Wings Of Fire (Inspector Ian Rutledge, #2)

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Wings Of Fire (Inspector Ian Rutledge #2)

by Charles Todd (Goodreads Author)

3.98 of 5 stars 3.98 · rating details · 1,465 ratings · 150 reviews

Inspector Ian Rutledge is quickly sent to investigate the sudden deaths of three members of the same eminent Cornwall family, but the World War I veteran soon realizes that nothing about this case is routine. Including the identity of one of the dead, a reclusive spinster unmasked as O. A. Manning, whose war poetry helped Rutledge retain his grasp on sanity in the trenches...more

Paperback, 306 pages

Published May 15th 1999 by St. Martin's Paperbacks (first published 1998)

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May 17, 2013 Jeffrey Keeten rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“Shaken from sleep, and numbed and scarce awake,
Out in the trench with three hours' watch to take,
I blunder through the splashing mirk; and then
Hear the gruff muttering voices of the men
Crouching in cabins candle-chinked with light.
Hark! There's the big bombardment on our right
Rumbling and bumping; and the dark's a glare
Of flickering horror in the sectors where
We raid the Boche; men waiting, stiff and chilled,
Or crawling on their bellies through the wire.
"What? Stretcher-bearers wanted? Some on
...more

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Jun 09, 2012 Kim rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime-fiction, mt-tbr-challenge

This is the second novel in Todd’s Inspector Rutledge series. In this installment, Inspector Rutledge is sent to Cornwall by his Scotland Yard superior to investigate the three deaths of three half siblings in a local manor house. Two have apparently died as a result of a suicide pact, the other as a result of an accident. Rutledge is there to investigate the possibility of foul play, although his jealous superior really wants to keep him away from the hunt for a serial killer currently taking p...more
This is the second novel in Todd’s Inspector Rutledge series. In this installment, Inspector Rutledge is sent to Cornwall by his Scotland Yard superior to investigate the three deaths of three half siblings in a local manor house. Two have apparently died as a result of a suicide pact, the other as a result of an accident. Rutledge is there to investigate the possibility of foul play, although his jealous superior really wants to keep him away from the hunt for a serial killer currently taking place in London.

Todd – a mother and son writing team – go for atmosphere in this novel. By setting the narrative in an old house by the sea in Cornwall, it appears that they were trying to channel Daphne du Maurier. “Trying” is the operative word here, because in my view they don’t succeed in evoking the gothic atmosphere of Rebecca or in otherwise making the reader really feel the setting. The combined Todds don’t have du Maurier’s way with words. Also, the fact that they described a character as having seaside souvenirs from Truro – an inland town – made me wonder whether they have in fact been to Cornwall.

If I had been fully engaged with the narrative, I would probably not make such a pedantic point. I wanted to like the novel more than I did. However, the writing, while competent enough, doesn’t shine. The plot is also competent and generally held my interest, but I guessed the identity of the culprit early on. Nothing very clever was involved in this - just a process of elimination – but I’m always vaguely irritated when it happens. Also, too much of the narrative is advanced by telling and not showing. Most of it involves Rutledge moving in a ceaseless round of interviewing one character after another, which gets a little tedious.

The major problem I have with the first novel in the series, A Test Of Wills, continues in this novel. That problem is Hamish. Inspector Rutledge is a WWI veteran with what used to be called shellshock. So far, so interesting. A symptom of his mental state is that he hears the voice of Hamish, a dead Scottish soldier. In my view, this plot device does not work well because Hamish is supposed to fill too many roles. At times Hamish is Rutledge’s conscience; at other times he is Rutledge’s sub-conscious. He is also the chattering inner voice which all of us have. Sometimes Hamish tells Rutledge things which realistically neither the conscious Rutledge nor his sub-conscious could possibly know. To me, Hamish is expected to do too much work for a symptom of psychosis.

Overall, I liked this book better than A Test Of Wills. Rutledge is an interesting and sympathetic protagonist and the Todds are not bad storytellers. I haven’t decided whether I’ll read the third book in the series. Maybe I will, but I’m in no hurry to do so, which indicates that the series is not really a winner for me. (less)

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Jun 10, 2010 Patsyann rated it 5 of 5 stars

On these books it is all about the mystery. There is no romance, no sex, the dirtiest words are damn and bloody. But I have to read to the end to find out who did it and this book did not disappoint!!
Just lean back enjoy the ride.
There is no CSI, no fingerprints, no latex gloves and most importantly - no search warrants!! Just a good interviewer (kind of a Mentalist type) who reads people and can tell their guilt by looking at their face.
There is always an attractive woman for Ian - and their r...more

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May 09, 2008 Scot rated it 4 of 5 stars

Second in the Ian Rutledge series. In this volume the Inspector tries to discover the cause of many horrible accidental deaths and suicides that plague a well-to-do family in Cornwall. Was there a slow but effective serial killer among the many step and half-siblings, now reduced to only a few left? If so, is the killer still alive, or planning to kill again? This is dark and more of a Gothic mystery than his first book. The family connections are a bit complicated to follow, and as usual, the a...more

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Apr 20, 2010 Joyce Lagow rated it 2 of 5 stars

2nd in the Inspector Rutledge of Scotland Yard series, set in post-World War I.[return][return]Rutledge, having just come back from solving his last case in Warwickshire, is shuffled off to Cornwall by his jealous superior, Bowles, who doesn't want the possibility of Rutledge muscling in on the glory of finding a serial killer. There really isn't a case; a relative of two members of the landed gentry who have committed suicide has asked the Home Office to send an investigator to make sure that a...more 2nd in the Inspector Rutledge of Scotland Yard series, set in post-World War I.[return][return]Rutledge, having just come back from solving his last case in Warwickshire, is shuffled off to Cornwall by his jealous superior, Bowles, who doesn't want the possibility of Rutledge muscling in on the glory of finding a serial killer. There really isn't a case; a relative of two members of the landed gentry who have committed suicide has asked the Home Office to send an investigator to make sure that all has been handled properly. Rutledge has been assigned what looks like a fool's task so that he is out of London and away from a high-profile case as well as in the hopes that he will fall flat on his face and give Bowles something with which to damage Rutledge's career. Rutledge arrives in Borcombe to find yet another dead body, this time from an accident, and a baffling inability to make any sense out of the family of the suicides and what really might have happened. Was it a double suicide or was it really murder-suicide? Instead of the usual police procedures, Rutledge looks for motive as a way of determining if there was a murder and who, then was the killer.[return][return]While better than the first book, Test of Wills, Todd still is unable to pull off what has the potential for a very good series. His background--post World War I Great Britain and his incorporation of the horrors of the Great War itself into his plots--is extremely well done. But the psychological approach simply does not come off. Rutledge in his mind is simply too analytical, too self-absorbed to make his character really credible. The voice in his mind, that of his dead corporal Hamish McCloud, which is the physical manifestation of his shell shock, is not well done. Todd can't seem to make up his mind if Hamish is the voice of Rutledge's conscience, his survivor's guilt, or some supernatural manifestation who comments on places and events that Rutledge can not possibly know about. Additionally, Hamish gets the worst writing in the book--he "grumbles" and "rumbles" a great deal, "growls'" too much, and "stirred" too restlessly. The character simply does not work.[return][return]The minor characters are adequate, although Chief Inspector Bowles is really badly done as the villain--it's a poor imitation of Chief Inspector Racer in Grimes' Richard Jury series; Racer is a wonderful character in his own right, while Bowles is a stick figure.[return][return]While the plot is good, Todd does some unfortunate things at the end, leaving gaps in the reader's understanding, loose ends that are never tied up, leaving a sense of dissatisfaction with the resolution.[return][return]Despite its potential, there's just not enough to keep me reading this series.(less)

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Mar 11, 2009 Megan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery, historical-fiction

Charles Todd's Inspector Ian Rutledge is one of those great characters of British crime fiction. He fought in the trenches of WWI France, and came back a shattered man, carrying the guilt of what he had seen in the war. The twist is that his guilt takes form as a very convincing delusion. Rutledge hears the voice of a man who died under his command. This voice, a Scottish officer called Hamish, serves as Rutledge's conscience. It is also the voice of his intuition, which he fears he lost in the...more

