Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge, a former
soldier seeking to lay to rest the demons of his past in
the aftermath of World War I. But that past bleeds into
the present in a complex murder case that calls into
question his own honor...and the crimes committed in the
name of God, country, and righteous vengeance.
A Fearsome Doubt
In 1912 Ian Rutledge watched as a man was condemned to
hang for the murders of elderly women. Rutledge helped
gather the evidence that sent Ben Shaw to the gallows. And
when justice was done, Rutledge closed the door on the
case. But Shaw was not easily forgotten.
Now, seven years later, that grim trial returns in the
form of Ben Shaw’s widow Nell, bringing Rutledge evidence
she is convinced will prove her husband’s innocence. It’s
a belief fraught with peril, threatening both Rutledge’s
professional stature and his faith in his judgment. But
there is a darker reason for Rutledge’s reluctance. Murder
brings him back to Kent where, days earlier, he’d glimpsed
an all-too-familiar face beyond the leaping flames of a
bonfire. Soon an unexpected encounter revives the end of
his own war, as the country prepares for a somber
commemoration on the anniversary of the Armistice. To
battle the unsettled past and the haunted present at the
same time is an appalling mandate.
And the people around him? among them the attractive widow
of a friend, a remarkable woman who survived the Great
Indian Mutiny; a bitter, dying barrister; and a man whose
name he never knew—unwittinglycompete with the grieving
Nell Shaw. They’ll demand more than Rutledge can give,
unaware that he is already carrying the burden of shell
shock? and the voice of Hamish MacLeod, the soldier he was
forced to execute in the war. The killer in Marling is
surprisingly adept at escaping detection. And Ben Shaw’s
past is a tangle of unsettling secrets that may or may not
be true. Rutledge must walk a tortuous line between two
murderers...one reaching out to ruin him, the other driven
to destroy him.
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