Charles Todd – författare

Late on a spring night in 1920, five boys cross the Yorkshire dales to the ruins of Fountains Abbey, intent on raising the Devil. Instead, they stumble over the Devil himself, sitting there watching them. Terrified, they run for their lives, leaving behind a book on alchemy stolen from their schoolmaster. The next morning, a body is discovered in the cloisters of the abbey - a man swathed in a hooded cloak and wearing a gas mask. There are no clues other than the left-behind book. In an effort to uncover the dead man's identity, one of the police constables, who fancies himself a portraitist, sketches a likeness to send to other police stations. It turns out there's a strong chance the man worked on poisoned gases for the British government after the Germans had used them at Ypres during the late war.Scotland Yard dispatches Inspector Rutledge to confirm the ID and to find out why the man died in such mysterious circumstances. Rutledge begins his investigation, dealing with villagers who clearly have something to hide and trying to decipher if the death links back to the Great War. And what does the huge chalk sculpture of a pale horse of the Apocalypse have to do with the crime?

A love triangle turned deadly sends Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge to Hampton Regis, a small harbor town on the southern coast of England simmering with secrets. Accused of attacking a former lover's husband, an old trenchmate has taken the woman and her injured husband hostage. Proclaiming his innocence, he begs Rutledge to clear his name. But the brilliant yet tormented detective fears he may do more harm than good. The tragic situation brings up memories of the woman he loved and lost when he, too, left to fight. If, as Stephen swears, he didn't try to murder the husband, then who did? And why? To find answers, Rutledge must once again confront his own demons - or watch helplessly as the war's dark aftermath claims three more lives.

New Year's Eve, 1919. Called away from dinner at the home of friends, Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge finds a brass cartridge casing on the steps outside. While it looks identical to the countless others he'd seen during the war, this one has a mysterious engraving. Curious, he pockets it. But soon, he finds another-in a most unexpected place. The inspector knows the shells are for him-markers that point to unfinished business involving the terrible war he cannot leave behind. A survivor with a dark secret, Rutledge walks on the edge of sanity, filled with the abiding fear that someone will discover the guilt, the horror, the shock he carries deep within. And now someone is hunting him. But who? And will Rutledge live long enough to find out why?

At the end of a terrible war, a woman painted the door to her house red to welcome her husband home from the Front, but he never returned. Two years later, in the English summer of 1920, she lies lifeless behind that door, savagely bludgeoned to death. In London, a man suffering from a mysterious illness goes missing, and his family members offer conflicting accounts of one another's whereabouts at the time of his disappearance. Then, suddenly, he reappears, miraculously recovered, offering no clues to the puzzle or to the reason behind his brothers' and sister's silence and rage. Now Inspector Ian Rutledge, still haunted by the battlefield's horrors, must solve two possibly connected mysteries. He must uncover the family secret that nearly drove one man mad, and bring a ruthless killer to justice.

A breathtaking blend of psychological complexity, haunting atmosphere, compelling twists, and impressive detail, the novels in the "Ian Rutledge" mystery series have garnered their author widespread acclaim and numerous honors and awards. At the heart of the series is the compelling Scotland Yard detective inspector Ian Rutledge, a veteran of the Great War who understands all too well the darkness that lies within men's souls. Now three men have been murdered in a Sussex village, and Scotland Yard has been called in. It's a baffling case. The victims are soldiers who survived the horrors of World War I only to meet a ghastly end in the quiet English countryside two years later. Each had been garroted, with small ID discs left in their mouths. But even Scotland Yard's presence doesn't deter this vicious and clever killer. Shortly after Inspector Ian Rutledge arrives, a fourth soldier is found dead. With few clues to go on and the pressure building, Rutledge must gamble everything - his job, his reputation, and even his life - to find answers.

Claiming he needs to clear his conscience, a dying man walks into Scotland Yard and confesses that he killed his cousin years ago during the war. When Inspector Ian Rutledge presses for details, the man dodges the questions, revealing only that he hails from the north of London in Essex. With little information and no body to open an official inquiry, Rutledge begins to look into the case on his own. But less than two weeks later, the would-be killer's body is found floating in the Thames, a bullet hole in the back of his head. Searching for answers, Rutledge discovers that the dead man was not who he claimed to be. So what was his real name-and who put a bullet in his head? Was the confession and his own death related? Or was there something else in the victim's past that had led to his murder? The inspector's only clue is a gold locket - found around the dead man's neck - that leads back to Essex, an insular village that will do anything to protect itself from notoriety. For notoriety brings the curious, and with the curious comes change and an unwelcome spotlight on a centuries' old act of evil that even now can damn them all.

Ian Rutledge of Scotland Yard must contend with two dangerous enemies in New York Times bestselling author Charles Todd's Proof of Guilt. Can Rutledge solve the apparent murder of a top wine merchant while dealing with interference from his superior, the new Acting Chief Superintendent? Readers of Charles Todd's Bess Crawford books and London-based Ian Rutledge mysteries will be thrilled with Proof of Guilt, clue by clue.

