A Long Shadow (Inspector Ian Rutledge Series #8)

by Charles Todd

Overview

“Seamless in its storytelling and enthralling in its plotting.”
—Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

“Dark and remarkable….Once [Todd] grabs you, there’s no putting the novel down.”
—Detroit Free Press

The Winston-Salem Journal declares that, “like P. D. James and Ruth Rendell, Charles Todd writes novels that transcend genre.” A Long Shadow proves that statement true beyond the shadow of a doubt. Once again featuring Todd’s extraordinary protagonist, Scotland Yard investigator and shell-shocked World War One veteran, Inspector Ian Rutledge, A Long Shadow immerses readers in the sights and sounds of post-war Great Britain, as the damaged policeman pursues answers to a constable’s slaying and the three-year-old mystery of a young girl’s disappearance in a tiny Northamptonshire village. Read Todd’s A Long Shadow and see why the Washington Post calls the Rutledge crime novels, “one of the best historical series being written today.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061208515
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/25/2011
Series:	Inspector Ian Rutledge Series , #8
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	285,810
Product dimensions:	8.02(w) x 5.28(h) x 0.89(d)

About the Author

Charles Todd is the New York Times bestselling author of the Inspector Ian Rutledge mysteries, the Bess Crawford mysteries, and two stand-alone novels. A mother-and-son writing team, Caroline passed away in August 2021 and Charles lives in Florida.

Read an Excerpt

A Long Shadow

Chapter One

Dudlington, 1919

Constable Hensley walked quietly through Frith's Wood, looking left and right for some sign that others had been here before him. But the wet, matted leaves showed him nothing, and the cold sun, slanting through bare trees, was more primitive than comforting. It would be dark soon enough. The light never lasted this time of year, unlike the gloriously bright evenings of summer, when it seemed to linger as if unaware of dusk creeping toward it.

And one particular summer evening . . .

He came to the end of the wood and turned to retrace his steps to the small clearing where he'd left his bicycle.

Halfway there, he could have sworn he heard someone moving behind him, a soft step barely audible. But his ears were attuned to the lightest sound.

Wheeling about, he scanned the trees around him, but there was no one to be seen through the tangle of undergrowth and trunks. No one living . . .

Imagination, he told himself. Nerves, a small voice in his head countered, and he shivered in spite of himself.

After a moment he went hurrying on, not looking back again until he'd retrieved his bicycle and mounted it. Then he scanned Frith's Wood a final time, wondering how a place so small could appear to be so gloomy and somehow threatening, even in winter.

The Saxons, so it was said, had beheaded men here once, long ago. Taking no prisoners, unwilling to be hindered by captives, they'd come only for booty, and nothing else. Not slaves, not land or farms, just gold or silver or whatever else could be bartered at home. A greedy people, he thought, giving his bicycle a littlepush to start it forward. Greedy and bloody, by all accounts. But nearly fifteen hundred years later, the name of the wood hadn't changed. And no one cared to set foot there after dark.

He was glad to be out of it.

Yet he could still feel someone watching him, someone on the edge of the wood, someone without substance or reality. Dead men, most likely. Or their ghosts.

One ghost.

He didn't look again until he'd reached the main road. Out of the fields, away from the wood, he felt safer. Now he could pedal back the way he'd come, make the turning at The Oaks, and sweep down into Dudlington. Anyone seeing him would think he'd been at the pub, or sent for from Letherington. He'd been clever, covering his tracks. It made sense to plan ahead and not go rushing about. If he had to go there.

Of course a really clever man, he told himself, would stay away altogether.

The way behind him was still empty.

A Long Shadow. Copyright © by Charles Todd. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Reading Group Guide

Introduction

ABOUT:

New Year's Eve, 1919. Scotland Yard's Inspector Ian Rutledge has accompanied his sister to the home of mutual friends for dinner but is called away by work. On the steps outside, he finds a brass cartridge casing that is seemingly identical to the countless others he'd seen during the war he still cannot forget. But this one has an engraving in the metal. Curious, he pockets it. Soon he finds another—in a most unexpected place.

These cartridge casings seem to point to unfinished business involving the war. A man with a dark secret, Rutledge already walks on the edge of sanity. Now someone is hunting him. But who? And will Rutledge live long enough to discover why?

Questions for Discussion

QUESTIONS:

A Long Shadow

1. A Long Shadow deals with two themes, Rutledge's confrontation with a faceless enemy and his sense that digging behind the facts will lead him to a murderer. In Rutledge's place, how would you have dealt with his enemy?

2. Pride stands in the way of several characters and their consciences, sometimes to the point of hurting others and destroying their own lives. Who are examples of this?

3. Mrs. Channing is an enigmatic woman, accustomed to keeping her own secrets. She makes Rutledge uncomfortable but also fascinates him. Do you think she'll come back in the future? Should she?

4. How does the setting impact the story?

The Inspector Ian Rutledge Series by Charles Todd

1. In World War I "shell shock" was considered cowardice, loss of nerve, a disgrace. Today's modern diagnosis is post traumatic stress disorder. How does Rutledge's shell shock and his perception of responses to it affect his behavior and that of others?

2. How important a part in Rutledge's recovery does his fiancée Jean play, and how does her rejection affect his relationship with other women. Does he often find in them something that was lacking in his idealistic memory of Jean?

3. How does the setting affect the characters?

4. The interaction between Chief Superintendent Bowles and Rutledge is based in part on the changing face of Scotland Yard—Bowles is the up-through-the ranks man, while Rutledge represents the new better educated and trained policeman. How strong an influence is a boss in the lives of most people?

