A Fine Summer's Day

In this 17th Ian Rutledge mystery, fans will enjoy an exceptional performance by Steven Crossley. Charles Todd (a mother-son writing team) takes a step back to the summer of 1914. In this series prequel, the brutalities of war haven't yet taken their toll on Rutledge. Newly engaged to the daughter of a military family, Rutledge has picked up a complicated case--suicide or murder? But as he gets closer to a solution, he's pressured to drop the case. In true storyteller mode, Crossley disappears into every character, offering a seemingly endless supply of accents, voices, and personalities, whether from the Scottish Highlands or the English Lowlands. As war becomes a reality, Crossley's remarkable character development combined with Todd's deft plotting provides fine listening, whatever the season. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

November 24, 2014
Series fans will appreciate Todd’s 17th Ian Rutledge mystery (after 2014’s Hunting Shadows), a prequel set in the summer of 1914. Rutledge, a Scotland Yard inspector, has just gotten engaged, and as the guns of August loom, he lands a tricky murder case in Dorset. Furniture maker Ben Clayton—who had no obvious enemies—was hanged from his staircase by an intruder. More deaths follow, but a scene that Todd (the mother-son writing team of Caroline and Charles Todd) presents early on makes this a thriller rather than a whodunit. The writing is as sharp as ever, but without the series regular Hamish MacLeod, whom Rutledge was forced to execute during WWI for disobeying orders and who subsequently haunts the shell-shocked Rutledge as a sort of ghostly Watson, newcomers won’t appreciate how extraordinary this series is. Five-city author tour. Agent: Jane Chelius, Jane Chelius Literary Agency.

January 1, 2015

It was a fine summer's day in 1914 when life changed for so many people: Scotland Yard inspector Ian Rutledge proposed to his longtime companion, Jean Gordon, Archduke Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo, and the death of a mother sparked a trail of murders, leading Rutledge across the English countryside in search of the killer. As Rutledge closes in on the solution to the case, rumors of war become a reality, and the inspector must not only deal with the aftermath of his investigation but also face the increasing needs of his betrothed, family, Scotland Yard, and Britain itself. VERDICT In this prequel and 17th series entry (after Hunting Shadows), Rutledge deals with a killer's past and his own future in a country readying for war. A tight plot keeps readers on the edge until the stunning final pages. [See Prepub Alert, 7/28/14.]

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