I still like Inspector Rutledge, and will definitely read more of the series, but there is just some vital spark lacking from this mystery.

Still considered an embarrassment/potential threat by his superior at Scotland Yard, Rutledge is dispatched to Cornwall to solve an unusual trio of deaths in one family, two suicides and an apparent accident. He learns that one of the suicides was a famous poet whose insightful verse about the war helped Rutledge himself to survive the aftermath of the trenches, and this fact threatens to prejudice his investigation.

The formula is there for a great story: the atmosphere and setting of a Du Maurier novel, Christie-esque characters and plotting, and a pitch-perfect reproduction of post-war England, but the tension is stretched too thin. Rutledge is lead to first one conclusion and then another as facts and secrets are revealed, but the clues are paced to intrigue and not confuse the reader - it's just that the resolution could have been tighter. I did finish, because I wanted to confirm my suspicions, but it took more of my time than a book of this size would normally demand. ( )

This is the second book in the Ian Rutledge mystery series. I found the series because it was a choice of my RL Mystery book group. I read the first 2 for the group, but will continue the series on my own because they are well written and interesting.

In this story Ian is sent to another village in the country, Cornwall this time. A poet and her brother commit suicide, and then another brother falls down the stairs and dies. Another family member asks a relation, a minor lord in the Home Office (?) to send someone to find out if the deaths were really what they seem. The family is age old local gentry, and the poet was famous for her war poetry, though she used an assumed name.

Ian is sent by his superior Bowles, who is trying to sabotage him. Sent without all the information, Ian and his haunt/illness Hamish, a lasting present from WWI, are supposed to discretely determine if murder is afoot.

Hamish is the sergeant that Ian executed at the front for refusing to advance. He has been verbally 'haunting' Ian since he woke up in the hospital. Ian suffered from shell shock after being buried alive in a bomb blast in a trench at the front. Ian keeps Hamish a secret, otherwise he would be judged crazy and sent back to the hospital.

Hamish is angry and vindictive and tries to upset Ian, but sometimes he forgets and actually helps Ian with his detection. The reader is never sure if Hamish is part of Ian's diseased mind, or is really a separate entity haunting Ian (a bit of fantasy).

Ian is very rattled to learn the dead poet was a woman, since he found that she was spot on about being at war and on the battlefield. The poet a woman, and a cripple, was never at the front even in a supporting capacity, so how does she come by her knowledge ?

This story is a very tangled one about the most recent generation of the family in question. The mother married 3 times and had multiple children and a step son. Those remaining alive are suspects that Ian has to question, but they are all outraged (except for the secret requester) that the police are involved. The locals also have knowledge of the family secrets and wish to protect them. Ian finds that he has to look into many more than 3 family deaths, all while not upsetting the family and the locals.

I really liked it, even more than the first book. The only problem is towards then end the list of suspects is dwindling, and Ian makes a statement that gives it away.

Good writing, great characters, wonderful setting, and an intricate plot, just a great read. ( )

Second in a long series; better than the first. The main character, an inspector with a split personality as a result of having experienced the horrors of World War I, is more functional and more appealing in this volume. Both books require strenuous suspension of disbelief for the backstories to hang together, but the atmospherics and the sleuthing works. Still some problems with the wrap-up, which doesn't come out of left field this time, but turns back to a solution eliminated with some finality by the inspector -- and, here's the problem, by the authors as well -- much earlier in the story. ( )

a poet... a murder... a family with a dark past... siblings who don't like each other... all the elements of a good English mystery... plus a main character who still fights his inner demons from the horrors of WWI and the trenches ( )

2nd in the Inspector Rutledge of Scotland Yard series, set in post-World War I.

Rutledge, having just come back from solving his last case in Warwickshire, is shuffled off to Cornwall by his jealous superior, Bowles, who doesn't want the possibility of Rutledge muscling in on the glory of finding a serial killer. There really isn't a case; a relative of two members of the landed gentry who have committed suicide has asked the Home Office to send an investigator to make sure that all has been handled properly. Rutledge has been assigned what looks like a fool's task so that he is out of London and away from a high-profile case as well as in the hopes that he will fall flat on his face and give Bowles something with which to damage Rutledge's career. Rutledge arrives in Borcombe to find yet another dead body, this time from an accident, and a baffling inability to make any sense out of the family of the suicides and what really might have happened. Was it a double suicide or was it really murder-suicide? Instead of the usual police procedures, Rutledge looks for motive as a way of determining if there was a murder and who, then was the killer.

While better than the first book, Test of Wills, Todd still is unable to pull off what has the potential for a very good series. His background--post World War I Great Britain and his incorporation of the horrors of the Great War itself into his plots--is extremely well done. But the psychological approach simply does not come off. Rutledge in his mind is simply too analytical, too self-absorbed to make his character really credible. The voice in his mind, that of his dead corporal Hamish McCloud, which is the physical manifestation of his shell shock, is not well done. Todd can't seem to make up his mind if Hamish is the voice of Rutledge's conscience, his survivor's guilt, or some supernatural manifestation who comments on places and events that Rutledge can not possibly know about. Additionally, Hamish gets the worst writing in the book--he "grumbles" and "rumbles" a great deal, "growls'" too much, and "stirred" too restlessly. The character simply does not work.

The minor characters are adequate, although Chief Inspector Bowles is really badly done as the villain--it's a poor imitation of Chief Inspector Racer in Grimes' Richard Jury series; Racer is a wonderful character in his own right, while Bowles is a stick figure.

While the plot is good, Todd does some unfortunate things at the end, leaving gaps in the reader's understanding, loose ends that are never tied up, leaving a sense of dissatisfaction with the resolution.

Despite its potential, there's just not enough to keep me reading this series. ( )