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A review by pgchuis
The Red Door by Charles Todd
2.0
2.5* rounded down.
This is the twelfth in the Inspector Rutledge series, but the only one I have read. The crime-solving part of the novel stood alone well, but the whole Hamish voice and the Meredith Channing "courtship" and indeed most of the characters who appeared in chapter 3 and were never seen again called for a prior knowledge I did not have.
The story concerns Florence (whose husband, Peter Teller, never returned from WWI), who is found murdered, and then the mysterious disappearance and reappearance of a man called Walter Teller. Rutledge tries to work out who Florence's shady husband really was and why Walter went missing. There are also the stabbings committed by the bloodthirsty Billy, which weren't related at all and were a complete distraction.
I thought the writing itself was good, but it was one of those stories where all the characters spend the whole time lying to the police, which drive me mad. The mystery of what happened was mostly good too, although the very core was left as "we will never know", which was frustrating. The final twist was perhaps a twist too far and the whole story was a bit more "cozy" than I really like.
Mostly skimmed.
This is the twelfth in the Inspector Rutledge series, but the only one I have read. The crime-solving part of the novel stood alone well, but the whole Hamish voice and the Meredith Channing "courtship" and indeed most of the characters who appeared in chapter 3 and were never seen again called for a prior knowledge I did not have.
The story concerns Florence (whose husband, Peter Teller, never returned from WWI), who is found murdered, and then the mysterious disappearance and reappearance of a man called Walter Teller. Rutledge tries to work out who Florence's shady husband really was and why Walter went missing. There are also the stabbings committed by the bloodthirsty Billy, which weren't related at all and were a complete distraction.
I thought the writing itself was good, but it was one of those stories where all the characters spend the whole time lying to the police, which drive me mad. The mystery of what happened was mostly good too, although the very core was left as "we will never know", which was frustrating. The final twist was perhaps a twist too far and the whole story was a bit more "cozy" than I really like.
Mostly skimmed.