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kathydavie's review
4.0
Fifteenth in the Inspector Ian Rutledge historical mystery series revolving around a Scotland Yard inspector battling his own demons from World War I.
My Take
For the most part, I was dissatisfied with this story's events. The clues that Rutledge pulled together seemed bogus, as if invented to fit the story. And part of me wonders if I'm feeling this way simply because I can't stand the new character's, Markham's, approach. Otherwise, I enjoyed Todd's usual descriptive expertise in setting the manners and scenery of a 1920s England.
I don't understand the point of chapter one in this. Okay, it introduces us to Matthew Traynor, but how does it relate to the story otherwise? Teasers about Meredith Channing with a quick encounter with former Chief Inspector Cummins. Bowles is still out from his heart attack; too bad, it wasn't fatal.
For the artists, most of the story takes place in Constable country. Makes me want to visit...
It's a lot of back-and-forth and twisty turns with no one---especially that sister!---wanting to give one scrap more information than necessary. Combine that with that tidy-up-by-yesterday attitude, and it's a disaster.
I have to wonder why Rutledge didn't check out the new garden beds… I also wonder if Belford is part of Rutledge's future.
Rutledge does a very fine balancing act of following Markham's orders and his own conscience; he kept me wondering at times.
Oh, at last, a proper pedaling! I was beginning to wonder when I kept finding the curate peddling along.
The Story
A body is dumped on a nice street in London. One for which no identification can be established, although he looks suspiciously like a missing person no one has yet missed.
The Characters
Inspector Ian Rutledge is with Scotland Yard and using the work to keep his own demons at bay. Hamish MacLeod is one of them. A ghost of the man Ian ordered shot on the battlefield. Frances Rutledge is the sister who worries over him. Peter Lockwood was an airman in the war and at school with Ian before that. She's considering saying yes to his marriage proposal. Dr. Fleming is the man who treated Ian when he got back from the war.
Scotland Yard
Sergeant Gibson used to connive with Rutledge, but now seems to be hunkering down under the rules. Sergeant Fielding is quite good at ferreting out information. Acting Chief Superintendent Joel Markham is an import from Yorkshire. Doesn't seem the right choice for so many reasons. Not the least of which is he's much too interested in closing cases, but not closing them with accuracy. He's the type of cop who gives people reason to not cooperate. Edgar Billings is hunting for someone.
The French family
Howard French is the late grandfather and notable for the watches he gave his son, Laurence, and son-in-law, David Traynor, as well as his dipping his wick outside his marriage. Laurence's oldest, Michael, was killed in the war; Lewis, the younger son, now runs the London branch and switches between their country home in Essex and the London house. Agnes French is the bitchy sister and she lives at the house in Stratford St. Hilary in Essex. Nan is the maid who has been with her forever. Matthew Traynor, a grandson, runs the Madeira end of the firm.
Frederick Gooding is the senior clerk at the London Branch of French, French, and Traynor, Exporters. Simmons is the junior clerk.
Williams is the curate in Dedham. Mary Ellen Townsend is Lewis' fiancée;. Dr. Townsend is her pleased papa. Valerie Whitman is a previous fiancée...at secondhand; Gooding is her grandfather. Constable Brooks is the local man while retired Sergeant Terrill was on scene that night of the attack. Mr. Hayes---of Hayes and Hayes---is the French lawyer.
Galloway is the jeweler who feels he owes Rutledge. Belford is a bit too quick to deduce; Rutledge thinks he's MI5. Mr. MacFarland was the French family tutor back when Afonso Diaz stormed the house, angry over being cheated. Billy Harden is a nearsighted witness. Gerald Standish is one of those missing.
Mrs. Bennett and her husband believe they are doing ex-cons a favor by taking them in as servants on their estate. They can't afford staff anymore, and this is a much cheaper alternative. Dr. Burgess is a drunk, using alcohol to escape his own war demons, and no longer practices, except on the ex-cons. The ex-cons include Bob Rawlings working as a gardener with Diaz.
