The Nature of Things

  In one of the more complicated plots in this long series of books featuring Inspector Ian Rutledge, he is sent to a Welsh village to investigate a death that, at first, looks like an accident. The body of a man is found in a river and he appears to have fallen from a great height. There is a nearby canal aqueduct spanning the valley, and the assumption is that he fell from the top of the structure. He is unknown to the local residents and has no identification on him. Rutledge suspects this is no accident. The time is 1921, some three years after Rutledge had returned from the trenches of France suffering from shell shock, haunted by actions he had taken in the war, and barely able to function. It has been a struggle to get back to an appearance of normal and he is still haunted by the voice of Hamish MacLeod, the Scottish corporal whom he executed on the battlefield for failing to follow a command, but he has a talent for investigation and is a successful Scotland Yard inspector...

This is the twenty-second entry in Charles Todd's historical fiction series featuring Inspector Ian Rutledge. It's been a quality series throughout and this latest one is really one of the best in my opinion. It begins, as always, with Inspector Rutledge being sent to a small village to solve a murder, this time of an unknown young woman. But, unlike the usual plots, Rutledge gets lucky and solves the case quickly. He gives a name to the woman and identifies her unexpected murderer and heads back to London. Arriving at Scotland Yard, he finds that his boss, the odious Chief Superintendent Jameson, is pleased with his quick resolution to the case but unhappy about another ongoing case. Another unknown young woman had been found murdered at Avebury, her body found among the ancient standing stones there. Rutledge's colleague Chief Inspector Brian Leslie had been sent to investigate but he had found nothing but dead ends. He wasn't even able to name the woman and his repor...

The Black Ascot was a famous horse race that took place in 1910 in honor of the recently deceased King Edward VII. Everyone wore black to the race to show their mourning for the beloved king. After the race, there was a notorious murder of one of the attendees, a murder that was never solved. Or at least the suspect was never apprehended. The suspect was one Alan Barrington, a wealthy man who had the means to give the police the slip. He disappeared, apparently having left the country, and never a trace was found.  Years later, in 1921, England and Europe had suffered through a great war that made news of one lone murder pale in comparison. Inspector Ian Rutledge, one of those who suffered in the war, had returned to his pre-war job with Scotland Yard, and he received a tip from a former convict that Alan Barrington had been seen in England again. His tip was credible enough that Rutledge felt a responsibility to report it to his superior. Subsequently, he began a quiet review of t...

It is soon-to-be Christmas 1920, two years after the end of the Great War. Ian Rutledge has spent the day fulfilling social obligations. It was his beloved sister Frances' wedding day and his duty, since both their parents are dead, was to walk her down the aisle and give her hand to the husband-to-be. He is happy for his sister but cannot help feeling melancholy about how her marriage will change his relationship with her. She has been the rock on which he has anchored his life after coming home from the war shell-shocked, wounded in spirit. After the wedding, he makes it through the reception, socializing with the guests, but once the happy couple leaves on their wedding trip, his PTSD closes in and he must escape. He leaves London, driving aimlessly with no destination in mind. Somewhere on the dark and lonely road between London and Suffolk, he encounters a car stopped in the middle of the road with an open door. Rutledge stops to give assistance and finds a woman standing besi...

It is 1920 and the Great War has been over for a couple of years, but it continues to affect people's lives as both civilians and those who served in the military struggle to come back from the ongoing effects of that conflict. That is nowhere more true than in the remote villages of England which lost nearly a whole generation of young men in the terrible trench warfare in France. Inspector Ian Rutledge still struggles with the repercussions of his experience in those trenches. He suffers from PTSD (shell shock in that day) and is haunted by the spirit of Hamish McLeod, the young Scottish soldier whom he executed for insubordination and refusal to follow an order on the field of battle. Rutledge does, however, seem to have made some progress in dealing with his psychological problems. Hamish is still there and his voice pops up in the narrative from time to time, but it is not the overwhelming presence that it was in some of the earlier books and that is a relief. Rutledge continu...

