A Long Shadow

Inspector Ian Rutledge, Book 8

By: Charles Todd

Narrated by: Samuel Gillies

Scotland Yard’s Inspector Ian Rutledge brought the Great War home with him, and its horrors haunt him still. On New Year’s Eve 1919, he finds a brass cartridge casing, similar to countless others he’d seen on the battlefield, on the steps of a friend’s house. Soon there are more, purposely placed where he is sure to discover them. Unexpectedly drawn away from London to a small Northamptonshire village, he investigates the strange case of a local constable shot with a bow and arrow in an allegedly spirit-infested wood. Here among the taciturn townsfolk, embroiled in a three-year-old mystery of a vanished young girl, Rutledge hopes to keep his own ghosts at bay. But his stalker has followed him. And now the emotionally shattered policeman walking the razor’s edge of sanity must somehow keep his balance long enough to discover who is tracking him...and why.

©2006 Charles Todd (P)2014 Recorded Books

Great series, good book

I like this series very much. A few of the previous books had problems, but none that kept me from continuing on.

This book had very few of those issues. It is interesting, had engaging characters and fewer of the tropes I dislike. The plot held my interest and the solving of the crime was well plotted.

I will definitely keep going with the series.

War Ghosts and Spirits in the Woods

Someone is tracking Inspector Rutledge, leaving shell casings where he is sure to find them. Already haunted by the Great War and his ever present companion, Hamish MacLeod, whom Rutledge sentenced to death for refusing to go into battle under his orders, Rutledge is more wary than ever. Sent to the small village of Dudlington to investigate the attack on Constable Hensley who was shot with an arrow in Frith's Woods. The locals say the woods are haunted, the site of a long ago Saxon massacre. While investigating the attack on Hensley, Rutledge learns of the disappearance of a young girl some three years earlier, which seems to be tied to the Hensley case. Atmospheric and gripping, A Long Shadow is an excellent listen, pulling you into life in the small village, where "outsiders" are not accepted . . . and Rutledge has a difficult time getting to the truth. But he doggedly pursues it, until he finds even more than he bargained for. Great entry to the series!

We had mixed feelings about the story

The story went too long. It had too many moving parts. The reader was good. The story had many interesting elements, but then many superfluous ones. It was impossible to keep track of all the characters and plots and so plots.

good story well told

enjoyed how the story was told with the aftermath and human effects of WWII as virtually a character in a itself and a leitmotif throughout.Added a very interesting and poignant element to the story.

Love the writing

The characters are so real you are surprised at what happens along the way. Very entertaining.