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Feb 15, 2009 Michelle rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: historicalfiction, mysterythriller

Inspector Ian Rutledge returns to London still fighting his own demons. Scotland Yard is on an all out manhunt for a Ripper copycat. In order to get the glory for himself, Bowles sends Rutledge out on the case in Cornwall to keep Rutledge out of the way in London. When Rutledge arrives to Cornwall, the case seems pretty straight forward. A double suicide and an accident. What really shocks him is that one of the suicides happens to be the author of the poems that got him through the war. As he m...more

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Dec 02, 2008 Eric_W rated it 4 of 5 stars

Inspector Ian Rutledge carries in his head the voice of Hamish Macleod. Rutledge had been forced to witness Hamish=s execution for disobedience of orders just before they were all buried by shelling that collapsed the walls of their trenches in the later part of WWI. Rutledge was hauled out barely alive, but the voice of Hamish and his running commentaries on Rutledge=s actions continues to haunt him so clearly that he wonders no one else can hear Hamish’s voice. The inspector is sent to investi...more

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May 05, 2013 Yune rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-mystery

It's been -- let's see -- a year and a half since I read the first one in this series, and I wondered if that was why I bounced so hard off the beginning of this one. But no, it was the portrayal of a large family with a complex set of relationships I couldn't unravel, so I ended up just skipping that chapter and moving on.

I remembered Rutledge clearly, a Scotland Yard inspector beaten down in some ways by his experience in the Great War, and yet so steadfast in his investigation that I'd actual...more It's been -- let's see -- a year and a half since I read the first one in this series, and I wondered if that was why I bounced so hard off the beginning of this one. But no, it was the portrayal of a large family with a complex set of relationships I couldn't unravel, so I ended up just skipping that chapter and moving on.

I remembered Rutledge clearly, a Scotland Yard inspector beaten down in some ways by his experience in the Great War, and yet so steadfast in his investigation that I'd actually say he was unable to let go. He's called to Cornwall on account of three closely occurring deaths in the same family, two of them an apparent suicide pact -- tidy enough, it seems, until Rutledge starts uncovering stories about past deaths in the family and starts wondering at possible connections.

What really hooks him in, though, is the discovery that one of the dead is a poet whose works deeply affected him. And it's the sort of book that turns on that sort of personal effect: a long-nurtured secret love keeps someone from believing her beloved might be guilty; a man hoping to court a woman is so destroyed by her passing he doesn't note details that might otherwise rouse his suspicions. Unfortunately, at times I felt that the relationships defined the characters, that they were sketchy templates that stood in the places where people were needed.

And there's Hamish, the ghost who haunts Rutledge after the war with such presence that Rudledge will speak back to him. Another review pointed out how Hamish serves no single role; at times he will helpfully warn Rutledge, other times taunt him. It helps to keep him from becoming monotone, but inconsistency doesn't strike me as the best solution. I hope that in a long-running series like this one, the need for Hamish will eventually fade.

There were a few things that bothered me -- the tendency of the authors (under one pen name, I understand) to switch to a minor character's point of view just to drive home how a dialogue had appeared from the other side (something I don't think a stronger writer would need to do), the personal bond Rutledge felt with the woman who called in Scotland Yard in the first place (was it really appropriate to go sailing with her, even if he got in some questions?) -- but I admit I got pulled in by the twistiness of the tale and the emotions that ran thick as rope through it. I need to take a break first, but I do expect to go on to the third one.(less)

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Nov 15, 2011 Richard rated it 3 of 5 stars

Rating: 3.75* of five

A more assured second outing for a mystery series that is becoming an addiction! This is a very well-written novel that happens to have a mystery at its center. The role of Hamish-the-voice is a little skimpier this time, not quite as loud on the page; I'm not sure that's entirely to my liking, but I think it's probably the best way to treat that difficult character. He could be a very great distraction, used too freely, though I find him fascinating...sleuth and sidekick on...more Rating: 3.75* of five

A more assured second outing for a mystery series that is becoming an addiction! This is a very well-written novel that happens to have a mystery at its center. The role of Hamish-the-voice is a little skimpier this time, not quite as loud on the page; I'm not sure that's entirely to my liking, but I think it's probably the best way to treat that difficult character. He could be a very great distraction, used too freely, though I find him fascinating...sleuth and sidekick only need one body!