Baxter and Benjamin R. Waggoner are men in London with whom Rawlings is communicating.
The Cover
The cover is shades of brown, up close and underneath a wooden bridge with a stone tower at one end as the rain is pouring down. I'm guessing it's that confirming scene toward the end.
The title is Rutledge's biggest problem, finding that Proof of Guilt.
My Take
For the most part, I was dissatisfied with this story's events. The clues that Rutledge pulled together seemed bogus, as if invented to fit the story. And part of me wonders if I'm feeling this way simply because I can't stand the new character's, Markham's, approach. Otherwise, I enjoyed Todd's usual descriptive expertise in setting the manners and scenery of a 1920s England.
I don't understand the point of chapter one in this. Okay, it introduces us to Matthew Traynor, but how does it relate to the story otherwise? Teasers about Meredith Channing with a quick encounter with former Chief Inspector Cummins. Bowles is still out from his heart attack; too bad, it wasn't fatal.
For the artists, most of the story takes place in Constable country. Makes me want to visit...
It's a lot of back-and-forth and twisty turns with no one---especially that sister!---wanting to give one scrap more information than necessary. Combine that with that tidy-up-by-yesterday attitude, and it's a disaster.
I have to wonder why Rutledge didn't check out the new garden beds… I also wonder if Belford is part of Rutledge's future.
Rutledge does a very fine balancing act of following Markham's orders and his own conscience; he kept me wondering at times.
Oh, at last, a proper pedaling! I was beginning to wonder when I kept finding the curate peddling along.
The Story
A body is dumped on a nice street in London. One for which no identification can be established, although he looks suspiciously like a missing person no one has yet missed.
The Characters
Inspector Ian Rutledge is with Scotland Yard and using the work to keep his own demons at bay. Hamish MacLeod is one of them. A ghost of the man Ian ordered shot on the battlefield. Frances Rutledge is the sister who worries over him. Peter Lockwood was an airman in the war and at school with Ian before that. She's considering saying yes to his marriage proposal. Dr. Fleming is the man who treated Ian when he got back from the war.
Scotland Yard
Sergeant Gibson used to connive with Rutledge, but now seems to be hunkering down under the rules. Sergeant Fielding is quite good at ferreting out information. Acting Chief Superintendent Joel Markham is an import from Yorkshire. Doesn't seem the right choice for so many reasons. Not the least of which is he's much too interested in closing cases, but not closing them with accuracy. He's the type of cop who gives people reason to not cooperate. Edgar Billings is hunting for someone.
The French family
Howard French is the late grandfather and notable for the watches he gave his son, Laurence, and son-in-law, David Traynor, as well as his dipping his wick outside his marriage. Laurence's oldest, Michael, was killed in the war; Lewis, the younger son, now runs the London branch and switches between their country home in Essex and the London house. Agnes French is the bitchy sister and she lives at the house in Stratford St. Hilary in Essex. Nan is the maid who has been with her forever. Matthew Traynor, a grandson, runs the Madeira end of the firm.
Frederick Gooding is the senior clerk at the London Branch of French, French, and Traynor, Exporters. Simmons is the junior clerk.
Williams is the curate in Dedham. Mary Ellen Townsend is Lewis' fiancée;. Dr. Townsend is her pleased papa. Valerie Whitman is a previous fiancée...at secondhand; Gooding is her grandfather. Constable Brooks is the local man while retired Sergeant Terrill was on scene that night of the attack. Mr. Hayes---of Hayes and Hayes---is the French lawyer.
Galloway is the jeweler who feels he owes Rutledge. Belford is a bit too quick to deduce; Rutledge thinks he's MI5. Mr. MacFarland was the French family tutor back when Afonso Diaz stormed the house, angry over being cheated. Billy Harden is a nearsighted witness. Gerald Standish is one of those missing.
