Legacy of the Dead (Inspector Ian Rutledge Mysteries) - Hardcover

Todd, Charles

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0553801686 ISBN 13: 9780553801682

Publisher: Bantam, 2000

Synopsis

In Ian Rutledge, Charles Todd has created a classic literary figure. A survivor of World War I, Rutledge is a man walking on the edge of insanity, finding both relief and more madness in his work as a Scotland Yard investigator. Now this series, praised by The New York Times Book Review for "challenging plot, complex characters, and subtle psychological insights [wrapped] in thick layers of atmosphere," takes Rutledge to the one place that most threatens the balance of his mind: his past.

Legacy Of The Dead

Rutledge's superior dispatches him to Durham to question the mother of a missing young woman. The weathered remains found on a windswept Scottish mountainside may be those of Eleanor Gray, but the imperious Lady Maude Gray will have to be handled delicately.  This is not the only ground that Rutledge must tread carefully. The case will more than likely lead him on to Scotland, where many of Rutledge's ghosts rest uneasily. Scotland was the homeland of many of the young soldiers Rutledge led into battle--and, for far too many of them, to their deaths. And of Corporal Hamish MacLeod, the Highlander he shot for breaking on the battlefield. It is Hamish's voice, caustic and accusing, that haunts his waking moments and assesses his every action. Rutledge knows that in the Scottish countryside he will hear echoes of that condemning voice everywhere he turns.  But he cannot know what else he will encounter as he follows the trail of Eleanor Gray's last movements. In the village of Duncarrick he will find a young mother who has been destroyed by a malicious campaign of gossip carried by anonymous letters. Now Fiona MacDonald stands accused of murdering the woman on that rugged mountain--and of taking the child of her victim to raise as her own.  Rutledge owes this woman a terrible debt, driving him on a harrowing journey to find the truth--leading him back through the fires of his past, and into secrets that still have the power to kill.  Legacy of the Dead is a breathtaking, riveting mystery set in a fascinating landscape at the wary dawn of a new age. In Scotland, Charles Todd captures a land where war and bloodshed are part of the earth, the walls, and living memory. And where a man like Ian Rutledge is all too much at home.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Praise for Charles Todd's

Search The Dark
"Todd works...volatile elements into a remarkable village mystery...driven by characters of great psychological complexity."
-- The New York Times Book Review

"Todd's Ian Rutledge mysteries are among the most intelligent and affecting being written these days."
-- The Washington Post Book World

Wings Of Fire
"[Todd wraps] his challenging plot, complex characters, and subtle psychological insights in thick layers of atmosphere."
-- The New York Times Book Review

"Fine writing. A spectacular conclusion that rejuvenates the cliché 'It was a dark and stormy night.' "
-- The Washington Post Book World

"A strong mystery, filled with fine characterizations [and] a superb eye for Cornwall...Wise and wily."
-- The Boston Globe

A Test Of Wills
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year "Todd gives us a superb characterization of a man whose wounds have made him into a stranger in his own land, and a disturbing portrait of a country intolerant of all strangers."
-- The New York Times Book Review

"Todd depicts the outer and inner worlds of his characters with authority and sympathy as he closes in on his surprising--and convincing--conclusion."
-- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"The emotional and physical carnage in World War I is used to remarkable effect."
-- Chicago Tribune

About the Author:

Charles Todd is the author of A Test of Wills, Wings of Fire, and Search the Dark. He lives on the East Coast, where he is at work on the next novel in the Inspector Ian Rutledge series, Watchers of Time.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0553801686
• ISBN 13: 9780553801682
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 308