I'm always interested in stories set in Cornwall, as this one is. It's such a different place, one that doesn't seem quite like England but undeniably is; it's so isolated (in English terms) from the main flow of the country that it seems to have all the advantages of being foreign...mystery, exoticism...without the inconvenience of learning a foreign language. Necessarily, that is, since a determined (an American would say "bloody-minded") effort is underway to "save" the Cornish tongue.

Inspector Ian Rutledge's work in this small Cornish village, whose Hall has seen three rapidly succesive deaths, is to determine with his London experience whether the local force did its job properly in ruling the deaths accidental or suicides. You can imagine that puts the backs up of pretty much the entire village as the news spreads! No one likes his territory big-footed across by the Big Noise from the City. It's just never a popular thing, and as the newsvine spreads the fact that it's a member of the Hall family...a cousin...who called in the Londoner, feeling runs even higher.

Todd examines how people, no matter their connection to events, respond to them with fierce passion. A simple childhood slight, an accident of observation, a detail changed by a fearful witness in a larger plan...all these play their role in creating and then sustaining a mystery that has at its heart the simplest of human motivations: Envy. Coming fresh off the Great War, this trope has special poignance, since it was largely the German Kaiser's envy of his cousins that set the conflict in motion.

I would recommend reading these books in order. I hope you'll give them a shot. They're good psychological novels that happen to come in a series and feature the same protagonist(s). Gladly recommended. (less)

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Sep 29, 2011 dubh rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-stories

Einer der größten Pluspunkte des Krimis ist definitiv Inspector Rutledge selbst. An ihm werden die Zeichen der Zeit deutlich: er ist ein durch und durch traumatisierter Mann, zugrunde gegangen an seinen Erlebnissen in den Schützengräben des I. Weltkrieges. Und trotzdem versucht er, sein Leben wieder in geordnete Bahnen zu bringen - auch wenn ihm das häufig nicht so sehr gelingen mag. Am ungewöhnlichsten ist sicherlich die 'Figur' Hamish. Hamish ist ein Soldat, den Rutledge wegen Befehlsverweiger...more

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May 10, 2011 Sean Cronin rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: any mystery fan

Charles Todd, "Legacy of Death" - It's 1919 in a small British village and someone is spreading rumors about Fiona. The young war widow receives anonymous letters questioning her virtue; her child is out of wedlock, or not even hers. The police investigate and find the body of a woman buried in Fiona's stone wall. Murder, they say. But Fiona knows she's been set up for death-by-law, perhaps by someone she can never reveal.
Ian Rutledge is a damaged Scotland Yard detective who gets Fiona's case....more

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Jan 24, 2011 Judith rated it 3 of 5 stars

I gave both WINGS OF FIRE and its predecessor A TEST OF WILLS three stars. While I liked them both, I found WoF to be a much slower read. I felt like I was slogging through Cornwall with Ian and Hamish. Indeed, it felt like this second novel in the series was written by a different author. Given that "Charles Todd" is a writing duo (and that they seem to be prolific in their output), I suppose it's not a surprise that the blending of their writing styles might be uneven. But it has meant that I...more

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Jul 05, 2010 Chris Swann rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've enjoyed the other Ian Rutledge mysteries I've read, but this was one of my favorites so far. Mystery/police procedural novels can suffer from too much familiarity and cliche or from gimmicks. Todd sets the Ian Rutledge novels in post-WWI England, which is an interesting historical time period, and the novels reflect that not-so-far-off world quite well, which enough periodic detail to satisfy a historian of the era. The risk Todd makes is that these novels depict Rutledge, a survivor of the...more

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Aug 28, 2009 Melissa Proffitt rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, detective-stories, historical-fiction

This was recommended by Orson Scott Card on his website, and as I was in a mood for mysteries I decided to give it a try. He and I don't exactly share the same tastes, but I loved this book as much as he did. I wasn't able to read the first book in the series (the library inexplicably doesn't have it) but this, the second one, is just as good an introduction to the series. Ian Rutledge is newly back from the fighting in World War I and has returned to his position as an inspector at Scotland Yar...more

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Apr 18, 2013 Dorothy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-mysteries

Inspector Ian Rutledge of Scotland Yard is a psychological mess. He fought in the trenches of France in World War I and was grievously injured. Now physically recovered (more or less), he has returned to work and has already managed to crack one difficult case in A Test of Wills.

