New York Times bestselling author – Page 2 – Charles Todd

No Shred of Evidence

Ian Rutledge Series – Book 18

In this absorbing new entry in the acclaimed New York Times bestselling series, Scotland Yard’s Ian Rutledge is caught up in a twisted web of vengeance and murder.

Charles Todd — Ian Rutledge – Book 18

Early Autumn, 1920 – In Cornwall, four young women take out a rowing boat on a fine autumn afternoon—but before the afternoon is over, a man will be dead, and these four young women will be accused of his murder by the only witness to his death. Because their fathers are prominent men, Scotland Yard is called in to find evidence of guilt—or innocence. But the inspector dies shortly afterward, and Rutledge is sent to take his place. His notes are missing, and Rutledge must follow a cold trail that leads nowhere. Complicating matters is the fact that one of the young women accused of murder is the cousin of the woman Rutledge had hoped to marry in 1914, a world lost to war. It appears he can’t save them, because the only evidence he can find points to guilt. Until he discovers that there are the barest hints of something else in the shadows, a tenuous thread that will take him over half of Cornwall before he can tell where it may lead…and whether it will help or damn the accused.

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Hunting Shadows

Ian Rutledge Series – Book 16

Charles Todd — Ian Rutledge – Book 16

August 1920 – A society wedding at Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire becomes a crime scene when a guest is shot. After a fruitless search for clues, the local police call in Scotland Yard, but not before there is another shooting in a village close by. This second murder has a witness, but her description of the killer is so horrific it’s unbelievable. Inspector Ian Rutledge can find no connection between the two deaths. One victim was an Army officer, the other a solicitor standing for Parliament. Is there a link between these murders, or is it only in the mind of a clever killer? As the investigation presses on, Rutledge finds memories of the war beginning to surface. Struggling to contain the darkness that haunts him as he hunts for the missing link, he discovers the case turning in a most unexpected direction. Now he must put his trust in the devil in order to find the elusive and shocking answer.

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Proof of Guilt

Ian Rutledge Series – Book 15

Scotland Yard’s Ian Rutledge must contend with two dangerous enemies in this latest complex mystery in the New York Times bestselling series

Charles Todd — Ian Rutledge – Book 15

September 1920 – An unidentified body appears to have been run down by a motorcar and Ian Rutledge is leading the investigation to uncover what happened. While the signs point to murder, vital questions remain: Who is the victim? And where, exactly, was he killed?

One small clue leads Rutledge to a firm built by two families, famous for producing and selling the world’s best Madeira wine. Lewis French, the current head of the English enterprise, is missing. But is he the dead man? And does either his fiancée or his jilted former lover have anything to do with his disappearance—or possible death? What about his sister? Or the London office clerk? Is Matthew Traynor, French’s cousin and partner who heads the Madeira office, somehow involved?

The experienced Rutledge knows that suspicion and circumstantial evidence are not proof of guilt, and he’s going to keep digging for answers. But that perseverance will pit him against his supervisor, the new acting chief superintendent. When Rutledge discovers a link to an incident in the French family’s past, the superintendent dismisses it, claiming the information isn’t vital. He’s determined to place the blame on one of French’s women despite Rutledge’s objections. Alone in a no-man’s-land rife with mystery and danger, Rutledge must tread very carefully, for someone has decided that he, too, must die so that cruel justice can take its course.

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The Confession

Ian Rutledge Series – Book 14

Charles Todd — Ian Rutledge – Book 14

August 1920 – Declaring he needs to clear his conscience; a dying man walks into Scotland Yard and confesses that he killed his cousin five years earlier during the Great War. When Inspector Ian Rutledge presses for details, the man reveals little else, only that he hails from a village somewhere east of London. With scant information to go on and no corpse, Rutledge cannot launch an official inquiry, but he is intrigued enough to look into the case on his own. Everything changes when the body of the confessed killer is found floating in the Thames, a bullet in the back of his head, and Rutledge discovers that the guilt-stricken alleged murderer was not who he claimed to be.

With but one clue to go on, a gold locket found around the dead man’s neck, Rutledge finds himself drawn to an insular village in Essex, where the residents will do anything to keep out of the public eye. For notoriety could bring attention to a centuries-old act of evil that, even now, could damn them all.

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A Lonely Death

Ian Rutledge Series – Book 13

Charles Todd, A Lonely Death — Ian Rutledge – Book 13

July 1920 – A breathtaking blend of psychological complexity, haunting atmosphere, compelling twists, and impressive detail, the novels in the Ian Rutledge mystery series have garnered their author widespread acclaim and numerous honors and awards. At the heart of the series is the compelling Scotland Yard detective inspector Ian Rutledge, a veteran of the Great War who understands all too well the darkness that lies within men’s souls.

