Rutledge has a stalker. Inspector Ian Rutledge is spending New Year's Eve with his sister and a few of her friends. Just as the clairvoyant, Meredith Channing (who was invited to the dinner) begins her seance, Rutledge is summoned by his boss. As he walks to his car he finds a spent cartridge from a machine gun in his path. Was it purposely left there or had it accidentally fallen there from a passerby?

When word comes from a village that Constable Hensley has been shot in the back with an arrow, Rutledge heads to investigate. It seems that Hamish is not the only passenger along for the ride, two more casings are found in Rutledge's car.

There are mysteries within mysteries in this novel. Another good tale of murder and mayhem!

I love these books about a Scotland Yard inspector haunted by World War I as well as his actions during the war. I thought I had this one figured out, two different ways!, but, no. Totally surprised by the ending. But a surprise ending is the least of the intriguing factors for me. What most intrigues me is the really good writing. I am also fascinated that these books are written by a mother/son team. Would love to ask them lots and lots of questions about how in the world they do this....

It is New Year’s Eve in London in 1919. Ian Rutledge accompanies his sister Frances to a celebratory dinner at Maryanne Browning’s home responding to her urging to become more involved in life after his return from the war. He is more inclined to stay home, but realizes his sister is right and he must make an effort to reconnect with friends and pick up on his old life. Following dinner however, he begins to feel panicky when he learns that the after dinner entertainment will be a séance conducted by popular medium Mrs. Meredith Channing. He already knows what it is like to commune with the dead, haunted by the voice Corporal Hamish Macleod, the man he was forced to execute on the battlefields of France during the battle of the Somme. He fears others may learn what he has been trying to keep secret, that the voice of Hamish is his constant companion, with him every day reminding him what he did in the war. Using pressing business at Scotland Yard as an excuse, he makes a hasty retreat before the séance begins and finds an empty brass shell on the steps outside the Browning’s home. It is a cartridge casing from a Maxim machine gun, a common item found on the battlefields during the war but certainly out of place on a residential street in London. When he picks it up he notices the metal surface has been carefully cut with swirls and loops in the form of delicate poppies. He has no idea what it is doing there but pockets the casing and continues on his way.

He discovers more shell casings placed where he is intended to find them as he heads out to take up his next case, the murder of a police constable in the remote village of Dudlington. He wonders if they are connected in some way to the years he spent in the trenches in France, senses he is being stalked and takes the shell casings as a message to be on his guard. It is just one more thing, another nagging threat to his sanity. When he arrives in the small village where Constable Hemsley had been shot in the back by someone using a bow and arrow, he finds the villagers uncomfortable with his presence.

Rutledge learns that Hemsley was found dying in Firth Wood, an area by the village believed to be haunted. Legend says it was the scene of a massacre in Saxon times, when villagers of the small town were herded into the forest and slaughtered. People believe the place is haunted with their ghosts and those superstitions have strengthened over time. It is considered an evil place and villagers go out of their way to avoid it. Hemsley, critically injured and now in hospital, insists he was not in the woods when he was shot but was riding his bicycle on the main road. He tells Rutledge he has no idea who shot him or why they would do such a thing, although he appears in no hurry to help with the investigation.

Dudlington is not a friendly village and Rutledge finds he is not welcome at the local inn nor is anyone willing to talk with him. As he tries to push forward with his investigation he comes to believe the attack on the constable is connected with the disappearance and presumed death of a young girl named Emma Mason, a beautiful teenager who disappeared without a trace a few years before. But he has difficulty getting information. The villagers hold secrets they wish to keep buried, are reluctant to talk to him and seem to obstruct every move he makes.

During Rutledge’s trip to Dudlington and his stay there, he experiences several attempts on his life. It appears the shell casings are connected with a stalker who knows every move he makes and is determined to kill him. Along with this worry Rutledge continues to wonder why Chief Constable Bowles sent him to Dudlington in the first place. Why did he not let the locals take care of this investigation on their own? He knows there is a past connection between Hemsley and Bowles as Hemsley was one of Bowles’ men when he was an Inspector in Westminster. Rutledge wonders if it is connected in any way to the attempt on Hemsley’s life.

