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.
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.
No excerpt available.
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