Ian Rutledge returns in his 12th case in "The Red Door." He must deal with a young knife wielding robber in London, a missing missionary, and the murder of a teacher named Florence in a distant village.

Charles Todd has constructed a series of puzzles seemingly unrelated but perhaps they are. We begin with Florence, an attractive woman, at the time of the Armistice. She is waiting for her soldier husband to return from France. She paints her front door a brilliant red for him to see when he comes home. However, she waits for a husband who never returns.

Meanwhile, in London, Rutledge is accosted by a young man named Billy who attempts to rob him as he crosses the bridge over the Thames during an evening walk. Rutledge bluffs the young robber into giving up his attempt at mugging Rutledge. However, Billy's incidents escalate. His robberies result in murder. Rutledge must deal with the guilt of letting Billy go when he was accosted and he will become a decoy in the effort to flush Billy from hiding and to be taken into custody.

However, Rutledge's detail to bring Billy to justice must take a back seat to solving the disappearance of a member of the well known Teller family. Walter Teller is a well known missionary who has written of his experiences and has a broad reading audience. When called by into the field by the evangelical society for which he works, Walter vanishes into thin air.

The Teller family has many secrets. Rutledge is not a welcome intrusion into their daily lives. The Teller patriarch has chosen the careers of his sons and they have dutifully filled those roles. Peter is the soldier. Walter the missionary, and Edwin the stable head of the family following the death of their father.

When Walter disappears, Rutledge finds that all the family members have gone on their own search for Walter. There is something in the Teller family past that must not see the light of day.

Rutledge's involvement in the Teller disappearance would seem to be over when he is called by the high constable to investigate the murder of the woman who owns the cottage with the red door. It seems her name was Florence, Florence Teller. And the man to whom she was married that never returned from France was named Peter Teller. A coincidence? Or did Peter Teller lead a double life? That a Teller should be a bigamist is not an acceptable finding. Rutledge has his hands full untangling a delicate social dilemma without failing to bring the murderer to justice no matter what social class the killer may move in within the respectable circles of London.

Todd presents another rewarding read, yet wraps the solution to all of the investigations into tangled and forced resolutions. Billy's story serves as a distraction to the over all plot of the book. It is difficult to find sympathy for the Teller family. And, perhaps for that reason, I found "The Red Door" considerably less satisfying than previous volumes.

Nevertheless, any Charles Todd should never be discounted as unworthy of being read. And as I've reached the most current Rutledge, #13, I must consider Todd's new series involving a battlefield nurse, Bess Crawford in "A Duty to the Dead."