Hunting Shadows (Inspector Ian Rutledge Series #16)

by Charles Todd

Overview

Inspector Ian Rutledge is summoned to the quiet, isolated Fen country to solve a series of seemingly unconnected murders in this clever and atmospheric entry in the acclaimed New York Times bestselling mystery series

August 1920. A society wedding at Ely Cathedral 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 to find the elusive and shocking answer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062237101
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	12/30/2014
Series:	Inspector Ian Rutledge Series , #16
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	237,466
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.79(d)

About the Author

Charles Todd is the author of the Inspector Ian Rutledge mysteries, the Bess Crawford mysteries, and two stand-alone novels. A mother and son writing team, they live in Delaware and North Carolina.

Editorial Reviews

Another winner…Strong atmosphere and a complicated mystery make this book one that readers won’t be able to put down.

Romantic Times 4 1/2 stars on HUNTING SHADOWS

Elusive clues, suspense and excellent writing make for reading pleasure.

Oklahoma City Oklahoman on HUNTING SHADOWS

Of all the places where Inspector Ian Rutledge’s Scotland Yard assignments have taken him, the desolate Fen country must surely be the eeriest. [This is an] excellent historical series.

New York Times Book Review on HUNTING SHADOWS

Readers who stick with the chase, though, should be enthralled, as Rutledge sorts through a fascinating portrait gallery of witnesses and suspects, most of whom aren’t telling him the whole truth.

Wilmington News Journal

As always, the North Carolina-based mother and son who write under the pseudonym Charles Todd do a beautiful job with the period detail, making these books a nostalgic outing to England between the world wars.

Raleigh News & Observer

Another well-written, well-plotted entry in this always engaging mystery series.

Booklist on HUNTING SHADOWS

Tricky plotting and rich atmospherics distinguish bestseller Todd’s 16th novel featuring Scotland Yard’s Insp. Ian Rutledge....Todd (the pen name of a mother-son writing team) has rarely been better.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) on HUNTING SHADOWS

“Another well-written, well-plotted entry in this always engaging mystery series. — Booklist on HUNTING SHADOWS

“Another winner…Strong atmosphere and a complicated mystery make this book one that readers won’t be able to put down.” — Romantic Times 4 1/2 stars on HUNTING SHADOWS

“As always, the North Carolina-based mother and son who write under the pseudonym Charles Todd do a beautiful job with the period detail, making these books a nostalgic outing to England between the world wars.” — Raleigh News & Observer

“Readers who stick with the chase, though, should be enthralled, as Rutledge sorts through a fascinating portrait gallery of witnesses and suspects, most of whom aren’t telling him the whole truth.” — Wilmington News Journal

“Of all the places where Inspector Ian Rutledge’s Scotland Yard assignments have taken him, the desolate Fen country must surely be the eeriest. [This is an] excellent historical series.” — New York Times Book Review on HUNTING SHADOWS

“Elusive clues, suspense and excellent writing make for reading pleasure.” — Oklahoma City Oklahoman on HUNTING SHADOWS

From the Publisher

2013-12-19
Inspector Rutledge returns for another painstaking investigation of murders in the aftermath of World War I. When a sharpshooter kills Capt. Gordon Hutchinson at a wedding in Ely, Cambridgeshire, no one in the panicked crowd can tell precisely where the bullet came from. A similar shooting in the neighboring town of Wriston that kills the popular Tory candidate Herbert Swift draws Inspector Ian Rutledge from Scotland Yard. When he first arrives, Rutledge is nearly lost in the marshy Fens until a mysterious man emerges from the mist to steer him toward the hearth of Marcella Trowbridge. Even after Rutledge is able to find his way around by daylight, he's still enshrouded in fog in his attempts to discover if the two murders are related. Reports of a monster behind the rifle that killed the two men, a haunted mill and the mythical Green Man painted on the ceiling of Ely Cathedral lead Rutledge, in a blend of dogged research and intuitive leaps, to a case of two wronged women. But is more than one man exacting revenge? The mother-and-son team Todd (Proof of Guilt, 2013, etc.) may be letting up on their tortured hero: The ghostly voice of Hamish MacLeod, the soldier whom Rutledge had to shoot in the Great War, is a bit less prominent than in earlier installments. Less from ghost Hamish? That change may be as welcome to some fans as to the inspector himself, though others may miss the inspector's invisible partner and conscience.

Kirkus Reviews