5. Murder, according to the authors, is a failure in relationships. Do you think an ordinary person can be driven beyond their ability to endure or cope, and see murder as the only way out?

6. Hamish, whose voice Rutledge hears, is a strong character in his own right. Yet he's seen through Rutledge's eyes. How do you respond to Hamish as a man? What role does Hamish play?

7. Rutledge was rejected by his fiancée Jean. And afterwards he's resisted involvements. Do you feel a love interest for Rutledge is possible?

8. In their books looking back at the Twentieth Century, both Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw referred to World War One as the pivotal event that shaped the rest of the century. How does Rutledge's experience in the trenches shape your view of war?

Editorial Reviews

Excels at intricate relationships among characters....Another winning story.” — Library Journal

“Riveting historical mystery.” — Romantic Times

“Incisive as ever.” — Kirkus Reviews

“A daunting portrait of a town that keeps its thoughts, its troubles and most of all its secrets to itself.” — New York Times Book Review

“[A] remarkable series....Keeps readers on the edge right up to the stunning end.” — Detroit Free Press

“Atmosphere aplenty.” — Charlotte Observer

“Evocative.” — Cleveland Plain Dealer

From the Publisher

A daunting portrait of a town that keeps its thoughts, its troubles and most of all its secrets to itself.

New York Times Book Review

Atmosphere aplenty.

Charlotte Observer

Evocative.

Cleveland Plain Dealer

Riveting historical mystery.

Romantic Times

[A] remarkable series....Keeps readers on the edge right up to the stunning end.

Detroit Free Press

It is a compliment to the authors that I found myself thinking of Agatha Christie as I read their book. Their Dudlington is not unlike the villages where Christie set The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and other novels, although the two Americans do not provide the wit, originality and depth she brought to village life. As in the British classics of the 1920s, the authors deal in murder most foul, virtue imperiled, gossip, poison, ancient grudges, revenge, social status, altered identities—even spiritualism. Like the classic authors, they avoid profanity and sex, and keep most violence offstage. Perhaps the greatest difference is that Christie, writing immediately after the Great War, used the foibles of Inspector Poirot and Miss Marple to help her readers forget its horrors, while these writers, with the added grief of nearly another century of war, are quite willing to remind us of its realities. A Long Shadow is not an outstanding novel, but it is readable, serious, admirably haunted.
—The Washington Post

Patrick Anderson

Set in 1919, Todd's excellent eighth psychological whodunit to feature the insightful but haunted Insp. Ian Rutledge picks up shortly after the harrowing events chronicled in A Cold Treachery (2005). Rutledge travels to the remote and desolate English village of Dudlington after the town constable is shot in the back with an arrow while exploring a forest shunned by the locals. The inspector suspects a connection between the attack and the disappearance of a young girl, but he finds himself in an unfamiliar role when an unknown stalker targets him, leaving ominous clues that indicate that he's vulnerable at all times. Rutledge's fragile psyche comes in for additional battering from an enigmatic woman who claims to be able to contact the dead. Todd's plotting and characterization are, as usual, first-rate, and the tormented motivations behind the novel's dark acts are presented with a sensitivity and refinement reminiscent of the best of P.D. James. The ambiguous ending will leave both longtime fans and new readers anxiously awaiting the sequel. (Jan.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Adult/High School-Scotland Yard Inspector Rutledge, a World War I victim of shell shock, is haunted by those he had to send out of the trenches to horrible deaths. His survivor's guilt is manifested in Hamish, whom he was forced to execute for refusing to fight, and whose ghost is his constant companion, always ready to chide, warn, and offer mocking opinions about the task at hand. The eighth in this acclaimed series finds Rutledge in an isolated rural village north of London, charged with bringing to justice the criminal who has gravely wounded its constable, sending an arrow through his chest while he was investigating a murder. And someone is hunting the inspector himself, leaving engraved cartridge casings behind to torment him. Authentic representations of the post-World War I era and an absorbing plot with twists and turns as challenging as the country roads that Rutledge travels make a gripping story. Well-drawn characters and scenes, wry local humor, and plot details steep the mystery in English country life. Frequent scene changes and puzzling dead ends may be a challenge for some teens, but their perseverance will be rewarded.-Molly Connally, Chantilly Regional Library, Fairfax County, VA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

The bow-and-arrow shooting of a Hertfordshire policeman carries Inspector Ian Rutledge (A Cold Treachery, 2005, etc.) back even further in time than his traumatic WWI memories. Everyone in Dudlington had avoided the wood in which Constable Bart Hensley was found. Even Hensley himself, when he regains consciousness, insists that he didn't go into the wood himself; he must have been carried there after he was shot. But Rutledge suspects the motive for the attack lies there. Even though the few locals who will talk to him say it's impossible, he wonders if Emma Mason, who vanished five years ago at 17, is buried in the wood. Hunkering down in Hensley's own house after misanthropic innkeeper Frank Keating refuses to put him up, Rutledge uncovers a sinister pattern in the Mason family. Emma's mother Beatrice, an aspiring painter, escaped Dudlington before the War to live in London, but she disappeared herself in 1906. Yet the body Rutledge eventually discovers in the wood isn't Emma's or Beatrice's; it belongs to a man who was laid to rest nearly 40 years ago. Aided by the ghostly presence of Hamish MacLeod, the world's most unusual Watson, Rutledge pursues the truth despite the villagers' denials, and despite his uneasy certainty that someone has followed him from London determined to kill him. Incisive as ever, though this time Todd's usual slow start is bookended by a conclusion that daringly leaves several loose ends hanging.

Kirkus Reviews

Atmosphere aplenty.

Charlotte Observer