. There is a post-war flavour that comes out well, and some interesting characters and occupations, some of which no longer exist.

My rating: 4.7

I've also reviewed
SEARCH THE DARK
A PALE HORSE
A TEST OF WILLS
4.5, A DUTY TO THE DEAD(A Bess Crawford novel)
4.7, A LONELY DEATH  

Review: A LONELY DEATH, Charles Todd

• Published by Harper Collins 2011
• ISBN 978-0-06-172619-4
• 343 pages
• source: my local library

Publisher's blurb (from author's site)

Three men have been murdered in a Sussex village, and Scotland Yard has been called in. It’s a baffling case. All the victims are soldiers who have made it home alive from the Great War, which ended two years ago, only to be garroted, with small ID disks left in their mouths. And shortly after Inspector Ian Rutledge arrives, there’s a fourth murder. The killer is vicious and clever, leaving behind few clues. As the stakes ratchet up, Rutledge is determined to find answers, even as he puts his job, his reputation, and even his life on the line.

My take

A LONELY DEATH is #13 in the Ian Rutledge series and I am guilty of dipping in and out of the series (see my reviews below). #1, A TEST OF WILLS, was set immediately after the war in 1919 and it does seem that, with A LONELY DEATH, historically we haven't come very far. The story begins in June 1920 and most of the action takes place within a few weeks of that beginning.

The Great War is still fresh in people's minds, missing soldiers are still being found in hospitals near the Western Front, and England is still coming to grips with the economic impact of such a terrible loss of manpower. It does seem wrong that soldiers from the Eastland Company, some terribly wounded during the conflict, have survived only to be murdered near their homes. That it is murder can't be doubted. After Rutledge is appointed to the case a fourth murder occurs, but it is only when he begins to toy with the idea of a pre-war connection that progress is made.

Even so Rutledge is removed from the case, even gaoled, in mid-stream, by his old enemy, Superintendent Bowles, his superior at Scotland Yard. Bowles dislikes Rutledge, his education, his reputation as a war hero, and his pre-war history as an intuitive clever detective.

As with the others from this series that I have read,  A LONELY DEATH is a good read, well crafted, with an excellent feeling of authentic detail. There was one thread in particular, the case of a missing elder son, which didn't feel tied off, but maybe I just missed something.

Rutledge still has Hamish on his shoulder, the ghost of his court-martialled and executed Corporal, who talks to him and suggests ideas. To Rutledge Hamish is very real, and he often converses with him aloud which must at times be disconcerting for others who can't "see" Hamish. I must admit I was a bit taken aback when Rutledge and other policemen piled into a car to go somewhere and the comment was that there was no room for Hamish in his usual place. I'd be interested to know if a reader, new to the series, perhaps starting with A LONELY DEATH, actually manages to work out who Hamish is.

You'll notice also that I am counting A LONELY DEATH as a "British" read, despite the fact that the author, Charles Todd, is in fact an American mother and son.

my rating: 4.7

Reviews on MiP
SEARCH THE DARK (Rutledge #3)
A PALE HORSE (Rutledge #10)
A TEST OF WILLS (Rutledge #1)
4.5, A DUTY TO THE DEAD (Bess Crawford #1)

Review: A DUTY TO THE DEAD, Charles Todd

William Morrow, 2009
ISBN 978-006-193384-6
328 pages
Source: Local Library

Publisher's Blurb
England, 1916. Independent-minded Bess Crawford's upbringing is far different from that of the usual upper-middle-class British gentlewoman. Growing up in India, she learned the importance of responsibility, honor, and duty from her officer father. At the outbreak of World War I, she followed in his footsteps and volunteered for the nursing corps, serving from the battlefields of France to the doomed hospital ship Britannic.

On one voyage, Bess grows fond of the young, gravely wounded Lieutenant Arthur Graham. Something rests heavily on his conscience, and to give him a little peace as he dies, she promises to deliver a message to his brother. It is some months before she can carry out this duty, and when she's next in England, she herself is recovering from a wound.

When Bess arrives at the Graham house in Kent, Jonathan Graham listens to his brother's last wishes with surprising indifference. Neither his mother nor his brother Timothy seems to think it has any significance. Unsettled by this, Bess is about to take her leave when sudden tragedy envelops her. She quickly discovers that fulfilling this duty to the dead has thrust her into a maelstrom of intrigue and murder that will endanger her own life and test her courage as not even war has.

My take:
This is the first of Todd's Bess Crawford novels,  and I found it very readable. While the well-established, still continuing, Ian Rutledge series is set after World War One, the Bess Crawford novels are set in the war itself.  A second novel in the series, IMPARTIAL WITNESS, was published in 2010.
The authors are without doubt drawing on a comprehensive knowledge of the impact of World War One on British soldiers in particular in both series.