The author Charles Todd is actually the mother/son writing team of Mary and Charles Todd. They continue to turn out historical novels that capture the dark and moody period following The Great War when the long shadow it cast still hovers over both the living and the dead. The voice of Hamish, who has been Rutledge's tormentor, is so real that Rutledge speaks to him out loud when they are alone and feels his presence in the back seat of his motorcar. Rutledge even worries about the ghost's well-being when they travel together, especially if someone is using the back seat. Their relationship appears to be evolving with Hamish quickly becoming Rutledge’s imaginary partner and protector, taking the part of Watson to Rutledge’s Sherlock Holmes. He makes observations, warns Rutledge of impending danger, asks interesting questions and voices his disapproval when he feels it is warranted. Readers are beginning to sense things changing with Rutledge gaining a few steps on his journey to normalcy and Hamish softening his attitude toward the man he has harassed over so many months.

The writing team also draws great characters and in this novel there are two who stand out. The first is Meredith Channing, the beautiful woman who conducted the séance at the Browning home in London and later followed Rutledge to Dudlington. She is independent, self-assured and has the uncanny ability to make people like her, but she also has knowledge that by rights she should not have. Rutledge believes he can read most people but try as he might, he cannot fathom her. She seems to see things others do not and may ultimately provide a future romantic interest. The other fascinating character is Mary Ellison, Emma Mason’s grandmother, a woman with an impeccable reputation. Her family once owned all the land around the village but in her later years Mrs. Ellison barricaded herself in her own private world, struggling to endure the loss of her only child and grandchild and refusing to understand she may have driven them both away with her strong sense of propriety, family duty and pride in her family name.

Rutledge is flummoxed as the investigation goes on and the mounting pile of evidence he collects appears to go nowhere. Then suddenly the disconnected bits and pieces gradually begin to make more sense. The mystery is filled with intrigue, envy, revenge and murder, meticulously plotted to keep readers guessing until close to the end, when everything falls into place. It gives readers one more solid addition to the series.

Dang, I love these books.

I'm not even entirely sure why. I can see the flaws in them easily enough, but for whatever reason they have completely captured my fancy. I love Ian Rutledge, the setting is fantastic, they're easy to listen to....they're just superb.

This one has a couple mysteries going on. First is the mystery of the shotgun shells that keep showing up, then someone takes a shot at Rutledge. Ian is sure someone is playing games with him, trying to shake him and make him nervous. He can't imagine who it is that has it out for him, but he's sure it's related to the war.

Next is the mystery of who shot the sergeant in the field with an arrow. Rutledge is dispatched to a small town (like always!) to figure it out. While he's there he stumbles upon the mystery of the missing village girl and is sure it's somehow related to the arrow incident.

This one was pretty twisty, and I honestly couldn't figure it out. I'm not sure how I feel about Mrs. Channing (name?). She's a medium that Rutledge encounters at a party. For some reason she worries about him due to the shotgun shells (which he'd asked her if she knew anything about it) and comes to the village. A lot of the women act ridiculous in this series, throwing random fits, and getting in high dudgeon for no reason, but even when they don't act that way, I'm biased against them. I think I want to keep Ian all to myself. :D

In the end, it's the crazy old grandmother who killed everyone in her family and some wackadoodle soldier who thought Ian was an officer and wanted to punish him for the war. That guy got away when he accidentally killed the old woman while trying to kill Ian. I was furious with that guy for going after poor Ian.

Beware Frith's Woods, so say the folks of Dudlington. And while you are at it, what casts a long shadow?

