A Christmas witness

Todd's latest whodunit featuring Scotland Yarder Ian Rutledge (after A Game of Fear) finds the long-running series in top form. In 1921, WWI veteran Rutledge is still plagued by shell shock and haunted by the voice of Cpl. Hamish MacLeod, whom he executed for refusing to follow an order that both knew would result in senseless bloodshed. Rutledge's plans to spend Christmas with his sister are disrupted when his boss, Chief Superintendent Markum, directs him to Kent, where well-connected ex-colonel Lord Braxton claims an unidentified horseman tried to run him down, badly battering him before escaping. Braxton is sure it was a targeted attack and fears the assailant will strike again, so Rutledge puts aside his Christmas plans to investigate. Though he's determined to tackle the inquiry with his typical diligence (and help from the voice in his head), Rutledge struggles with moral ambivalence about aiding a former military man. Todd keeps readers off-balance throughout and poignantly explores his lead's emotional struggles as he interviews the people of Kent and comes to suspect that Braxton isn't telling the whole story. Inspector Rutledge shows no sign he's running out of steam. Agent: Lisa Gallagher, DeFiore & Co. (Oct.)

A holiday novella in Todd's long-running Ian Rutledge historical mystery series, set in 1921 England, finds the perpetually haunted Scotland Yard detective investigating the attempted murder of an Kentish lord. Assigned to the case by his irascible chief superintendent just before Christmas, newly promoted Chief Inspector Rutledge reluctantly leaves his friends and family behind in London and aims his hand-cranked motorcar for the historic county of Kent, where he finds dark and winding roads, a mysterious village, a warm country inn, a resourceful and helpful innkeeper, an imposing manor, a bumptious local policeman, moody weather, an array of possible suspects, and 1920s social mores, all while wrestling with nightmares from his time in the Great War. The more Rutledge investigates the case, the more he uncovers striking similarities between himself and the man he's been sent to protect. VERDICT Slower than most books in the series but less hard-edged as well, Todd's novella is warm and comfortable, like a pair of familiar shoes. The story is well-organized, and Rutledge's internal struggles are compelling as always. A worthwhile and rewarding read.--James Marshall

Newly promoted Chief Inspector Ian Rutledge's latest case echoesA Christmas Carol in ways that only begin with the season. Rutledge's plan to spend the 1921 holiday with his sister's family are briskly dismissed by a summons from Chief Superintendent Markum, who reports that Lord Braxton, aka Col. Edward Braxton, has been struck down by a mounted horseman who left him for dead. Braxton, who's demanding at the best of times, wants to keep the details of this event as private as possible, and he's decided from Rutledge's wartime service that he's the ideal choice to investigate and keep under Braxton's thumb. Traveling to Cottams House, in the Kentish village of Hartsham, Rutledge finds Braxton every bit as imperious and short-tempered as he expected. But although Braxton is such an obvious candidate for murder that he assures Rutledge he'll never live to see Christmas, his neighbors and household staff seem attached to him; only Henry White, who constantly blames Braxton for military orders that led to the death of White's only son in France, seems to have a motive to kill him. Readers acquainted with the franchise will appreciate from the beginning that Rutledge's inquiries here are much more invested in exploring the natural, social, and seasonal qualities of Braxton's world than in identifying the guilty party; others will have to adjust their expectations in order to accept a climactic revelation that seems more clearly borrowed from Dickens or the Gospels than from any of the evidence Rutledge has uncovered. A lovingly evoked postwar idyll that could just as well have been titledA Christmas Miracle. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.