A DUTY TO THE DEAD has a cosy feel about it, but at the same time it reminded me in style of novels I read back in the 70s by Victoria Holt and Susan Howatch.
Some readers may feel that the setting, the time frame, and the female sleuth are improbable, but it is a scenario that Jacqueline Winspear has explored in the Maisie Dobbs series, admittedly setting her first novel just over a decade later.

I certainly liked A DUTY TO THE DEAD well enough to look for the next in the series.

My rating: 4.5

Other Charles Todd reviews on this blog:
[These are all Inspector Rutledge titles]
SEARCH THE DARK
A PALE HORSE
A TEST OF WILLS

Review: A TEST OF WILLS, Charles Todd

Harper Collins Publishers, 1996, ISBN 978-0-06-124284-7, 305 pages.

The Great War is over, and Ian Rutledge has survived. He's come back to London Yard to pick up the brilliant career he left in late 1914. But though he's survived he hasn't come through unscathed. He's suffering from shell shock, the legacy of the Somme where he was buried alive, subsequently spending time in a psychiatric hospital. And he carries with him memories that he can't escape.

Rutledge is turning out to be a problem for Superintendent Bowles, his superior at Scotland Yard. Bowles dislikes Rutledge, his education, his reputation as a war hero, and his pre-war history as an intuitive clever detective.

So the request from Warwickshire for help in managing the investigation into the murder of Colonel Harris seems as if heaven sent. The most obvious suspect is a much decorated pilot, a favourite of the Queen's no less, and so the policeman who brings him to trial will be very unpopular.

A TEST OF WILLS is the first in the Ian Rutledge series, written by mother and son team Caroline and Charles Todd. I have already "read" #3 in the series SEARCH THE DARK, and #10, A PALE HORSE, but in both cases I had listened to them as an audio book narrated by Simon Prebble. I enjoyed them both immensely, but the question I asked at the end of my review of SEARCH THE DARK was how far my enjoyment was being determined by the excellent narrator.

I'm pleased to report that A TEST OF WILLS came up to the mark of the other two.

The story is a fascinating exploration of crime in a world already shattered by the First World War. Everyone in Upper Streetham, the village where the murder has taken place, assumes that Rutledge somehow escaped service. And now he threatens the fragile stability they've achieved, by trying to pin the murder on their local hero. And how could the Colonel have survived the war only to be so viciously murdered on his own land? At the same time Rutledge is fighting his own battle, tormented by the voice of "Hamish in his head", determined that he will solve this crime, but struggling to recapture his detection skills.

A TEST OF WILLS, with an ambiguous title, is crime fiction in Golden Age style. When I first discovered Charles Todd, I was surprised to find that this mother and son duo were Americans. For me they capture a British style pretty well, although in this novel I noticed the use of "plow", but that sort of slip is a rare occurrence.

One good thing from my point of view: there are another 9 titles in this series for me to catch up with, and they've embarked on a new series (A Duty to the Dead (2009) with a new protagonist!

My rating 4.8

From Fantastic Fiction:

Charles Todd is a pen name used by the American authors Caroline and Charles Todd. This mother-and-son writing team lives in the eastern United States, in North Carolina and Delaware, respectively. The pseudonymous mystery authors are best known for a series of novels, set in post World War I England. These intelligent and literate books deal with the cases of Inspector Ian Rutledge, a veteran of the European campaigns who is attempting to pick up the pieces of his Scotland Yard career. However, he must keep his greatest burden a secret. Suffering from shell shock, he lives with the constant cynical, taunting voice of Hamish MacLeod....

The series:
1. A Test of Wills (1996)
2. Wings of Fire (1998)
3. Search the Dark (1999)
4. Legacy of the Dead (2000)
5. Watchers of Time (2001)
6. A Fearsome Doubt (2002)
7. A Cold Treachery (2005)
8. A Long Shadow (2006)
9. A False Mirror (2007)
10. A Pale Horse (2008)
11. A Matter of Justice (2009)
12. The Red Door (2010)

Charles Todd's website contains promos for each of the books, plus a chance to read an extract for each.

Review, SEARCH THE DARK, Charles Todd

Audio book, 11 hour 45 min, narrated by Samuel Gillies.
The book was published in 1999, this version audible.com in 2000.

This is the third in the Ian Rutledge series, and the second I have listened to. It is a "village mystery", with quite a confined setting. A returned soldier travelling south by train to find work looks out of the window as the train passes through a small village and sees a woman and two children on the platform with a man. The soldier, Mowbray, believes his wife and children were killed in the bombing of London in 1915, and yet there they are on the platform.