Mrs. Bennett and her husband believe they are doing ex-cons a favor by taking them in as servants on their estate. They can't afford staff anymore, and this is a much cheaper alternative. Dr. Burgess is a drunk, using alcohol to escape his own war demons, and no longer practices, except on the ex-cons. The ex-cons include Bob Rawlings working as a gardener with Diaz.
Baxter and Benjamin R. Waggoner are men in London with whom Rawlings is communicating.
The Cover
The cover is shades of brown, up close and underneath a wooden bridge with a stone tower at one end as the rain is pouring down. I'm guessing it's that confirming scene toward the end.
The title is Rutledge's biggest problem, finding that Proof of Guilt.
valefimbres's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
hoboken's review
2.0
I think they're putting the rut in Rutledge. I believe one reason this series has been so popular is that readers are interested in Ian Rutledge, but he's not getting anywhere--with his career, with women, with his war ghosts. His reactions to some of his more difficult situations in this book are implausible in my view, and his fellows at the Yard are pretty much ciphers. This series started out solid and has flattened. I'd like to see it round out again.
aoosterwyk's review
4.0
I was poking along in this book and it only seemed to take off in the second half. I miss Meredith Channing. Please bring her back! The Medeira wine industry seemed interesting and I would have liked to have learned more about it. I still love Ian Rutledge, but didn't care much about the rest of the characters in this one.
nicoleankenmann's review
4.0
Audiobook: 10h.25m.
A proper mystery story set shortly after WWI, we follow the movements of Inspector Ian Rutledge as he works to solve a murder.
While it is quite possible that this book gave readers enough information to solve the case, I latched onto an early red herring and was a little too distracted trying to prove my own theory to pick up the right hints later on.
Overall an interesting chapter in the fictional life of this officer. Looking forward to the next one.
A proper mystery story set shortly after WWI, we follow the movements of Inspector Ian Rutledge as he works to solve a murder.
While it is quite possible that this book gave readers enough information to solve the case, I latched onto an early red herring and was a little too distracted trying to prove my own theory to pick up the right hints later on.
Overall an interesting chapter in the fictional life of this officer. Looking forward to the next one.
weweresotired's review
2.0
See more reviews at Short & Sweet Reviews.
Proof of Guilt is the fifteenth book in the series of Inspector Ian Rutledge mysteries; however, like most long-running mystery series, it's possible to jump right in without having much, or any, previous knowledge of the series. That held true for this book for the most part, although there were some confusing aspects and I think I overall would have been more satisfied with it had I been a long-time reader. Rutledge, who fought in WWI, is still living with the after-effects, most of which are easy to understand, save for the occasional voice in his head belonging to a dead soldier named Hamish. This isn't explained at first so I thought I'd missed out on Hamish's introduction; it takes a few mentions of Hamish before the narration explains it. Also, there's very little time given over to physical description of Rutledge or other returning characters, so I spent the entire book not actually having a clear mental picture of the main character -- not a big deal for all readers, but it threw me for a bit of a loop.
That said, Proof of Guilt is a pretty standard crime procedural, with the added bonus fact that it takes place in England in the 1920s. There are a lot of different social habits and rules that had to be observed back then, and it was neat to see those in a mystery rather than a romance. I'm used to modern crime stories, so it was a nice change of pace to read something unfamiliar, even if 2013-me was flailing on the inside because of how different investigative procedures were in the 20s. I did a lot of hand flapping over spoliation of evidence and confidentiality and looking for evidence that fits your theory instead of looking at evidence in an unbiased way.
But, never mind that. This is a book with a lot of twists and turns, and just as Rutledge (and the reader) starts to think that he's got a handle on the crime he's investigating, several more angles pop up to complicate the matter. There are a lot of characters to keep straight, a lot of backstory, a lot of motives. Many characters have similar names, too, which makes it harder to keep up. I could have used a list of characters, like fantasy books have, so I could remember at any given time what role a character played in the story.