I've read up to this #8 in the series. Its an interesting time, post WWI in the UK. Our hero is war vet suffering PTSD which is personified by dead Scotsman Hamish who takes up space in Rutledge's brain and back seat of car. I'm not always certain how I feel about Hamish....
This title has lots of narratives---a former London policeman now in Northamptonshire (where the first of my family's emigres lived so kind of a connection) shot in the back with an arrow while in the deep of a locally feared woods. That's one. Rutledge is sent to investigate. But then there is a stalker leaving Rutledge a gift of rifle shells. A warning? A threat? And then there's the 5 year old mystery of a young girl from this very same village.

This is the first of the Inspector Ian Rutledge books I have read and, although I liked it, I think I should have read the ones preceding it to get an overall understanding of the main character. Throughout the book, Inspector Ian Rutledge, tormented by his time in the trenches in WWI, holds conversations with the spirit of Hamish (who I assume was his batman) who died in that war....but circumstances surrounding his death are sketchy and appear to be somehow the fault of Rutledge. That may be have been explained in the earlier books.
That aside, the story is well done as Rutledge finds an engraved cartridge casing identical to the ones he saw in the war......and when others appear, he wonders if he is being stalked. He is then sent to an isolated village to investigate the shooting of a constable with an arrow (!) and finds himself involved in more than he bargained for.....and the cartridges continue to show up. There are plots within plots and are all tied together rather tidily in the end. Enjoyable but sometimes puzzling.

Rutledge has a stalker. His awareness begins as he leaves a New Year's Eve party in 1919 when he finds a machine gun shell that has been etched with a poppy design.

His WWI experiences in the trenches haunt him in this series when he, like so many others, returns home broken and feeling guilty at having survived. Nevertheless, he is determined to continue his work at Scotland Yard and make a new life for himself.

When a constable in Dudlington, Northamptonshire, is shot in the back with an arrow, Inspector Rutledge is sent to investigate. That investigation leads him to probing other crimes, in addition to the stalker playing cat and mouse with him, a deadly game to say the least. The small village produces ample suspects, secrets, and suppressed hostilities; enough to make the reader unable to put the book down.

It's difficult enough to investigate crimes without doing it with a Scottish ghost by your side at every moment. But such is the challenge Inspector Ian Rutledge lives through each day following his return from the trenches at Sommes during WWI. It also seems someone is stalking him, leaving him empty shell casings, taking a shot at him while he's driving, even perhaps trying to run him down in a stolen lorry.

Or do the attempts on his life and shell casing mean something else instead? Is he being warned away from discovering the body of a missing teenage girl in Dudlington? And who was responsible for the rector's fall and shooting Constable Henley in the back with a poisoned arrow? With close-mouthed villagers and an evil presence in the nearby woods, there are long shadows indeed dogging Inspector Rutledge's every step as he tries to make sense of the plots, mysteries and secrets he's only starting to uncover.

2.5 stars. I DNF this book when it had 14 pages to finish. Scribd.com's English text, and translation for Portuguese + audio in English from Google Translate. Continuing the Project Learning English by myself.

A Long Shadow (Charles Todd) is a great who-dun-it. Set in 1919 England post war, inspector Ian Rutledge is sent to find out who was shot (with a bow and arrow in the woods). He then comes across another mystery...the disappearance of a young girl three years prior. As he tries to solve both cases, he also finds he is being stalked. Casings from a gun are being left for him, a trail of spent bullets and a reminder of a haunting war. Not to mention his own personal demons from the war, which are about to drive him mad, literally. A great read for those who love a murder & mystery.

In the previous novel, I had gotten fatigued with the somewhat desperate circumstances into which EVERY ASSIGNMENT thrust our man Rutledge. Fortunately, after 7 novels set in 1919 (god, what an exhausting year!), the novel is set in the month of January 1920, with Rutledge seeming to be better able to assert himself, both in relation to his PTSD as he functions in his job, AND in relation to the specific manifestation of this condition, Hamish the executed soldier who accompanies Rutledge in all circumstances. Todd tones down the direct supernatural interventions and allows Rutledge to navigate in some decidedly treacherous waters. And Todd introduces a new character, a woman who just might be Rutledge's ideal soul mate (an accurate use of an otherwise nauseating term), if he could ever let down his guard. So more novels ahead.