Before the war, Rutledge was a rising star at the Yard and that engendered envy from some of his cohorts and from his superior, Bowles. Bowles takes every opportunity to send the Inspector on out-of-town cases. He parti...more Inspector Ian Rutledge of Scotland Yard is a psychological mess. He fought in the trenches of France in World War I and was grievously injured. Now physically recovered (more or less), he has returned to work and has already managed to crack one difficult case in A Test of Wills.

Before the war, Rutledge was a rising star at the Yard and that engendered envy from some of his cohorts and from his superior, Bowles. Bowles takes every opportunity to send the Inspector on out-of-town cases. He particularly wants to get him out of town now because of a recent Ripper-style killing spree in London and the likelihood that the detective who cracks the case will become a celebrity. Bowles is determined that it won't be Rutledge.

His chance comes when three members of an influential family in a small Cornwall village die within a short span of time. Two are ruled suicides and one an accident. But a member of the family has her doubts and she prevails upon the Home Office to send someone from Scotland Yard to investigate. Guess who Bowles chooses?

In the village, Rutledge learns that one of the dead is "O.A. Manning," nom de plume of a reclusive writer whose poetry helped to sustain him during the war. He is surprised to learn that the poet was a woman. She and her brother, who lived with her, are the suicides. Another brother, who had lost part of his foot in the war, fell down the stairs while the family was clearing out the house. His death was the accident.

Rutledge is a highly intuitive investigator and he intuits almost immediately that there are many family secrets here and that there is more to these deaths than the inquests determined, but will he ever be able to prove it? Will he ever be able to dig up long-hidden secrets and reveal the truth, not just about these three deaths but several others that have haunted the family over the years?

One of the more interesting aspects of these Rutledge mysteries is his own psychological state. He carries with him the memory and the voice of a young Scot named Hamish whom he was forced to have executed on the battlefield. Hamish now haunts his every waking hour. He serves as something of a voice of conscience to the Inspector. It is a tormenting voice that forces Rutledge to face truths that he would perhaps rather not face.

Rutledge is further haunted by the memory of the fiancee who deserted him after he came home from the war a changed man. She was the love of his life - at least he thought she was - and that love was another thing which kept him going and helped him face his wounds and recover. But the fiancee proved lacking in courage and in love and she could not face a life with a wounded man who was not the perfect specimen she had sent off to battle. Still, Rutledge finds it hard to get her out of his heart and out of his mind. As I said, he's a mess.

The mother and son writing team that writes under the name "Charles Todd" has created an interesting and complicated character in Ian Rutledge. This is the second book in their series featuring him and the reader feels that there are depths still to be explored in the several books that follow this one.

Incidentally, I can't help drawing comparisons between this series and Jacqueline Winspear's "Maisie Dobbs" series. They take place in the same time frame and place and explore some of the same issues - the state of English society after the war and the psychological damage done both to those who fought the war and those who waited on the home front. They are both well-done series and worth reading for anyone interested in that period or anyone interested in the history of understanding and treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or shell shock as the post-World War I society knew it. (less)

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Jan 03, 2011 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: british-society, childhood, mystery, world-war-one

Inspector Ian Rutledge of Scotland Yard is a veteran of World War One. He has survived the war, but is haunted by the memories and experiences of futile frontal assaults and relentless artillery barrages, one of which buried him alive. Unknown to anyone but Rutledge, he hears the voice of one of his men, a Scot named Hamish, who died under circumstances best left discovered by the reader. Hamish is his constant companion, advising, cajoling, and frequently warning Rutledge when he's going off th...more Inspector Ian Rutledge of Scotland Yard is a veteran of World War One. He has survived the war, but is haunted by the memories and experiences of futile frontal assaults and relentless artillery barrages, one of which buried him alive. Unknown to anyone but Rutledge, he hears the voice of one of his men, a Scot named Hamish, who died under circumstances best left discovered by the reader. Hamish is his constant companion, advising, cajoling, and frequently warning Rutledge when he's going off the track, either on the case he is working on, or when he is perilously close to allowing his battle instincts in the trenches to spill over into his civilian life.