I'm slowly overtaking Charles Todd's series featuring Inspector Ian Rutledge. This is the eighteenth in the series with one more to go, but I believe number 20 will be coming out this year. More reading to do. After spending all this time with Rutledge through the past few years, I've come to the conclusion that he is a very nice man but maybe not a very good detective. He often seems more intent on not rocking the boat than with getting to the bottom of things, particularly when he is dealing with upper class women, as he often seems to do in these cases.  In this case, it is four young and beautiful upper class women in Cornwall who have been accused on the word of one man of attempted murder. When the victim later dies from his injuries, it becomes murder. I found the whole scenario of the so-called attempted murder and the witness's statement rather implausible. It was just one of my problems with the plot. These four women decide on a sunny afternoon to take a rowb...

The previous books in this series have all featured Inspector Ian Rutledge of Scotland Yard after he returned from serving in the trenches of World War I. He returned shell-shocked and haunted by the spirit of Hamish MacLeod, a young Highlander under his command whom he had condemned to be shot for insubordination and failure to follow an order on the battlefield. He has struggled mightily with his demons in all of those books. A Fine Summer's Day , however, is a prequel to all those events. The time is the summer of 1914. Inspector Ian Rutledge is dedicated to his career as a policeman; he feels a calling to serve in that way.  His personal life, although not without challenges, is going well. He is in love with Jean Gordon, daughter of Major George Gordon and, on one fine summer's day, he asks her to marry him. The answer is "yes" and Jean and her mother start planning for a Christmastime wedding. Meanwhile, in the North, a young Scotsman named Hamish MacLeod has al...

I've been working my way through this historical mystery series for a few years now and the trip has mostly been enjoyable. But the previous book, Proof of Guilt , which I read last summer, was a big disappointment to me and nearly put me off. I haven't felt the desire to get back to the series since until a few days ago. Looking for my next book to read I came across Charles Todd's name and decided, why not? I'm glad I decided to give him another chance because this one was a winner. It is 1920 and memories of the First World War are still fresh. Many of the veterans of that war bear wounds, both physical and mental, that are yet to heal. Among the sufferers of psychological wounds is Inspector Ian Rutledge of Scotland Yard. He does his best to keep his PTSD, or shell shock as it was then called, hidden.  Rutledge is sent to Cambridgeshire, the Fen Country, to investigate two murders. The first was a former soldier who was shot while attending a society wedding at Ely ...

Proof of Guilt by Charles Todd My rating: 2 of 5 stars I am an avid reader of series, especially mystery series, and have read all of the Inspector Ian Rutledge mysteries right up to this number 15 in the cycle, Proof of Guilt . It's been an uneven series, but, on the whole, I have enjoyed it. I find the depiction of the period after World War I and particularly the sensitive treatment of the soldiers who experienced "shell shock," or post traumatic stress disorder, as we would term it, to be very intriguing and generally well done. All that being said, I can only express my extreme disappointment with this entry. The plot is so confusing and the dizzying number of characters so underdeveloped and uninteresting that it makes trying to come up with a sensible summary of the book virtually impossible. We have missing persons and multiple unidentified corpses. Do the two categories match up? Well, maybe or maybe not. That's one of many things that isn't entirely cle...

The Confession by Charles Todd My rating: 4 of 5 stars It's 1920 and World War I is now well in the rear-view mirror, but Inspector Ian Rutledge is still suffering some of the effects of shell-shock (as PTSD was called in those days). He's getting stronger though, and it was refreshing in this 14th entry in Charles Todd's series to find him much closer to normal and able to function at a higher level than he has previously. He is still haunted by the voice of Hamish, the young Scots soldier under his command that he had had to execute for failure to obey orders on the battlefield. But Hamish seems a somewhat more benevolent spirit at this point. Perhaps he is beginning to meld into Rutledge's own personality and become simply the voice of his conscience. This story begins with a man walking into Scotland Yard and confessing to the murder of his cousin five years earlier, but it is a murder that has never been reported and there is reason to suspect that it may not real...

