Four young women are out rowing one fine day, in the north
coast of Cornwall, when they see a boat sinking with a
man aboard. They try to help him, but his wet clothes
make it hard to get him out of the water and one of the
ladies manages to strike him with an oar. A farmer
passing by sees what's going on and helps them. But then
he accuses them of trying to murder the poor man in the
water. Is it true what he is saying? Was it an attempted
murder concealed as a helping hand? Was someone, or all
of the women, on board trying to drown the man?
Inspector Ian Rutledge has to find out the truth as he
takes over the case from the previous inspector who died
of a heart attack. Ian is not glad to be back in
Cornwell; he has bad memories from previous cases there.
And when he goes to Cornwall he also discovers one
of the women accused of murder is someone he knows from
the past.
NO SHRED OF EVIDENCE is book 18 in the Inspector Ian
Rutledge series. I have only previously read the
first book in this series, but I had no problem getting
into this book. There are some mentioning of events from
previous books, but I don't think one needs to read
previous books to keep up with what's going on in NO SHRED
OF EVIDENCE.
Ian Rutledge is a WW1 veteran, and he suffered from shell
shock after the war. He is still not fully recovered from
it and he especially can't forget how he was forced to
execute one of his own men who refused to obey orders
during the war.
This case is a hard one; there are four young women
placed in house arrest who claim they are innocent,
and a man who is accusing them of attempted murder. There
is no evidence just word
against word. But it's
bad enough the young women could stand trial for it.
Ian Rutledge has to uncover the truth, but how to find
out the truth when there seem to be no other witnesses?
I found the case in NO SHRED OF EVIDENCE interesting,
because
despite that I thought they were innocent, I could not be
completely sure about it. One of the women could perhaps
have wanted the man dead, and then someone else gets
attacked. Is the attack linked to the case with the young
women or is it something unrelated? I could hardly stop
reading because I was desperate to know the
truth.
I like NO SHRED OF EVIDENCE very much. I particularly like
that I
couldn't figure out what was going on and had to find out
as Ian Rutledge uncovered
the truth to the case. That Ian Rutledge also knew one of
the suspects was a nice turn and his connection to her is
especially interesting. NO SHRED OF EVIDENCE is well-written, it never
gets boring and I never got impatient with the pacing. I
think the Inspector Ian
Rutledge series is perfect for anyone who likes
to read historical mystery books set after WW1.
In this absorbing new entry in the acclaimed New York
Times
bestselling series, Scotland Yard’s Ian Rutledge is
caught
up in a twisted web of vengeance and murder.
On the north coast of Cornwall, an apparent act of mercy
is
repaid by an arrest for murder. Four young women have
been
accused of the crime. A shocked father calls in a favor
at
the Home Office. Scotland Yard is asked to review the
case.
However, Inspector Ian Rutledge is not the first
Inspector
to reach the village. Following in the shoes of a dead
man,
he is told the case is all but closed. Even as it takes
an
unexpected personal turn, Rutledge will require all his
skill to deal with the incensed families of the accused,
the
grieving parents of the victim, and local police eager to
see these four women sent to the infamous Bodmin Gaol.
Then
why hasn’t the killing stopped?
With no shred of evidence to clear the accused, Rutledge
must plunge deep into the darkest secrets of a wild,
beautiful and dangerous place if he is to find a killer
who
may—or may not—hold the key to their fate.
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