"Wings of Fire" is the title of a book poetry written by Olivia Marlowe, published under the pseudonym O.A. Manning. The reclusive author is critically acclaimed, believed to be a man because of her graphic lines capturing the hellishness of WWI and the passion expressed in the love poetry found in "Wings of Fire."

When Olivia and her half brother Nicholas are found to be victims of an apparent suicide, and another member of the family dies of a broken neck in an apparent fall, Rutledge is assigned to determine whether foul play was involved.

What follows is a well plotted English mystery, detailing the tragic history of a family in which too many deaths had occurred. Olivia's twin fell from an apple tree dying at the age of eight. Five year old brother Richard wondered off onto the moors never to be seen again. Richard's distraught father dies while cleaning a pistol. Over the years, the deaths have mounted up at a rate unlikely under any statistical probability.

It will be up to Rutledge to unravel the tangled threads of this family's history. "Wings of Fire" builds to a satisfying conclusion.

Rutledge's first appearance was in "A Test of Wills," a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Read it first to understand Rutledge's time in the trenches of WWI and the reason that Hamish is his constant emotional conscience.

Highly recommended.(less)

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Mar 27, 2013 Beth rated it 5 of 5 stars

Great read by this excellent author. Once more, the tragic and haunted Inspector Rutledge is sent out of London by his scheming and hateful boss, who hopes Rutledge will fail in resolving a series of mysterious deaths. A prominent family has been plagued for years by tragedy, and the latest deaths of three members (one of whom is the poet whose verses Rutledge credits w/ helping him survive in the trenches of WWI) prompts one family member to ask for help from Scotland Yard. This brings our hero...more

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Jun 03, 2011 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars

Second in the detective series about Ian Rutledge, the shell-shocked WWI veteran. There's a beautiful period mood about these books, and Todd has a gift for creating a cast of people that you come to be curious and care about. I can honestly say I had a hard time putting this down, I kept wanting to read too fast for the content in order to see Rutledge unravel the mystery. Unlike the first volume, the solution doesn't come out of left field at random, so it was much more satisfying. My only nit...more

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Nov 24, 2010 Judy rated it 4 of 5 stars

The second book in the series by a mother-son writing team (one lives in New Jersey and one in North Carolina) whose books remind me of the books by the English writer Elizabeth George. Inspector Ian Rutledge is sent to Cornwall to investigate the sudden deaths of three members of a prominent family. During the investigation, Rutledge realizes that one of the dead women is O.A. Manning, a spinister who lived a rather isolated life in a Cornish village and whose poetry helped Rutledge hold on to...more

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Jan 16, 2011 Cynthia rated it 4 of 5 stars

This wasn't really the English murder mystery I expected, it's really more like a Gothic novel mixed with an English murder mystery. It reminded me a lot of Daphne Dumaurier's Rebecca, and that's a compliment. It has all the Gothic elements: A stormy Cornish coast, a mansion, a family with a complicated family tree and plenty of skeletons in closets, a talented poet who is also a housebound cripple, a witch, and hints of incest, ghosts, mysterious hounds haunting the house and its inhabitants. W...more

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Mar 29, 2011 Bill rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was less than impressed with Todd's first Ian Rutledge mystery, primarily because his resolution (and the identity of the killer) came quite literally from nowhere. But Todd seems to have hit his stride with his sophomore entry.

Rutledge is still on the outs - to put it mildly - with his superior in Scotland Yard, and is sent by him to fulfill a request made by an influential family in Cornwall. Were a series of recent deaths accidental or suicide? Everyone seems to think that they were one or...more

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Dec 26, 2009 Bee rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: british-mysteries, historical-fiction

Another fantastic Inspector Rutledge novel -- in fact, I thought this one was even better than the first.

