I've discovered a mystery series that I cannot put down: the Ian Rutledge mysteries by Charles Todd (a pseudonym for a mother and son writing team). The mysteries are amazing as they unravel, layer upon layer. The setting is peerless: post World War I England, where the better part of an entire generation of young men is gone, having been killed in the War, and the nation is changed forever. Ian Rutledge is one of the survivors -- the walking wounded, whose psychological injuries from four years in the trenches nearly drive him mad as he tries to cope with the return to his career as an Inspector for Scotland Yard.
If you're a fan of the time period and English mysteries, you could not go wrong. The neat thing is that after you've read the first book (Testament of Wills), you could read the other books as stand-alone. Yes, there is some small amount of continuity from volume to volume, but it isn't strictly necessary to the story at hand.
Interested? Find more details at the Charles Todd website.
Happy reading!
- Catherine
2 comments:
I've heard of this series, but hadn't tried one yet - LOVE historical mysteries, and post-WWI is a fascinating era. Is this the series in which the main character keeps envisioning, like a ghost, one of his men who died in the war?
Yes, that's the one. He hears the dead man -- audibly -- but doesn't see him. It's an interesting plot technique, and it strongly conveys the sense that Rutledge is never free from the ravages of War.
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