A review by megmcardle
Wings of Fire: An Inspector Ian Rutledge Mystery by Charles Todd

4.0

Charles Todd's Inspector Ian Rutledge is one of those great characters of British crime fiction. He fought in the trenches of WWI France, and came back a shattered man, carrying the guilt of what he had seen in the war. The twist is that his guilt takes form as a very convincing delusion. Rutledge hears the voice of a man who died under his command. This voice, a Scottish officer called Hamish, serves as Rutledge's conscience. It is also the voice of his intuition, which he fears he lost in the war. I love the setting of between-the-wars England. So much devastation and loss, but people had to try and move on. In Wings of Fire, Rutledge investigates several suspicious deaths, including that of a famous poet. He always seems to be sent on the cases that are politically sensitive, and indeed there are hints that his Scotland Yard superior knows his weakness and is hoping he will fail. Rutledge was a huge fan of the poet, who he knew as O.A. Manning. No one realized until her death in an apparent double suicide that the poet was a woman, a spinster living in a small village. When she died, in a strange pact with her half-brother, Rutledge must find out the family's secrets. They have plenty, and I enjoyed following Rutledge's investigation. The author evokes life in a small English village very convincingly, and you are always involved emotionally with the tormented Rutledge.