The book started off slow, and the first few chapters were a bit of a chore to get through, but the pace definitely picked up by the end. I was left a little unsatisfied by the ending as I felt like all the loose ends were not tied up, but I'm guessing they were left open to be addressed in future books. I'd be interested in going back and checking out earlier books in the series, especially to get more context and background on Rutledge. For being a crime/mystery novel, the book is very clean - there was no bad language that I could recall, no romance/love side plots, and though there are deaths in the book, they are never described in great detail.
Check out the Rafflecopter below to win a copy of this book for yourself! Open to US readers (or international readers who have an address in the US where they can receive mail) only.
Proof of Guilt is the fifteenth book in the series of Inspector Ian Rutledge mysteries; however, like most long-running mystery series, it's possible to jump right in without having much, or any, previous knowledge of the series. That held true for this book for the most part, although there were some confusing aspects and I think I overall would have been more satisfied with it had I been a long-time reader. Rutledge, who fought in WWI, is still living with the after-effects, most of which are easy to understand, save for the occasional voice in his head belonging to a dead soldier named Hamish. This isn't explained at first so I thought I'd missed out on Hamish's introduction; it takes a few mentions of Hamish before the narration explains it. Also, there's very little time given over to physical description of Rutledge or other returning characters, so I spent the entire book not actually having a clear mental picture of the main character -- not a big deal for all readers, but it threw me for a bit of a loop.
That said, Proof of Guilt is a pretty standard crime procedural, with the added bonus fact that it takes place in England in the 1920s. There are a lot of different social habits and rules that had to be observed back then, and it was neat to see those in a mystery rather than a romance. I'm used to modern crime stories, so it was a nice change of pace to read something unfamiliar, even if 2013-me was flailing on the inside because of how different investigative procedures were in the 20s. I did a lot of hand flapping over spoliation of evidence and confidentiality and looking for evidence that fits your theory instead of looking at evidence in an unbiased way.
But, never mind that. This is a book with a lot of twists and turns, and just as Rutledge (and the reader) starts to think that he's got a handle on the crime he's investigating, several more angles pop up to complicate the matter. There are a lot of characters to keep straight, a lot of backstory, a lot of motives. Many characters have similar names, too, which makes it harder to keep up. I could have used a list of characters, like fantasy books have, so I could remember at any given time what role a character played in the story.
The book started off slow, and the first few chapters were a bit of a chore to get through, but the pace definitely picked up by the end. I was left a little unsatisfied by the ending as I felt like all the loose ends were not tied up, but I'm guessing they were left open to be addressed in future books. I'd be interested in going back and checking out earlier books in the series, especially to get more context and background on Rutledge. For being a crime/mystery novel, the book is very clean - there was no bad language that I could recall, no romance/love side plots, and though there are deaths in the book, they are never described in great detail.
Check out the Rafflecopter below to win a copy of this book for yourself! Open to US readers (or international readers who have an address in the US where they can receive mail) only.
teuliano's review
5.0
Love the writing. Got a little confused with all the characters and the red herrings, but it held together. Love Rutledge!
knottyrambler's review
4.0
I thought this one dragged a bit, but overall another good book. I like to listen to these while gardening and housecleaning. Turns a chore fun.
abeth_parker's review
4.0
Another win for mother/son team, Charles Todd! This novel was full of twists and turns that kept me guessing. I even squeaked a bit in the dentist's waiting room when some of the clues came together. I love this series.
judyward's review
4.0
It's the summer of 1920 and Inspector Ian Rutledge is sent to investigate the apparent hit-and-run of an unidentified body in Chelsea. And yet, the body doesn't appear to have been dragged and all identifying evidence has been removed from the body except for a very expensive French watch. Circumstantial evidence points to the body being associated with a English firm producing the world's best Madeira wine and suspects abound. In this 15th in the Ian Rutledge series, the mother-son writing team of Charles Todd continue to explore the lingering aftershocks of World War I on the population of Europe and on Ian Rutledge specifically.