A Lonely Death by Charles Todd My rating: 3 of 5 stars It is 1920 and ex-soldiers who survived the horror of the trenches in World War I are being killed in a particularly gruesome manner in the quiet countryside of England. Three men have been garroted, and in the mouth of each has been found one of the identification discs that World War I soldiers carried into battle. However, the identification disc with which each man was found is not his own, and, in fact, appears to be unrelated to that particular ex-soldier. It seems a classic case of misdirection. Scotland Yard is called in to help with the investigation and Inspector Ian Rutledge is sent as the agency's representative. But sending in the Yard does not halt the murders. After Rutledge arrives, another man - another ex-soldier - is killed in the same manner. Where will the serial murderer strike next? The clear implication is that all of these deaths are somehow related to something that occurred during the war, but all of...

The Red Door by Charles Todd My rating: 3 of 5 stars We pick up this historical mystery series once again as it has reached 1920, well past the Armistice that ended World War I, but that "War to End All Wars" still casts its long and dismal shadow over Britain and Europe at large. Inspector Ian Rutledge of Scotland Yard continues to bury himself in his work in an attempt to forget his traumatic war experiences. It is a futile effort, as the voice of the Scots soldier, Hamish, whom Rutledge had had to execute in the field because of his failure to obey a direct order, lives on in Rutledge's head, both advising him and criticizing his actions. At times, he expects to see Hamish materialize. He can't be sure that he isn't real. Yes, Rutledge still suffers mightily from PTSD, or shell shock as it was known at the time. It was considered a shameful thing. Its victims were thought to be cowards. Rutledge is never the flavor of the month as far as his boss, Superintende...

A Pale Horse by Charles Todd My rating: 4 of 5 stars A man who is of interest to the British War Office has disappeared. He is a chemist whose work during World War I was so secret that the War Office withholds information about what he did or even his real name. But they want someone to go and try to find what has happened to him. Scotland Yard sends Inspector Ian Rutledge. It's not the first time his superiors have sent him on what appears to be a "mission impossible" since he returned to his job just over a year ago after having suffered shell shock during the war and being hospitalized after it. In spite of the demons that haunt him and the constant presence in his head of Hamish, the Scottish soldier whom he executed at the front for failure to obey orders, Rutledge is a very good investigator and in spite of the ill will of his supervisor, Superintendent Bowles, he's been able to solve every case that has been assigned to him. This one, though, begins to look l...

A Matter of Justice by Charles Todd My rating: 4 of 5 stars A London financial advisor named Quarles is respected and admired by his compatriots in the City, but he lives a different life altogether in the small village where he maintains a second home where he can "rusticate" to get away from business. There, he is known as a man who pursues women against their wishes, often married women or very young girls. He is just about universally hated by his neighbors there and so when he turns up dead in rather appalling circumstances, most of them will freely admit that they are glad he is dead and would have been happy to kill him themselves. All of which does not make the work of the police investigating the crime any easier. The man was very important in the business world and lived as the local squire in the village and so when he is murdered the local constable calls on Scotland Yard for assistance. If it means a trip to the provinces, it's another chance for his superio...

A False Mirror by Charles Todd My rating: 2 of 5 stars I found this ninth in the Inspector Ian Rutledge series a bit of rough going. It was hard to work up much interest in the plot or in the main characters. The whole premise of the story just seemed rather unbelievable. As always, the plot is tied to the experiences of World War I. In this instance, the connection is through a man with whom Ian Rutledge had served in the war, a man who returned from the war to find the woman that he had been in love with now married to another older, richer man of a higher social class. When that man is severely beaten and left for dead, suspicion falls upon Rutledge's former comrade in arms. When the police go to question the man, he goes a bit off the tracks and runs over the constable's foot with his car as he makes his escape. Instead of leaving the area, he makes his way to the house of the victim where, in a strange encounter with the man's wife, she gives him her husband's gun...

