Search the Dark: An Inspector Ian Rutledge Mystery (Ian Rutledge Mysteries, 3)

Inspector Ian Rutledge of Scotland Yard is tall, intelligent, well-bred, Oxford-educated, and as handsome as they come. All reasons enough for his jealous boss to get him out of headquarters, assign him chancy cases in the hinterlands, and if Rutledge fails, so much the better. Before the Great War, Rutledge had been successful at the Yard. Five years of service as an Army officer in the muddy, stinking trenches in France, his wounds, and especially his mental trauma have left him questioning his own ability, wondering whether he still has the old skills, whether he can actually keep up with the challenges of returning to the job. He looks thin, haggard, and tired. Shell shock has left Rutledge with the ineradicable presence in his mind of the voice of one Hamish MacLeod, a noncommissioned officer he had to have executed by firing squad for refusing to follow orders to suicidally advance the men into withering enemy fire. Hamish counterpoints everything Rutledge says, does, or thinks. While the war killed hundreds of thousands of British soldiers and civilians, the survivors were profoundly changed, including most of the characters in "Search the Dark" by Charles Todd. Rutledge is dispatched to Singleton Magna, a small town in rural Dorset county, southwest of London, where the victim's body was found. Bert Mowbray was arrested for the crime. Though Mowbray's wife and two children had been killed years before in a bombing in London, he insisted he had just seen them with another man getting off the train. Now the wife is dead, the children and her new man are missing, and Mowbray is in jail for murder. Rutledge must clear up the confusion, identify the victim, and find the children. Rutledge's investigation takes him to several nearby towns, where other young women are missing, and there is no shortage of suspects. Charles Todd's characters and their relationships are fully formed. You'll be puzzled and intrigued to the end.

While the term PTSD is not used in this novel-- and rightfully so because it is set in the years when it was still called shell shock-- however, the manifestations of this condition are obvious and heart wrenching.At the end of WWI when the veterans returned to England it was to find a population struggling desperately for normalcy. But the men who returned home were not the same men who left and the family and friends they returned to had borne their own share of losses.Todd evocatively lays out the story of Ian Rutledge who has returned to his job in Scotland Yard, but finds wherever he turns more human wreckage from the War that shattered his own life and left him with an unseen companion whose distinctive voice haunts his days, a bit of his soul broken off and speaking to him in the voice of a dead man.This novel opens with the the story of another shell shocked veteran, Mowbray, and the body of a woman who may be his wife. At least it would be convenient for the local Police officials if it were his wife. Rutledge is brought in to try to find Mowbray's two children-- it being feared that he has also killed them as well. However all is not as it appears and the tragedy grows darker as Rutledge digs deeper into the lives of the inhabitants of the community. This book is infused with a powerful sense of compassion. It's very well written and deals with a subject that is timely but also timeless.Very highly recommended.

in this third outing, Ian Rutledge, and his conscience Hamish, are sent to Dorset to investigate a murder of a woman and the disappearance of her two children. He follows each clue only to find more questions and additional clues. This is British procedural writing at it's best. Todd has not suffered from second or third book syndrome. His writing is precise and concise - each word chosen with care. Rutledge contunues to be a tortured soul who is a compassionate and intelligent investigator. Todd's ending surprised me, but that just makes for good reading.If you enjoy procedurals, make sure you read this series. If you've wanted to try a procedural, but didn't know where to begin, begin with this one - all others will pale by comparison.

I was introduced to the this book by accident. While on vacation I picked up a book to read and it was this one. I can tell you that now on hooked on all of Charles Todd's Inspector Ian Rutledge novels! Once you start reading, you can't put the books down. I've read all in the series and I'm anxiously his latest novel.

I loved Search the Dark, but even more, I love the long-term relationship that Charles Todd is building with his readers. I see that others are getting weary of the disembodied (literally) voice of Hamish. Not I. I think he is one of the most original inventions in recent literature and after the first few incredulous chapters, I began to accept him and wove him right into my sense of reality. Charles Todd has chosen a very dark and difficult time in world history, World War I, which is more romanticized but much less understood than the wars since. I appreciate his attention to detail and look forward very much to the next installment.