A Long Shadow: An Inspector Ian Rutledge Mystery - Hardcover

Todd, Charles

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 006078671X ISBN 13: 9780060786717

Publisher: William Morrow, 2006

Synopsis

“Seamless in its storytelling and enthralling in its plotting.”
—Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

“Dark and remarkable….Once [Todd] grabs you, there’s no putting the novel down.”
—Detroit Free Press

The Winston-Salem Journal declares that, “like P. D. James and Ruth Rendell, Charles Todd writes novels that transcend genre.” A Long Shadow proves that statement true beyond the shadow of a doubt. Once again featuring Todd’s extraordinary protagonist, Scotland Yard investigator and shell-shocked World War One veteran, Inspector Ian Rutledge, A Long Shadow immerses readers in the sights and sounds of post-war Great Britain, as the damaged policeman pursues answers to a constable’s slaying and the three-year-old mystery of a young girl’s disappearance in a tiny Northamptonshire village. Read Todd’s A Long Shadow and see why the Washington Post calls the Rutledge crime novels, “one of the best historical series being written today.”

About this title

About the Author

Charles Todd is the New York Times bestselling author of the Inspector Ian Rutledge mysteries, the Bess Crawford mysteries, and two stand-alone novels. A mother-and-son writing team, Caroline passed away in August 2021 and Charles lives in Florida.

From the Back Cover

It's New Year's Eve, 1919. Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge has accompanied his sister to the home of mutual friends for dinner but gets a call from the office and has to leave. On the steps outside, he sees a brass cartridge casing, like countless others he's seen during the war. But this one has an engraving in the metal. Curious, he pockets it.

Soon after, Rutledge is on the southern coast of England helping the local police capture a murderer. Work done, on a whim he drives along the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic and takes a walk out on the headland. Returning to his car, he finds another engraved cartridge casing on the driver's seat. He's been followed.

The cartridge casing seems to point to the war and unfinished business there. To stay alive in the face of an unknown and unseen adversary, Rutledge is pressed to the limits of his skills. He's the prey. But who is the hunter?

Reviews

The real mystery for most critics is how the American mother-and-son team Caroline and Charles Todd, who write under the pseudonym Charles Todd, manage to penetrate so deeply into the postwar English psyche and setting. That insight is the key to the success of the Inspector Rutledge series. While the plots are plenty interesting, it is the deep shade hanging over all Todd’s mysteries that sets them apart. A Long Shadow, the eighth in the series, is no exception, with its forays into the supernatural and the suspicions of small-town life. It proves another fine installment of a well-regarded series.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

Adult/High School-Scotland Yard Inspector Rutledge, a World War I victim of shell shock, is haunted by those he had to send out of the trenches to horrible deaths. His survivor's guilt is manifested in Hamish, whom he was forced to execute for refusing to fight, and whose ghost is his constant companion, always ready to chide, warn, and offer mocking opinions about the task at hand. The eighth in this acclaimed series finds Rutledge in an isolated rural village north of London, charged with bringing to justice the criminal who has gravely wounded its constable, sending an arrow through his chest while he was investigating a murder. And someone is hunting the inspector himself, leaving engraved cartridge casings behind to torment him. Authentic representations of the post-World War I era and an absorbing plot with twists and turns as challenging as the country roads that Rutledge travels make a gripping story. Well-drawn characters and scenes, wry local humor, and plot details steep the mystery in English country life. Frequent scene changes and puzzling dead ends may be a challenge for some teens, but their perseverance will be rewarded.-Molly Connally, Chantilly Regional Library, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Starred Review. Set in 1919, Todd's excellent eighth psychological whodunit to feature the insightful but haunted Insp. Ian Rutledge picks up shortly after the harrowing events chronicled in A Cold Treachery (2005). Rutledge travels to the remote and desolate English village of Dudlington after the town constable is shot in the back with an arrow while exploring a forest shunned by the locals. The inspector suspects a connection between the attack and the disappearance of a young girl, but he finds himself in an unfamiliar role when an unknown stalker targets him, leaving ominous clues that indicate that he's vulnerable at all times. Rutledge's fragile psyche comes in for additional battering from an enigmatic woman who claims to be able to contact the dead. Todd's plotting and characterization are, as usual, first-rate, and the tormented motivations behind the novel's dark acts are presented with a sensitivity and refinement reminiscent of the best of P.D. James. The ambiguous ending will leave both longtime fans and new readers anxiously awaiting the sequel. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

His eighth case takes Inspector Rutledge into the 1920s, although a sinister figure dropping machine-gun shell casings carved with poppies and skulls in his path seems intent on trapping him back in the trenches. When a town constable is found, an arrow in his back, face down in the cold and brooding depths of Firth Wood, where lie the ancient bones of a Saxon massacre and perhaps some of more recent vintage, Rutledge comes to Dudlington to dispel the miasma. His stalker follows him there with ill intent, as does his imaginary sidekick, Hamish, who seems quite content to trundle along offering broguish quips from the inspector's mental sidecar. This psychological twist aside, Todd's series has the feel of the classic whodunits of such Golden Age masters as Christie and Sayers. Its ever-thickening plot is sure to please serious puzzlers who thrill to a large cast of wary villagers spinning complex webs of rumor and deception. Add to this an eerie dash of Grimpen Mire reminiscent of the gothic feel of Anne Perry's Monk series, and you have a traditional mystery buff's delight. David Wright
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: William Morrow
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 006078671X
• ISBN 13: 9780060786717
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352