In the spring of 1918, the Spanish Flu epidemic spreads, killing millions of soldiers and civilians across the globe. Overwhelmed by the constant flow of wounded soldiers coming from the French front, battlefield nurse Bess Crawford must now contend with hundreds of influenza patients as well. But war and disease are not the only killers to strike. Bess discovers, concealed among the dead waiting for burial, the body of an officer who has been murdered. Though she is devoted to all her patients, this soldier's death touches her deeply. Not only did the man serve in her father's former regiment, he was also a family friend. Before she can report the terrible news, Bess falls ill, the latest victim of the flu. By the time she recovers, the murdered officer has been buried, and the only other person who saw the body has hanged himself. Or did he? Working her father's connections in the military, Bess begins to piece together what little evidence she can find to unmask the elusive killer and see justice served. But the tenacious and impetuous nurse must be vigilant. With a determined killer on her own heels, each move she makes may be her last.

I was in Paris the day the French Army was mobilized. In 1914, while visiting her friend Madeleine, Lady Elspeth Douglas' life is thrown into chaos when war breaks out and the Germans quickly overrun Belgium, threatening France. Having just agreed to marry Alain, Madeleine's dashing brother, Lady Elspeth watches him leave to join his unit, and then she sets out for England, only to find herself trapped on the French coast. Caught amid a sea of stranded travelers, terrified refugees, and wounded men overflowing the port of Calais, the restless Elspeth - daughter of a Highland aristocrat whose distinguished family can trace its roots back to the court of Mary, Queen of Scots - decides to make herself useful, carrying water to weary soldiers near the Front. It is an act of charity that almost gets her killed when enemy shells begin to explode around her. To her rescue comes Captain Peter Gilchrist, who pulls her away from the battle and leads her to safety. But before they can properly say good-bye, Elspeth and Peter are separated. Back in London, surrounded by familiar comforts, Elspeth is haunted by the horrors she witnessed in France.She also cannot forget the gallant Peter Gilchrist, even though she has promised herself to Alain. Transformed by her experience, Elspeth goes to London and enrolls in a nursing course, where she meets a fellow nurse in training, Bess Crawford. It is a daring move, made without the consent of Elspeth's guardian, her cousin Kenneth, a high-handed man with rigid notions of class and femininity. Yet Elspeth Douglas is a woman with a mind of her own, which-as she herself says-is a blessing and a curse. She is determined to return to the battlefields of France to do her part ...and to find the man she has no right to love, no matter how far Cousin Kenneth may go to stop her. But before she can set things right with Alain, he goes missing and then Peter is gravely wounded. In a world full of terror and uncertainty, can the sweetness of love survive or will Elspeth's troubled heart become another casualty of this terrible war? A poignant, compelling tale brimming with adventure, danger, and love, The Walnut Tree is an enchanting holiday gift and a wonderful companion to Charles Todd's acclaimed Bess Crawford series.

A dangerous case with ties leading back to the battlefields of World War I dredges up dark memories for Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge in Hunting Shadows, a gripping and atmospheric historical mystery set in 1920s England, from acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Charles Todd. A society wedding at Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire becomes a crime scene when a man is murdered. After another body is found, the baffled local constabulary turns to Scotland Yard. Though the second crime had a witness, her description of the killer is so strange its unbelievable. Despite his experience, Inspector Ian Rutledge has few answers of his own. The victims are so different that there is no rhyme or reason to their deaths. Nothing logically seems to connect them-except the killer. As the investigation widens, a clear suspect emerges. But for Rutledge, the facts still don't add up, leaving him to question his own judgment. In going over the details of the case, Rutledge is reminded of a dark episode he witnessed in the war. While the memory could lead him to the truth, it also raises a prickly dilemma.To stop a murderer, will the ethical detective choose to follow the letter-or the spirit-of the law?

New York Times bestselling author Charles Todd takes readers into Scotland Yard detective Ian Rutledge's past-to his perplexing final case before the outbreak of World War I. On a fine summer's day in June, 1914, Ian Rutledge pays little notice to the assassination of an archduke in Sarajevo. An Inspector at Scotland Yard, he is planning to propose to the woman whom he deeply loves, despite intimations from friends and family that she may not be the wisest choice. To the north on this warm and gentle day, another man in love-a Scottish Highlander-shows his own dear girl the house he will build for her in September. While back in England, a son awaits the undertaker in the wake of his widowed mother's death. This death will set off a series of murders across England, seemingly unconnected, that Rutledge will race to solve in the weeks before the fateful declaration in August that will forever transform his world. As the clouds of war gather on the horizon, all of Britain wonders and waits.With every moment at stake, Rutledge sets out to right a wrong-an odyssey that will eventually force him to choose between the Yard and his country, between love and duty, and between honor and truth.

World War I Battlefield nurse Bess Crawford's career is in jeopardy when a murder is committed on her watch, in this absorbing and atmospheric historical mystery from New York Times bestselling author Charles Todd. Home on leave, Bess Crawford is asked to accompany a wounded soldier confined to a wheelchair to Buckingham Palace, where he's to be decorated by the King. The next morning when Bess goes to collect Wilkins, he has vanished. Both the Army and the nursing service hold Bess negligent for losing the war hero, and there will be an inquiry. Then comes disturbing word from the Shropshire police, complicating the already difficult situation: Wilkins has been spotted, and he's killed a man. If Bess is to save her own reputation, she must find Wilkins and uncover the truth. But the elusive soldier has disappeared again and even the Shropshire police have lost him. Suddenly, the moral implications of what has happened-that a patient in her charge has committed murder-become more important to Bess than her own future. She's going to solve this mysterious puzzle, but righting an injustice and saving her honor may just cost Bess her life.