He frantically tries to get off the train, but is not put off until the next stop. By the time he gets back to the station, the woman and children have gone. Distraught he searches the town, threatening his wife harm when he finds her. The next day a woman's body is found, face battered, some miles away in the countryside and the local police inspector assumes it is Mowbray's wife. But there is no sign of the children.

Ian Rutledge from Scotland Yard is brought in to find the children, but there are too many things that don't add up, and he is not convinced it is Mrs Mowbray. When another young woman is discovered to be missing, it seems Rutledge may be right. However the local policeman is not so easily convinced.

What I found as I listened is that I really cared about what happened to these characters. Rutledge is a bit pedantic about getting things right, and more than once I found myself saying " get on with it man!" but then I find he has thought of something that didn't even cross my horizon. And just when you think you've got it all worked out, the plot takes another turn, another body is found, or whatever, and off we go again.

The war is a recent memory and Rutledge is not the only one damaged by it. Several of the characters in the book, including the unfortunate Mowbray, have been deeply affected by the war. Rutledge himself is constantly reminded of the war by the ever present voice of Hamish MacLeod.

For me this time, the voice of "Hamish in his head" is much stronger in this early novel, the conversations Rutledge has with Hamish are more like dialogue between the detective and his offsider. I commented on this in my Sleuths and Foils post. By A PALE HORSE, which is #10 in the series, and set a year or two later than SEARCH THE DARK, Rutledge is learning how to control Hamish to an extent, and to respond less automatically to his voice.

I am "hooked" on these stories, but next time I really must read a book, not listen to one.

My rating: 4.9

From Fantastic Fiction:

Charles Todd is a pen name used by the American authors Caroline and Charles Todd. This mother-and-son writing team lives in the eastern United States, in North Carolina and Delaware, respectively. The pseudonymous mystery authors are best known for a series of novels, set in post World War I England. These intelligent and literate books deal with the cases of Inspector Ian Rutledge, a veteran of the European campaigns who is attempting to pick up the pieces of his Scotland Yard career. However, he must keep his greatest burden a secret. Suffering from shell shock, he lives with the constant cynical, taunting voice of Hamish MacLeod....

The series:
1. A Test of Wills (1996)
2. Wings of Fire (1998)
3. Search the Dark (1999)
4. Legacy of the Dead (2000)
5. Watchers of Time (2001)
6. A Fearsome Doubt (2002)
7. A Cold Treachery (2005)
8. A Long Shadow (2006)
9. A False Mirror (2007)
10. A Pale Horse (2008)
11. A Matter of Justice (2009)

Review: A PALE HORSE, Charles Todd

BBC Audiobooks America, unabridged, ISBN 978-0-7927-5346-9, 10 CDs, 11 hours 45 mins playing time, narrator is Simon Prebble.

A small group of young lads discover the body of someone they believe to be the Devil in a hooded cloak and gas mask, in the ruins of Fountain Abbey during a clandestine visit during the night. The local school master becomes a prime suspect even though he can throw no light on who the man is. When the school master's wife appeals to her father for help, Inspector Ian Rutledge is sent to Yorkshire to find out the identity of the dead man, and why he died in such mysterious circumstances.

The story is set in 1920 against the background of the chalk horse of the Apocalypse on the Wiltshire Downs. The war is a recent memory and Rutledge is not the only one damaged by it. He is haunted by childhood memories of the chalk horse, and constantly reminded of the war by the ever present voice of Hamish MacLeod.

This really is an excellent book, full of complexities, good character development. A fascinating range of characters live in the small village of Tomlin cottages on the Downs near the chalk horse. There is a good mix of murder mystery and Rutledge's personal story too. I was impressed by what felt like authenticity in the historical details from 1920. As an audio book it works really well too, with excellent voice characterisation by Simon Prebble.

I will certainly be looking for more in this series.

My rating 4.9

From Fantastic Fiction:

Charles Todd is a pen name used by the American authors Caroline and Charles Todd. This mother-and-son writing team lives in the eastern United States, in North Carolina and Delaware, respectively. The pseudonymous mystery authors are best known for a series of novels, set in post World War I England. These intelligent and literate books deal with the cases of Inspector Ian Rutledge, a veteran of the European campaigns who is attempting to pick up the pieces of his Scotland Yard career. However, he must keep his greatest burden a secret. Suffering from shell shock, he lives with the constant cynical, taunting voice of Hamish MacLeod....

The series:
1. A Test of Wills (1996)
2. Wings of Fire (1998)
3. Search the Dark (1999)
4. Legacy of the Dead (2000)
5. Watchers of Time (2001)
6. A Fearsome Doubt (2002)
7. A Cold Treachery (2005)
8. A Long Shadow (2006)
9. A False Mirror (2007)
10. A Pale Horse (2008)
11. A Matter of Justice (2009)