A fatal lie

Todd's Ian Rutledge series continues to display both quality and consistency in this twenty-third installment. In 1921, Rutledge, a Scotland Yard inspector, is sent off to a small village in Wales to determine the identity of a man who died in a fall and may have been murdered. Rutledge accomplishes that, but knowing who the dead man was doesn't help much in figuring out who killed him and why. Regular series readers will note that Ian seems more tortured than usual by his internal companion, Hamish MacLeod. Hamish died by firing squad in WWI, at the orders of his commanding officer, Rutledge, and now he lives inside Ian's head. Ian knows that when he hears Hamish's voice now, it isn't really Hamish talking, but that doesn't keep Ian from worrying about the state of his mind. As usual, Hamish makes only brief appearances in the book, but his presence looms large over the whole story. He's like a filter: everything Rutledge says and does is colored by guilt over having caused the death of a good man. A must-read for series fans.

Bestseller Todd's so-so 23rd novel featuring Scotland Yard's Insp. Ian Rutledge (after 2020's A Divided Loyalty) takes Rutledge, in the spring of 1921, to Wales after a boy's fishing outing at a canal snags a man's corpse. The body is unidentified, but a tattoo suggests the dead man belonged to one of the Bantam Battalions, units of undersized soldiers who served in WWI. When a label in the cadaver's shirt yields the name of the woman who special-ordered it, Ruth Milford, Rutledge travels to Shropshire to seek her out. Ruth initially lies about her identity, but the information she reluctantly provides leads Rutledge to believe it was her husband, Samuel, who died. The Milfords' baby daughter, Tildy, disappeared a year earlier, snatched from her carriage when Ruth briefly left her alone, and is believed dead, and Rutledge pursues the theory that Samuel's murder is somehow connected with that earlier tragedy. The psychic scars of Rutledge's WWI trauma are underplayed, and the whodunit plot generates little suspense. Hopefully, Todd (a mother-son writing team) will return to form next time. Agent: Lisa Gallagher, DeFiore and Co. (Feb.)

Chief Superintendent Markham of Scotland Yard is not happy with Inspector Ian Rutledge, so he sends him to northern Wales to get him as far away from London as possible. A man's body was found in the River Dee, in early spring 1921. When Rutledge arrives, he realizes the man was pushed from the top of the aqueduct. However, no one admits to recognizing the victim. Rutledge traces him to a small community where he finds the man's widow, Ruth Milford, running a pub. Sam Milford was supposedly traveling to work with vendors, but Rutledge discovers that the couple's three-year-old daughter, Tildy, went missing a year earlier, and he suspects that Sam was looking for her. Rutledge uncovers a much more intricate case than he expected, with women and lawyers who lie and keep secrets. As he travels across Wales looking for answers, he encounters danger, violence, and cover-ups that lead to more murders. VERDICT Following A Divided Loyalty, the latest in the series is a complicated investigation that bogs down halfway through as Rutledge chases too many lies and missing people. Despite the slow pace, fans of the series will want Todd's latest historical mystery.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN