Search the Dark (31 page)

Authors: Charles Todd

Tags: #Fiction, #Mystery & Detective, #Historical

BOOK: Search the Dark

12.08Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

Rutledge said, “No.” But he knew he would remember Aurore’s face and her stillness, and the French way she had of shrugging, whenever he thought of Jean. They were inextricably
linked, because he and Simon were linked. He could still see the pistol beside the chair, he could smell the powder and the blood.

There but for the grace of God go I … .

But Hamish said into the roar of the engine and the sound of the wind whispering through the open car, “Not now. Not yet.”

St. Martin’s Paperbacks Titles by Charles Todd

SEARCH THE DARK
WINGS OF FIRE

CRITICAL ACCLAIM FOR CHARLES TODD’S INSPECTOR IAN RUTLEDGE SERIES

SEARCH THE DARK

“I won’t soon forget author Charles Todd’s Ian Rutledge in SEARCH THE DARK.”

—
The Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Entertaining, well plotted and perfect for vacation reading.”

—
Lawton
(OK)
Constitution

“The third compelling Ian Rutledge mystery takes the sensitive and appealing Scotland Yard inspector, a former WWI officer, to the countryside of Dorset … [A] fine period mystery.”

—
Publishers Weekly

“A well-crafted historical.”

—
Library Journal

“SEARCH THE DARK continues in the fine tradition of its predecessors by serving up a complex, entertaining mystery as well as insight into the aftermath of war.”

—Harriet Klausner,
Painted Rock Reviews

“Sensitively written and intelligently plotted, SEARCH THE DARK is a magnificent story of the lost generation and the agonies they suffered. As compelling as a Hemingway novel, this book totally involves the reader in the characters and their fates. The tale is so intense and involving that you will close the book with a feeling of regret and a longing to find out what fate holds in store for Rutledge.”

—
Romantic Times
(4½ Stars)

WINGS OF FIRE

“[Todd wraps] his challenging plot, complex characters and subtle psychological insights in thick layers of atmosphere.”

—Marilyn Stasio,
The New York Times Book Review

“Fine writing. A spectacular conclusion that rejuvenates the cliché ‘It was a dark and stormy night.’”

—Washington Post Book World

“A strong mystery, filled with fine characterizations, a superb eye for Cornwall and for post World War I attitudes, and a wise and wily explanation of how some of us deal with guilt.”

—Robin Winks,
The Boston Globe

“Todd writes exceptionally about a time when people found not just meaning but healing in poetry, when intuition was viewed as kind of ‘second sight,’ and when everyone was stamped by war—not just the legless men, but also the women who lost their loves and so their futures.”

—
San Jose Mercury News

“Novelist Charles Todd now joins that growing little circle of American authors like Elizabeth George and Martha Grimes who have made themselves at home in the exclusive field of the British literary mystery.”

—The Buffalo News

“Todd’s writing is graceful and evocative of a bygone time and place.”—
The Miami Herald

“[Rutledge] makes a welcome return in the haunting WINGS OF FIRE … Thoughtful and evocative, Todd’s tale offers interesting, three-dimensional characters.”

—The Orlando Sentinel

“Splendid imagery, in-depth characterization, and glimpses of more than one wounded psyche: an excellent historical mystery.”—
Library Journal

“A brilliant return … Memorable characters, subtle plot twists, the evocative seaside setting and descriptions of architecture, the moors and the sea fully reward the attention this novel commands.”

—
Publishers Weekly
(starred review)

A TEST OF WILLS
named a
New York Times
Notable Book of the year and one of
Publishers Weekly’
s six best mysteries of the year

“Both a meticulously wrought puzzle and harrowing psychological drama about a shellshocked police inspector who investigates a murder.”

—The New York Times Book Review

“The emotional and physical carnage of World War I is used to remarkable effect in A TEST OF WILLS, an excellent new mystery and, one hopes, the first of a series.”

—Chicago Tribune

“Psychologically sophisticated, tautly written, and craftily plotted.”—
San Jose Mercury News

“Todd seems to have perfect pitch in his ability to capture the tenor and nuances of English country life with its clearly defined social strata. A TEST OF WILLS may on the surface be another whodunit, but Todd raises disturbing issues of war and peace that still confront us today.”

—Orlando Sentinel

“A newcomer returns us to the essential pleasures of the well-crafted puzzle in this debut, the absorbing story of a young British WWI veteran returning from the war to his job as a Scotland yard Inspector … Todd, an American, depicts the outer and inner worlds of his character with authority and sympathy as he closes in on his surprising—and convincing—conclusion.”

—
Publishers Weekly
(starred review)

“Strong, elegant prose; detailed surroundings and sound plotting characterize this debut historical … . Highly recommended.”

—
Library Journal

“The 20th century hasn’t happened in Upper Streetham, which seems to have been cast out of REBECCA, or in first-novelist Todd’s deeply old-fashioned storytelling, which eschews the slightest impropriety in favor of the patient subtlety and circumlocution that held readers in thrall 70 years ago. A feast for the like-minded.”

—Kirkus Reviews

SEARCH THE DARK

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

eISBN 9780312264673

First eBook Edition : January 2011

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 99-13786

ISBN: 0-312-97128-1

EAN: 80312-97128-1

St. Martin’s Press hardcover edition / May 1999

St. Martin’s Paperbacks edition / May 2000