Gain A Fearsome Doubt Interpreted By Charles Todd Rendered As Print

enjoyed reacuainting myself with inspector Ian Rutledge A good read in troubled times The weakest in the Rutledge series so far Fearsome Doubt's big problem is that the A mystery makes little sense and the B mystery is really boring The writing is strong as always but there are too many coincidences and too many irritating characters I actually groaned in one scene when Nell Shaw appeared in this one Numberin the Inspector Rutledge mystery series and it's just as enjoyable as the previous five Well written atmospheric post WWI period and hard to solve before the pieces all fall together in the end This is my favorite in the series so far I loved all the different story lines and how they were woven

together I like how we are seeing of Ian in his personal relationships and learning about his past and I love all the interesting characters I can't read this series any The mystery solutions seem totally disconnected from the well drawn characters and fabulous writing style I just get so infuriated with the magic endings it's not worth it Penned by a son mother team Charles Todd I was told wrote cozy mysteries Well Inspector Rutledge of Scotland Yard does sip a lot of tea in London and rural England But this literate somewhat melancholy crime fiction is grittier than I expected it to be The ghost of Hamish Rutledge's dead soldier friend from the World War One trenches breaks into Rutledge's thoughts dispensing advice and philosophical asides Sometimes this literary device works sometimes it's a little annoying The prose style is enjoyable though I'm not sure I'll hurry on to the other titles but at some point probably I'll read another one A FEARSOME DOUBT VGTodd Charlesth of SeriesRutledge is taken aback when a persistent Nell Shaw brings him new evidence that could clear her late husband's name Had Rutledge and his fellow policemen inadvertently sent an innocent man to his death six years earlier Reconsidering the pre World War I case serves to distract the inspector from his current assignment determining who is killing maimed ex soldiers in the peaceful countryside in Kent Rutledge is sidetracked as well by his friendship with Elizabeth Mayhew the widow of an old school chum Elizabeth's feelings for a mysterious stranger further complicate Rutledge's investigationRutledge investigates the murders of disabled war veterans and is asked by the widow to prove the innocence of a man who was hanged while still dealing with own demons from WWI I love this series It is well written with excellent characters Okay if the plots don't get better I'm giving up on these Good setting and characters do not make up for plots which don't tie together and get resolved out of nowhere in about the last ten pages of the book This one was kind of nerve wracking but in a can't put this book down way I enjoyed the complications the character of Inspector Rutledge trying to come to terms with his past with the war with the possibility of love the frustration doubts about an old case Guy Fawkes Day bonfires and of course Hamish The conclusion is dramatic and struck me with its emotional intensity Another well done mystery in the series I recommend it I've enjoyed the first five of this series I'm reading them in order Determined to figure this one out before Todd reveals the murderers I took copious notes as to who is who and when and what etc with diagrams of interconnecting relationships etc This book has aboutpages of red herrings on top of red herrings and actually lots of fascinating mysteriesuestions are opened I thought I had solved it this time but alas I was wrong again That's fine I've read a lot of Agatha Christie's work and only got one right Thirteen at Dinner or was it Third Girl Anyway for me the problem here is there are just too many loose ends All this complicated plotting andor of it just doesn't come together at all I have nine pages of notes withbig unanswered uestions That's just sloppy story telling almost insulting from the author to readers This is the weakest in the series in my opinion I gave the first one a two star rating this one a two star rating also I'm a three strikes you're out series reader Alex Grecian and Sue Grafton come uickly to mind and although I'll read the seventh in this series it may be Todd's final at bat for me I hope not though as Inspector Ian Rutledge is one of the most fascinating detectives I've encountered in the cozy murder mystery genre Bestselling author Charles Todd has earned a special place among mysterys elite writers with his acclaimed series featuring Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge a former soldier seeking to lay to rest the demons of his past in the aftermath of World War I But that past bleeds into the present in a complex murder case that calls into uestion his own honorand the crimes committed in the name of God country and righteous vengeanceA Fearsome DoubtInIan Rutledge watched as a man was condemned to hang for the murders of elderly women Rutledge helped gather the evidence that sent Ben Shaw to the gallows And when justice was done Rutledge closed the door on the case But Shaw was not easily forgottenNow seven years later that grim trial returns in the form of Ben Shaws widow Nell bringing Rutledge evidence she is convinced will prove her husbands innocence Its a belief fraught with peril threatening both Rutledges professional stature and his faith in his judgment But there is a darker reason for Rutledges reluctance Murder brings him back to Kent where days earlier hed glimpsed an all too familiar face beyond the leaping flames of a bonfire Soon an unexpected encounter revives the end of his own war as the country prepares for a somber commemoration on the anniversary of the Armistice To battle the unsettled past and the haunted present at the same time is an appalling mandate And the people around him among them the attractive widow of a friend a remarkable woman who survived the Great Indian Mutiny a bitter dying barrister and a man whose name he never knewunwittingly compete with the grieving Nell Shaw Theyll demand than Rutledge can give unaware that he is already carrying the burden of shell shock and the voice of Hamish MacLeod the soldier he was forced to execute in the war The killer in Marling is surprisingly adept at escaping detection And Ben Shaws past is a tangle of unsettling secrets that may or may not be true Rutledge must walk a tortuous line between two murderersone reaching out to ruin him the other driven to destroy him From the Hardcover edition Charles Todd is the pen name used by the mother and son writing team Caroline Todd and Charles Todd Together they write the Ian Rutledge and Bess Crawford Series They have published two standalone mystery novels and many short stories.