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A review by llynn66
The Red Door by Charles Todd
3.0
Fellow readers, I am OCD about reading series in order. I want to meet the characters as they introduce themselves and then see them develop and evolve over time. I want to re-acquaint myself with them in each new instalment, like keeping in touch with a very enjoyable friend who I only see once every year or so.
But I was really pressed for a quick new read recently, between library reserves and had to make a hasty grab off the new book shelf. This cover intrigued me, so I broke my rule and read a mystery out of order.
It has proven fortuitous. The Ian Rutledge series has, thus far, escaped me. Yet it contains all the elements I enjoy and wraps them into a very competently written story...at least in the example of The Red Door. Take a British setting between the wars, add a detective haunted by the tragedies of his own past (in this case the scars of the Great War), mix in a neurotic aristocratic family with dark secrets and, voila! This reader is well satisfied.
But I was really pressed for a quick new read recently, between library reserves and had to make a hasty grab off the new book shelf. This cover intrigued me, so I broke my rule and read a mystery out of order.
It has proven fortuitous. The Ian Rutledge series has, thus far, escaped me. Yet it contains all the elements I enjoy and wraps them into a very competently written story...at least in the example of The Red Door. Take a British setting between the wars, add a detective haunted by the tragedies of his own past (in this case the scars of the Great War), mix in a neurotic aristocratic family with dark secrets and, voila! This reader is well satisfied.