Now three men have been murdered in a Sussex village, and Scotland Yard has been called in. It’s a baffling case. The victims are soldiers who survived the horrors of World War I only to meet a ghastly end in the quiet English countryside two years later. Each had been garroted, with small ID discs left in their mouths.

But even Scotland Yard’s presence doesn’t deter this vicious and clever killer. Shortly after Inspector Ian Rutledge arrives, a fourth soldier is found dead. With few clues to go on and the pressure building, Rutledge must gamble everything—his job, his reputation, and even his life—to find answers.

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The Red Door

Ian Rutledge Series – Book 12

The Red Door by Charles Todd — Ian Rutledge – Book 12

June 1920 – At the end of a terrible war, a woman painted the door to her house red to welcome her husband home from the Front . . . but he never returned. Two years later, in the English summer of 1920, she lies lifeless behind that door, savagely bludgeoned to death. In London, a man suffering from a mysterious illness goes missing, and his family members offer conflicting accounts of one another’s whereabouts at the time of his disappearance. Then, suddenly, he reappears, miraculously recovered, offering no clues to the puzzle or to the reason behind his brothers’ and sister’s silence and rage. Now Inspector Ian Rutledge, still haunted by the battlefield’s horrors, must solve two possibly connected mysteries. He must uncover the family secret that nearly drove one man mad, and bring a ruthless killer to justice.

“One of the strongest entries yet in a series that shows no sign of losing steam….Once again Todd perfectly balances incisive portraits of all the characters, not just the complex and original lead.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review) on The Red Door

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A Matter of Justice

Ian Rutledge Series – Book 11

A Matter of Justice by Charles Todd — Ian Rutledge – Book 11

May 1920 – At the turn of the century, in a war taking place far from England, two soldiers chance upon an opportunity that will change their lives forever. To take advantage of it, they will do the unthinkable and then put the past behind them. Twenty years later, a successful London businessman is found savagely and bizarrely murdered in a medieval tithe barn on his estate in Somerset. Called upon to investigate, Rutledge soon discovers that the victim was universally despised. Even the man’s wife—who appears to be his wife in name only—and the town’s police inspector are suspect. But who among the many hated enough to kill?

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A Pale Horse

Ian Rutledge Series – Book 10

A Pale Horse by Charles Todd — Ian Rutledge – 10

April 1920 – In the ruins of Yorkshire’s Fountains Abbey lies the body of a man wrapped in a cloak, the face covered by a gas mask. Next to him is a book on alchemy, which belongs to the schoolmaster, a conscientious objector in the Great War. Who is this man, and is the investigation into his death being manipulated by a thirst for revenge? Meanwhile, the British War Office is searching for a missing man of their own, someone whose war work was so secret that even Rutledge isn’t told his real name or what he did. Here is a puzzle requiring all of Rutledge’s daring and skill, for there are layers of lies and deception, while a ruthless killer is determined to hold on to freedom at any cost.

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A False Mirror

Ian Rutledge Series – Book 9

A False Mirror by Charles Todd — Ian Rutledge – Book 9

March 1920 – An officer who served with Rutledge in the trenches of France before being sent back to England under suspicious circumstances has now been accused of savagely beating the husband of the woman he still loves. The suspect has taken the wife hostage, threatening to kill her and her maid unless Rutledge takes charge of the investigation. Although the case painfully mirrors Rutledge’s own past and the love he lost to another man, he cannot refuse it. When the unconscious brutalized victim vanishes without a trace, it’s clear that this peaceful little town hides a vicious murderer and secrets powerful enough to kill for.

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A Long Shadow

Ian Rutledge Series – Book 8

A Long Shadow by Charles Todd — Ian Rutledge – Book 8

January 1920 – Scotland Yard’s Inspector Ian Rutledge brought the Great War home with him, and its horrors haunt him still. On New Year’s Eve 1919, he finds a brass cartridge casing, similar to countless others he’d seen on the battlefield, on the steps of a friend’s house. Soon there are more, purposely placed where he is sure to discover them. Unexpectedly drawn away from London to a small Northamptonshire village, he investigates the strange case of a local constable shot with a bow and arrow in an allegedly spirit-infested wood. Here among the taciturn townsfolk, embroiled in a three-year-old mystery of a vanished young girl, Rutledge hopes to keep his own ghosts at bay. But his stalker has followed him. And now the emotionally shattered policeman walking the razor’s edge of sanity must somehow keep his balance long enough to discover who is tracking him… and why.

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