Two years after the Great War, things are returning slowly
to normalcy in Great Britain. Five schoolboys, looking for
mischief after dark, find more than they bargained for when
they stumble across a body in the ruins of Fountains Abbey.
The man is wearing a cloak and a strange mask (which is
later revealed to be a wartime gas mask). Swearing each
other to secrecy, they vow never to speak of what they found
or what they were doing there late at night.
Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge is called in by the War
Office to do a quiet search for one of their own near
Uffington. Nothing official, just a look-see for a misplaced
scientist. This is complicated by the fact that no
information is given other than the man's name, Gaylord
Partridge, and his address. When nothing of value is learned
after a couple of days, Rutledge returns to London, seeing
no point in twiddling his thumbs. Then Rutledge is sent to
the small village of Elsthorpe, and the ruins of Fountains
Abbey, to see if the local police are railroading an
innocent man for murder. What Rutledge finds out indicates
possible ties to his other mysterious case.
When more deaths occur shortly after the first, Rutledge
knows there's more to these two quaint villages than meets
the eye. Are the ensuing deaths related to the first? What
secrets are the residents of the Tomlin Cottages hiding? And
is one of the secrets important enough to kill for?
I did have some trouble keeping straight all of the
residents of the Tomlin Cottages. Although it's a mere nine
people who reside there, only three really stood out to me
as initially memorable and not requiring me to page back
through the story. The author has written a compelling, yet
disturbing mystery set in post-WWI England. There are
definite parallels to modern police work, where a
detective's tunnel vision can lead to an innocent party's
imprisonment or even execution. Rutledge is a man who is
fighting his own demons even as he fights for truth and
justice. A PALE HORSE will appeal to fans of historical
mysteries who desire a definite British flavor.
In the ruins of Yorkshire's Fountains Abbey lies the body of
a man wrapped in a cloak, the face covered by a gas mask.
Next to him is a book on alchemy, which belongs to the
schoolmaster, a conscientious objector in the Great War. Who
is this man, and is the investigation into his death being
manipulated by a thirst for revenge?
Meanwhile, the
British War Office is searching for a missing man of their
own, someone whose war work was so secret that even Rutledge
isn't told his real name or what he did.
The search
takes Rutledge to Berkshire, where cottages once built to
house lepers stand in the shadow of a great white horse cut
into the chalk hillside. The current inhabitants of the
cottages are outcasts, too, hiding from their own pasts. Who
among them is telling the truth about their neighbors and
who is twisting it?
Here is a puzzle requiring all
of Rutledge's daring and skill, for there are layers of lies
and deception, while a ruthless killer is determined to hold
on to freedom at any cost. And the pale horse looming
overhead serves as a reminder that death is never finished
with anyone, least of all the men who fought in the trenches
of France.
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