Synopsis
Two years after World War I in Cornwall, England, an influential relative of three murdered family members convinces Scotland Yard to send Inspector Rutledge to investigate, unaware that Ian suffers shell shock from his own participation in the war effort. Mystery Guild Feat. Tour.
Reviews
Scotland Yard's Inspector Ian Rutledge, still recovering from the ravages of his service in WW I, his thoughts haunted by the ghost of fellow soldier Hamish MacLeod, (A Test of Wills, 1996), is sent by Supt. Bowles to the village of Borcombe in Cornwall. Lady Rachel Ashford, of the influential Trevelyans, has asked for further investigation into the recent double suicide and accidental death within the family. Unearthing background, Rutledge finds that matriarch Rosamund Trevelyan, widowed three times, mother of many children, died of a laudanum overdose. Many years before, she'd suffered the accidental death of eight-year- old Anne, a twin to crippled Olivia, and later, the disappearance--never solved--of five-year-old Richard. Now, the adult Olivia, a respected poet, and her brother Nicholas have been found dead--of laudanum. Days later, their half-brother Stephen, hobbled by war injuries, falls to his death down the staircase at Trevelyan Hall. Meanwhile, Cormac Fitzhugh, son of Rosamund's last husband, wants to buy the Hall from the heirs, a prospect opposed by Stephen. Rutledge, undeterred by protests from the local doctor, police chief, family members, and retainers, tirelessly sorts through fact and legend to reach the truth. But he has more patience than sorely tried readers might as they untangle the snarl of family relationships and slog through an avalanche of high-flown, semimystical verbiage--all augmented by the terser, Scots-accented dialogue between Rutledge and his inner voice. The long-dragged-out solution seems scarcely worth the effort. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
YA-England's Cornish coast proves the perfect setting for Todd's second Ian Rutledge novel. Still suffering from the shell shock he experienced in World War I, Inspector Rutledge of Scotland Yard goes to Cornwall to look into three recent deathsAa double suicide and an apparent accidentAall involving members of the same prominent local family. The inspector learns that one of the suicides, crippled and reclusive Olivia Marlowe, was actually O. A. Manning, a celebrated poet whose work so effectively captured the misery and passions of love and war. For Rutledge, Manning's work had been a mainstay in his times of deep emotional distress. Intrigued by this discovery, he then gets further drawn into the lives, past and present, of this very complicated and death-prone family. The atmosphere alone is enough to hold both history buffs and mystery fans. That, plus the finely drawn characters and a captivating plot, result in a book that is hard to put down.
Pamela B. Rearden, Centreville Regional Library, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
In a brilliant return after his introduction in A Test of Wills (1996), Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge is dispatched to Cornwall to investigate three deaths?seemingly a double-suicide and an accident?that have occurred within weeks in the Trevelyan family. Still recovering from shell shock sustained while serving in France during WWI, Rutledge carries in his head the challenging voice of Hamish MacLeod, a Scottish soldier about whose battlefront death Rutledge experiences profound guilt. In the village of Borcombe, Rutledge learns that one of the apparent suicides, Olivia Marlowe, wrote as O.A. Manning, a poet whose work had uncannily captured both the misery of war and the passion and beauty of love. Olivia Marlowe and her devoted half-brother Nicholas Cheney died of poisoning within hours of each other. Another half-brother, Stephen FitzHugh, the only family member opposed to selling the family estate where Olivia and Nicholas lived, fell down the stairs to his death not long after the funeral. Searching for answers about the deaths and for an understanding of the poet, Rutledge finds himself on a decades-long trail of cleverly disguised murders. Todd's cast is sometimes hard to keep straight, but readers will find it hard to resist following Rutledge on this emotionally intense quest. Memorable characters, subtle plot twists, the evocative seaside setting and descriptions of architecture, the moors and the sea fully reward the attention this novel commands.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Called to Cornwall, Scotland Yard's Inspector Ian Rutledge (A Test of Wills, LJ 8/96) investigates three suspicious deaths in the same prominent family. First, a crippled woman and her half-brother apparently commit suicide; then, another half-brother dies in an accidental fall. Not only does Rutledge's search expose well-hidden family skeletons and motives for murder, it also provides ample opportunity for input from the inner voice he has heard since returning from the trenches of World War I. Splendid imagery, in-depth characterization, and glimpses of more than one wounded psyche: an excellent historical mystery for all collections.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Here's an odd premise for a mystery: a Scotland Yard detective, a veteran of World War I, solves his cases with the aid of a man he executed on the battlefield. This isn't a ghost story, though: Hamish, the dead man, exists only in Inspector Ian Rutledge's mind, a constant reminder that Rutledge is a long way from putting the war behind him. This is the second Rutledge mystery (after A Test of Wills [1996], Todd's Edgar-nominated first novel), and this time the inspector is sent to Cornwall to investigate the deaths of several members of a prominent family, one of them a noted poet. With the help of his "sidekick," Hamish, Rutledge tries to sort out the twisted relationships between the members of the family and thus determine which of them might have killed the others. Not for all tastes--the mixture of fantasy and realistic detecting may put off some--this is still a well-crafted mystery that will please those who give it a chance. David Pitt
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