A Long Shadow by Charles Todd My rating: 4 of 5 stars After reading the previous book in this series, A Cold Treachery , I was interested to see where Inspector Ian Rutledge's cases would take him next and I decided to jump right in and read the next book in the series. After all, it was already on my Kindle waiting for me, just a click away. We first encounter the inspector here on New Year's Eve, 1919, only a short while after the end of his last case. He accompanies his sister, Frances, to the house of mutual friends for a dinner party. At the party, one of the guests is alleged to have some psychic powers and she is asked to hold a seance, an activity that is very popular in the London of the day. This makes Inspector Rutledge, who has an intimate knowledge of and relationship with the dead from the recent war, very uncomfortable, and he is relieved to receive a phone call from Scotland Yard which gives him an excuse to leave. As he is leaving, he finds a brass cartridge c...

A Cold Treachery by Charles Todd My rating: 4 of 5 stars I shivered a lot while reading A Cold Treachery . Not because of the suspense particularly, but because of the description of the weather during which the action takes place. Inspector Ian Rutledge had been testifying in a case in the north of England when he was contacted by Scotland Yard to get himself to the remote village of Urskdale where a horrendous crime has taken place. Five members of a family have been murdered and the sixth member of the family, an almost ten-year-old boy, has disappeared. Did he do the killing? Or was he a witness who escaped the carnage but can tell who did it? But if he escaped, did he manage to find shelter and survive the merciless storm lashing the fells? Rutledge heads to Urskdale in the middle of a violent blizzard. Barely able to see where he is going, he comes upon an accident on the road. A carriage is overturned. The horse that had been pulling it is dead and a woman lies seriously injure...

A Fearsome Doubt by Charles Todd My rating: 3 of 5 stars It is one year after the Armistice ended "the war to end all wars," but Inspector Ian Rutledge of Scotland Yard is still haunted by his time in the trenches and still suffering from post traumatic stress, or "shell-shock" as it was then called. He has returned to his old life and tried to move on and make the best of things, but the past keeps intruding. And he still carries with him at all times the persona and the voice of Hamish MacLeod, the young soldier under his command who he was forced to have executed for insubordination in the field. And now, a new burden is added. In 1912, as a very young policeman, Rutledge was instrumental in seeing a man condemned to hang for the murders of three elderly women. Rutledge had provided the evidence that had sent Ben Shaw to the gallows. He had never doubted that Shaw was guilty and that the verdict was just, until almost seven years later Shaw's widow comes to ...

Watchers Of Time by Charles Todd My rating: 3 of 5 stars The action in this fifth entry in Charles Todd's Inspector Ian Rutledge series begins only a few weeks after the end of the last, which left Rutledge seriously injured and lying bleeding from a gunshot wound to the chest. Rutledge has recovered enough to return to work but is not yet able to resume his full duties. When a Catholic bishop contacts Scotland Yard and asks them to oversee the investigation of the murder of a priest in the little village of Osterley, it seems an ideal assignment for the inspector. All he has to do is consult with the local police and make sure a full and appropriate investigation of the crime has taken place. But the reader knows well from the previous four books that the role of overseer is not one that Rutledge can easily fill - especially when he suspects that a miscarriage of justice is taking place. He arrives in Osterley to find that the police have arrested Matthew Walsh, an outsider, for ...

My rating: 4 of 5 stars Legacy of the Dead is the fourth in Charles Todd's Inspector Ian Rutledge series. This is an intelligently written, literate series about a veteran of the trench warfare in France during World War I who, after the war, is trying to pick up the pieces of his life and his career at Scotland Yard. But he carries the burden of a dark secret - namely, that he still suffers from the effects of shell-shock, as it was then known, post-traumatic stress disorder as we call it today. He carries with him the persona of a young Scots soldier named Hamish McLeod, whom he had to have executed on the battlefield for his refusal to obey an order. Hamish's cynical, taunting voice is a constant presence in his mind. One of the strengths of these books is that they deal with the issue of PTSD in a very sensitive fashion. Ian Rutledge's superior at Scotland Yard is a very jealous man and he prefers to keep the skilled investigator Rutledge as far away as he can, so he a...