A lonely death

The ever-popular Inspector Rutledge of Scotland Yard returns in this compelling mystery. In 1920, a trio of murders brings Rutledge to a village in Sussex, armed with questions. Why were these men, survivors of the Great War, killed in the same vicious manner? What's the meaning of the similar objects found inside the dead men's mouths? When a fourth man is murdered soon after Rutledge arrives in town, the inspector realizes he has only a short time in which to solve these crimes and precious little to go on. Aided, as usual, by his ethereal partner, the spirit of a soldier for whose WWI death Rutledge feels responsible, the inspector pieces together the clues and slowly makes his way toward a solution. As always, the authors ( Charles Todd is a pseudonym for a mother-son writing team) create a solid sense of time and place, and Inspector Rutledge remains a multifaceted hero, resourceful, engaging, and self-tortured. Another engaging entry in a fine series.--Pitt, David Copyright 2010 Booklist

Scotland Yard Insp. Ian Rutledge returns to France for the first time since he survived the horrors of trench warfare in the pseudonymous Todd's fine 13th mystery featuring the tormented and all-too-human sleuth (after 2010's The Red Door). In 1920, with his spirits shaken by the suicide of a fellow veteran, Rutledge travels to Sussex to catch a killer who's already garroted three men, all of whom served in WWI. When Rutledge presses his inquiries aggressively, a local's complaint leads to his removal from the case. Frustrated at the internal police machinations, which appear aimed at keeping him from advancement rather than assessing the validity of the charges against him, the inspector joins a friend on a mission of mercy across the Channel. The mother-son writing team could have dispensed with a contrived subplot involving a cold case, but as usual their subtle prose and profound empathy for all their characters enhance a suspenseful and twisty plot. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Two years after the Great War ends, another, more personal war begins.Retiring from the Yard, Chief Inspector Cummins confides in his protg Ian Rutledge that an unsolved murder at Stonehenge has tormented him for years. But Rutledge is overwhelmed already. First his friend Max, consumed by war memories, commits suicide; then Rutledge is sent off to Eastfield, Sussex, to deal with three garrotings in nine days, each victim found with someone else's wartime identity disc in his mouth. Many of the villagers suspect the absent brother of one of the victims, but the schoolmistress, vehemently defending him, asks the Yard to recall Rutledge for misbehavior. When his career adversary and replacement, Inspector Mickelson, is brutally attacked after identifying the wrong suspect, Rutledge is arrested for attempted murder. Ultimately released and reinstated, Rutledge, with help from Hamish, the ghost of the soldier he had to have executed in the war, zeroes in on another suspect, a former schoolmate of the garroting victims, now exacting revenge for years of bullying. Once a chance meeting with a past love, Meredith Channing, ends sadly, Rutledge heads for a French battlefield, his service revolver in his pocket and suicide on his mind. But better sense prevails, sending Rutledge back to Eastfield, where he can deal with the murders if he doesn't become the next victim.Cummins's case is perhaps too neatly tied to a deathbed scene at Max's home. But one shouldn't quibble when Todd (The Red Door, 2009, etc.) so eloquently blasts war for the obscenity it is.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.