Hunting Shadows: An Inspector Ian Rutledge Mystery Author: Charles Todd | Language: English | ISBN:
B00DB36AUM | Format: PDF
Hunting Shadows: An Inspector Ian Rutledge Mystery Description
A dangerous case with ties leading back to the battlefields of World War I dredges up dark memories for Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge in Hunting Shadows, a gripping and atmospheric historical mystery set in 1920s England, from acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Charles Todd.
A society wedding at Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire becomes a crime scene when a man is murdered. After another body is found, the baffled local constabulary turns to Scotland Yard. Though the second crime had a witness, her description of the killer is so strange its unbelievable.
Despite his experience, Inspector Ian Rutledge has few answers of his own. The victims are so different that there is no rhyme or reason to their deaths. Nothing logically seems to connect them—except the killer. As the investigation widens, a clear suspect emerges. But for Rutledge, the facts still don’t add up, leaving him to question his own judgment.
In going over the details of the case, Rutledge is reminded of a dark episode he witnessed in the war. While the memory could lead him to the truth, it also raises a prickly dilemma. To stop a murderer, will the ethical detective choose to follow the letter—or the spirit—of the law?
- File Size: 705 KB
- Print Length: 341 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0062237187
- Publisher: William Morrow (January 21, 2014)
- Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00DB36AUM
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,854 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #19
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > British Detectives - #23
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > Historical - #23
in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > British Detectives
- #19
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > British Detectives - #23
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > Historical - #23
in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > British Detectives
Now this is what I call an excellent addition to the Inspector Ian Rutledge mystery series. It was set up exactly the way I prefer my mysteries. The plot and the investigation took center stage without the distractions of trying to involve Rutledge in a romance and Hamish McLoed was present, but only minimally. If you prefer to read about Rutledge fighting the psychological battle of the presence of Hamish in his mind or if you want to read of romantic attachments for the main characters you might not be quite as pleased as I was.
Scotland Yard is called in when two murders take place within a two week period in the Fen country of England. The time is August and September of 1920, so almost every incident which takes place has some relation to the recently ended war. In this case a rifle is being used to kill men who seem to have absolutely no connection with each other. There is a new Acting Chief superintendent at Scotland Yard and he is impatient with the slow progress Rutledge is making in the two cases, but he also doesn't take into consideration how tangled the relationships are between all the concerned parties and how deeply the secrets are buried. Rutledge solves the problem of how to deal with his boss by simply staying away from London.
The writing in this novel is absolutely first class. Reading the description of the fog Rutledge runs into on his journey from London was so realistic it almost made me claustrophobic myself! Especially when I looked out my own windows and saw everything coated with ice and nothing moving about except the freezing rain. Talk about the right weekend to read this book!
It's August of 1920, in the Fen country of England. World War I is barely over, and the soldiers who survived will never be over it. As wedding guests gather outside a cathedral, an unseen gunman picks off a wedding guest with a rifle and a German sighting device that only a soldier would use. The following month, a local aspiring parliament candidate is killed, again with a single rifle shot by an unseen assailant.
Scotland Yard is called, and Ian Rutledge is on the case. He takes to his motorcar, as much to avoid a new impatient superintendent as to get to the root of things, and sets out on a quest to find out how the victims are related, and who the culprit could be.
Poor Ian Rutledge. He's a brilliant Scotland Yard detective yet he's haunted by his past, is shell-shocked (which is seen as a shameful affliction), has the talking ghost of deceased soldier Hamish MacLeod always in his head, is loathed by most everyone in the department, has no love life, and is apparently the person to whom everyone tells lies.
Yet he perseveres.
He's nothing, if not stubborn. Rutledge perseveres and unravels a tale so complex that you might need to make a chart of the characters to keep them straight. Yet Todd takes all those threads and storylines and subplots and weaves them and weaves them until the mysteries (because there are many) are solved.
This is the 16th of the Todd's Ian Rutledge series. But fear not. You don't need to read all the previous ones to understand the characters or what is going on. You can jump in at book 16 and, if you become addicted as I have, you can go back and read the previous works, in no particular order.
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