Synopses & Reviews
Hampton Regis is a small harbor town on the southern coast of England, a place with an ancient history but long since passed over by its larger neighbors. There, in the year after World War I has ended, a tragedy is in the making andndash; a woman's husband has been attacked and badly injured and the suspect, the man she loved before he left to go to war, has taken the wife and her maid as hostages. The desperate man, Stephen, threatens to kill the hostages unless the local police bring in a man he knew in the trenches andndash; Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge.
Rutledge, still struggling with his own demons from the war, fears that in stepping into the emotional struggle of these three people, he can't be objective. Their situation in a sense mirrors his own. As a result of Rutledge going off to fight, he too lost the woman he loved to another man.
If, as Stephen claims, he didn't try to kill his lover's husband, then who did? And what has happened in this little town that is worth killing for? Once again, Charles Todd has placed the tormented, yet brilliant policeman into a situation that, while it brings back his haunted past, must be solved before a killer strikes again.
Review
"The revelation of the culprit comes as a surprise owing to multiple suspects with potential motives, but it is Rutledge's tortured soul that will intrigue and engage readers most." Library Journal
Review
"Clues that would do Agatha Christie proud inexorably lead to the denouement, but Todd's fans will know better than to expect a happy ending." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Todd...incorporates touches of both Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie in this character-driven mystery, which builds smoothly but not simply to a climax that is likely to be a genuine surprise." Booklist
Synopsis
Summoned to a small harbor town by a former trenchmate who has been falsely accused of assaulting an ex-lover's husband, Scotland Yard inspector Ian Rutledge is reminded of an affair from his own past and is forced to investigate a bizarre coincidence.
Synopsis
Hampton Regis, a small harbor town on the southern coast of England, is a most unlikely place for violence. Yet, one spring morning, a man is found on the strand so severely beaten that he slips in and out of consciousness. The prime suspect? His wife's jilted lover, who served with Rutledge in the recently ended Great War but who left the Front under a cloud. Badly wounded, yes, but did someone also cover up cowardice?
Rutledge is called on to prove the innocence of a man he dislikes and distrusts. But the deadly triangle also stirs up memories of the woman Rutledge himself loved and lost when he went to France to fight. His doubts about the accused and himself only deepen when the victim of the beating mysteriously disappears, with no body to be found.
As the brilliant yet tormented detective discovers that he's not the only person seeing a reflection of tumultuous emotions in this case, he must confront the demons that threaten to overwhelm him and search out the truth. For in Hampton Regis hides a vicious killer who intends to let nothing and no one stand in the way.
Synopsis
“Full of suspense, surprises, and sympathetic characters.”
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Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel“No mystery series I can think of captures the sadness and loss that swept over England after World War I with the heartbreaking force of Charles Todds books about Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge.”
—Chicago Tribune
The remarkable Charles Todd has created one of the most unforgettable characters in mystery and crime fiction: Inspector Ian Rutledge, shell-shocked veteran of “the Great War.” A False Mirror is one of Todds most powerful novels, plunging his tormented protagonist into the center of a brutal crime that painfully echoes events in Rutledges own past. Poignant, evocative, and continually surprising, A False Mirror is further proof that Charles Todd is well deserving of the critical acclaim the Rutledge novels have earned; a New York Times bestselling author who belongs among the acknowledged masters of the genre, including P. D. James, Elizabeth George, Ruth Rendell, and Jacqueline Winspear.
About the Author
Charles Todd is the author of nine Ian Rutledge mysteries—A False Mirror, A Long Shadow, A Cold Treachery, A Fearsome Doubt, Watchers of Time, Legacy of the Dead, Search the Dark, Wings of Fire, and A Test of Wills—and one stand-alone novel. They are a mother-and-son writing team and live in Delaware and North Carolina, respectively.
Exclusive Essay
Read an exclusive essay by Charles Todd