Scotland Yard's Ian Rutledge must contend with two dangerous enemies in this latest complex mystery in the New York Times bestselling series
London, summer 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?
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The book opens in Madeira in 1916, with the German bombing of Funchal Harbour.
Right away I was captivated, and the main reason being that I'm Portuguese. Madeira, and most importantly Funchal, where the bombing takes place, is where my late Uncle Carlos used to live, so I thoroughly enjoyed reading about that area right in the beginning of the book.
What then attracted me to the book too, was the fact that it not only takes place in one of my favorite eras, but it involves a detective and Scotland Yard and so forth. There's nothing better than a book that centers around things that interest you.
With that said, Charles Todd is a fantastic author and he always manages to drag you right into the story, to the point where you feel you are right there following along with the characters, rooting for one, or disliking the other.
The story is about Detective Ian Rutledge and his investigation as he pieces together the death of two bodies that just appeared in what seems like out of nowhere. One on Dungeness Beach, and a few months later another that seems to have been dragged, but there are no signs of a car being involved. That body ties back to the bombing four years earlier in Funchal, Madeira.
How can that be?
We are taken along on a journey, collecting evidence, interviewing witnesses and all interspersed with Detective Rutledges own demons, stemming back from his time served in WWI.
Brilliantly written, full of twist and turns and a must for mystery lovers.
Tour Stops
Tuesday, January 29th: 5 Minutes for BooksWednesday, January 30th: Bookfoolery and Babble
Thursday, January 31st: A Bookworm’s World
Monday, February 4th: Peppermint PhD
Tuesday, February 5th: Diary of a Stay at Home Mom
Wednesday, February 6th: No More Grumpy Bookseller
Thursday, February 7th: Between the Covers
Monday, February 11th: Dwell in Possibility
Tuesday, February 12th: Short and Sweet Reviews
Wednesday, February 13th: I Read a Book Once
Monday, February 18th: Speaking of Books
Friday, Februay 20th: Iwriteinbooks’s blog
Thank you to TLC Book Tours for providing me with a review copy.
What a nice summary of your high points for this book. I'm curious, have you read others in this series or was this the first for you?
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to reading this series since I've already been enjoying the Bess Crawford books by the same author.
ReplyDeleteThanks for being on the tour. I'm featuring your review on TLC's Facebook page today.