Inspector Ian Rutledge #6
A Fearsome Doubt
In 1912 Ian 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 forgotten.
Now, seven years later, that grim trial returns in the form of Ben Shaw’s widow Nell, bringing Rutledge evidence she is convinced will prove her husband’s innocence. It’s a belief fraught with peril, threatening both Rutledge’s professional stature and his faith in his judgment. But there is a darker reason for Rutledge’s reluctance. Murder brings him back to Kent where, days earlier, he’d 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 knew—unwittingly compete with the grieving Nell Shaw. They’ll demand more 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 Shaw’s past is a tangle of unsettling secrets that may or may not be true. Rutledge must walk a tortuous line between two murderers...one reaching out to ruin him, the other driven to destroy him.
384 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1,2002
This edition
- Format
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384 pages, Mass Market Paperback
- Published
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July 29, 2003 by Bantam
- ISBN
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9780553583175
- ASIN
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0553583174
- Language
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English
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Ian Rutledge
Scotland Yard Inspector before and after World War I. British Army Lieutenant then Captain in France from 1914-1918. Lives in London before and after WW1....
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Melinda Crawford
Raised in India in a military family, she and her mother survived the Siege of Lucknow. As a child, she became something of a heroine during the Great Indian Mutiny of 1857. Married a military man; now widowed, living in Dover, Kent. ‘Aunt of Bess Crawfor...
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Cs Bowles
Chief Superintendent at Scotland Yard in London. Born a commoner, he is jealous of Rutledge for his educated background. His protégé is Inspector Mickelson. Bowles suffers a heart attack in The Confession and is replaced by CS Markham...
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Frances Rutledge
Ians sister who lives alone in their parents home in London. Ian lived there too until she turned 25, the age at which their parents stated she would inherit the house....
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Nell Shaw
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