The Red Door - Hardcover

Todd, Charles

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061726168 ISBN 13: 9780061726163

Publisher: William Morrow, 2010

Synopsis

“One of the best historical series being written today.”

—Washington Post Book World

 

The accolades keep pouring in for Charles Todd and his New York Times Notable, EdgarŽ Award-nominated series featuring British police inspector and shell-shocked World War I veteran Ian Rutledge. In The Red Door, a disturbing puzzle surrounding a lie, a disappearance, and a woman’s death ensnares the haunted investigator. Richly atmospheric and unputdownable, The Red Door proves once more that New York Times bestseller Charles Todd belongs in the august company of Ruth Rendell, Anne Perry, Martha Grimes, Ian Ransom, Peter Robinson, P.D. James, and the other contemporary masters of British mystery.

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

New York Times bestselling author Charles Todd brings back Scotland Yard detective Ian Rutledge in another riveting mystery set in post–World War I England Lancashire, England, June 1920. In a house with a red door lies the body of a woman who has been bludgeoned to death. Rumor has it that two years earlier, she'd painted that door to welcome her husband back from the Front. Only he never came home.

Meanwhile, in London, a man suffering from a mysterious illness first goes missing and then just as suddenly reappears. He is unable to explain his recovery. His family, supposedly searching for him, give conflicting accounts of where they were and why. What is the secret that nearly drove one man mad and turned his brothers and sister against one another with such unexpected savagery?

Inspector Ian Rutledge, drawn into both cases and facing a wall of silence, must solve two mysteries before he can bring a ruthless killer to justice: Who was the woman who lived and died behind the red door? Who was the man who never came home from the Great War, for the simple reason that he might never have gone? And what have they to do with a man who cannot break the seal of his own guilt without damning those he loves most?

Reviews

Starred Review. Set in 1920, bestseller Todd's 12th mystery to feature the shell-shocked WWI veteran and Scotland Yard inspector Ian Rutledge (after 2008's A Matter of Justice) is one of the strongest entries yet in a series that shows no sign of losing steam. Rutledge first looks into the disappearance of missionary Walter Teller, who suddenly fell ill in London and later apparently walked out of the clinic where he was being treated. Rutledge questions members of Teller's immediate family, including his brothers, Peter and Edwin. After the resolution of the case of the missing missionary, Rutledge investigates the bludgeoning death of Florence Teller, apparently the wife of another Peter Teller, in Lancashire. Once again Todd (the pseudonym of a mother-son writing team) perfectly balance incisive portraits of all the characters, not just the complex and original lead, with a tricky puzzle in which the killer is hidden in plain sight for the discerning reader to discover. (Jan.)
Copyright Š Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: William Morrow
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0061726168
• ISBN 13: 9780061726163
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 344