WINGS OF FIRE has Rutledge once again being strategically removed from London by his scheming superior, Bowles, and sent to invesigate the apparent double suicides and one accidental death within a prominent family in Cornwall. Upon arrival, he realizes that one of the suicides, Olivia Marlowe, is actually a famous poet whose work got Rutledge through the worst parts of the war. With oppositi...more

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Jan 01, 2012 Jane rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have now read a handful of Charles Todd's Ian Rutledge series. I didn't start with the first in the series but have now read the first 3. Although Rutledge always figures out who is responsible for the crimes he's sent to investigate his methods are brutal and cruel. His selfish and arrogant need to follow through to the conclusion no doubt has lasting negative effects on the families and friends of the victim. It's a toss-up whether he's just proving to himself that he can follow through or h...more

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Oct 15, 2012 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars

This second of the Ian Rutledge series is even better than the first, which was very good. Rutledge is beginning to gain confidence in his returning abilities as a detective for Scotland Yard, sent to "rubber-stamp" a double suicide and accidental death in Cornwall to get him out of the way of his superior in London, who thinks he is incompetent and wants to see him fail. But of course, it's not that easy. Rutledge doggedly pursues the truth about a fascinating family--the reader would have bene...more

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Feb 19, 2012 Richard Brand rated it 3 of 5 stars

While I have become excited and pleased to have found Todd's Ian Rutledge and to read his series of mysteries, I must confess that I found this one a very big stretch of the imagination. The plot was extremely complex and twisted, and the emotional context of the novel was very seem to me, at least, to be much too heavy and unrealistic. While there was much consternation and worry about how Rutledge would prove his case and what would happen to the villagers, there was no hint of how the end did...more

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Aug 07, 2010 Deb rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010-books-read

In this second installment of the this series, Inspector Ian Rutledge is sent to Cornwall to reopen the investigation into three sudden deaths in one family by his jealous supervisor. Rutledge is still struggling with his PTSD and is still hearing the voice of the private he condemned to death for cowardice during WWI. Were the deceased victims of a murderer? Or were their deaths just more in a series of tragedies? Rutledge wrestles not only with his own demons, but with the demons that seem to...more

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Mar 19, 2011 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery-and-crime-fiction

Inspector Ian Rutledge heads to Cornwall to investigate three suspicious deaths in the Trevelyan family. Two half-siblings, one a famous poet, allegedly committed suicide. Soon after, another half-sibling tumbles down the stairs to his death. Rutledge's suspicions are colored by the fact that the poet's verse provided him solace during his years in the trenches of WWI.

This is a classic English mystery with spooky moors, a rich but tragic family and angry villagers who don't want the past disturb...more

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Sep 11, 2011 Bob rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1995-99, hist-fiction-1900s, crime-british

This book held my interest, but I didn't like it very much. The author seems to know the era very well - he's done his research, but he doesn't seem to have much of a feel for the way people talked in 1920s England. In addition, the characters are strangely loquacious in their responses to the inquiries of an outsider, inspector rutledge. It seems that virtually every character starts their conversation with Rutledge by complaining that he shouldn't be there, he's needlessly raking up the past,...more

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Nov 10, 2012 Tara rated it 2 of 5 stars

Sadly, I just couldn't get interested in this story. I wasn't particularly moved by the victims, couldn't exactly find Rutledge's insistence on investigating very believable, wasn't really sure I bought his leaps of intuition or the investigative methods he used. Didn't really care about the surviving family. Worst of all, it felt like 190 pages of everyone spinning their metaphorical wheels, only for it all to come clear in an absolute whirlwind of revelations and discoveries in the last 10 pag...more

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About Charles Todd

Charles Todd is the pen name used by a mother-and-son writing team, Caroline Todd and Charles Todd.

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Books by Charles Todd

A Test Of Wills (Inspector Ian Rutledge, #1)

A Lonely Death (Inspector Ian Rutledge, #13)

Legacy Of The Dead (Inspector Ian Rutledge, #4)

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Wings Of Fire (Inspector Ian Rutledge #2)

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