Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | Fic (m) Todd, C. 2002 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... McMinnville Public Library | Todd, C. | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Silver Falls Library | MYS TODD | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Rutledge finds himself questioning his own judgement when new evidence emerges in the case of Ben Shaw, hanged for murder. There's a brutal killer on the loose, he's made a mistake & the wrong man has died. Then his memories from the trenches begin to haunt him too. There was a man there too - condemned, executed, but guilty?
Author Notes
Charles Todd is a pen name for Charles and Caroline Todd, a mother and son writing team. Caroline received a BA in English literature and history and a Masters in international relations. Charles received a BA in communication studies with an emphasis on business management, and a culinary arts degree. They have written numerous novels including Bess Crawford Mystery series and the Inspector Ian Rutledge Mystery series.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
This brilliant and gripping whodunit may well be the best of Todd's six Rutledge novels (Watchers of Time, etc.). Featuring as its protagonist a Scotland Yard inspector who is among the walking wounded after his WWI traumas, the series has always been compelling. This time, Todd ratchets up the psychological pressures by raising doubts about the one aspect of Rutledge's life that he has felt secure about: his prewar accomplishments as a policeman. The widow of a convicted killer, who went to the gallows for preying on the infirm elderly, confronts him with a missing jewelry piece found in a neighbor's possession, suggesting that Rutledge helped execute an innocent man. Reopening the inquiry requires caution not only because of the soul-searching it provokes, which threatens to shatter the inspector's tenuous grasp on sanity, but also because the case contributed to his superior's promotion. This old mystery becomes only one of the puzzles Rutledge must resolve when he's ordered to investigate the poisoning deaths of three disabled soldiers. The solutions to both sets of crimes are logical, satisfying and unexpected, but it is the character of Rutledge himself-intuitive, exquisitely sensitive to mood, the emotions of others and the significance of what is left unsaid-that makes this both an outstanding historical mystery and literate period fiction. Agent, Jane Chelius. (Oct. 8) FYI: The revelation a couple of books back that Todd is the pseudonym of a mother-son writing team has had no discernible impact on sales. For fans it seems to have been a nonissue. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
As if being bedeviled by Hamish, the ghost of the Scotsman he found it necessary to execute during the Great War, weren't guilt-inducing enough, the Yard's Inspector Ian Rutledge now has to deal with the widow of Ben Shaw, the man he sent to the gallows seven years ago, in 1912. Shaw never killed those old ladies, she says, and she has proof: a brooch from one of them she found tucked in a neighbor's drawer. Nudged on by his conscience, Rutledge attempts to reopen the case, but his superior, Supt. Bowles, who rose to power on the strength of the conviction, first packs him off to Kent to solve a rash of new murders in Marling: three ex-soldiers, who returned from the war disabled and died on desolate country paths after ingesting laudanum-laced wine. While he's in Marling, Rutledge calls on Elizabeth, the widow of another war casualty, his best friend, who is chary about admitting to a new romance, and dines with Raleigh Masters, a raging, moody amputee, and his despairing wife. Then who should reappear but the widow Shaw, in full whine, and worse yet, a German officer Rutledge thought he had left for dead on the battlefield. Beset on all sides-and even from the backseat of his car, where Hamish has taken up residence-Rutledge must exorcise not only a village's demons but his own as well. If everyone would read just one book, any book, by Todd (Watchers in Time, 2001, etc.), and pay close attention to what he's saying, there would never be another war.
Booklist Review
Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge may be the only sleuth in detective-fiction history to have a ghost as his sidekick. Hamish MacLeod, late of the Scottish brigade, whom Rutledge ordered executed for insubordination during the Great War, provides acerbic commentary on Rutledge's actions and thoughts, effectively underscoring Rutledge's psychological torment. Rutledge's habitual angst is stretched to the breaking point in the latest in this series, when the inspector has reason to fear that he sent the wrong man to the gallows seven years before, in 1912. The hanged man's widow presents Rutledge with new evidence that seems to place the blame on another serial killer. Fearing for his sanity, Rutledge must examine the new evidence and investigate the murder of two ex-soldiers in Kent. Both sets of serial killings become eerily intermeshed. Todd skillfully interweaves an acute psychological portrait with a compelling puzzle. Intelligent and intense history-mystery, at the level of Anne Perry and Bruce Alexander. Connie Fletcher
Library Journal Review
Todd's sixth work featuring Inspector Ian Rutledge is a well-crafted addition to his popular historical series (e.g., Watchers of Time). Rutledge is taken aback when a persistent Nell Shaw brings him new evidence that could clear her late husband's name. Had Rutledge and his fellow policemen inadvertently sent an innocent man to his death six years earlier? Reconsidering the pre-World War I case serves to distract the inspector from his current assignment: determining who is killing maimed ex-soldiers in the peaceful countryside in Kent. Rutledge is sidetracked as well by his friendship with Elizabeth Mayhew, the widow of an old school chum. Elizabeth's feelings for a mysterious stranger further complicate Rutledge's investigation. Todd expertly demonstrates how shadows from the past intersect with unsolved murders in the present, revealing tantalizing details about Rutledge's wartime experience in France along the way. Here, Todd downplays the role of Hamish (the dead soldier who lives on in Rutledge's mind), but he remains a key player in the series. A pleasure to read; highly recommended for all public libraries and collections of historical mysteries.-Laurel Bliss, Yale Arts Lib. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.