Since the Great War’s end, Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge has suffered from shell shock, with only two constants to sustain him: his police work and his sister, Frances. Now Frances is married, and Rutledge cannot shake a deepening sense of loss. Unable to sleep, Rutledge drives out of London into the countryside. He’s jolted from his memories when his headlamps pick out a motorcar stopped in the road. Stand-ing next to the vehicle is a woman in evening dress, with blood on her hands and a dead man at her feet. She swears she didn’t kill Stephen Wentworth—that a stranger fired a single shot before vanishing into the night. Rutledge is asked to take on the case, but when he probes the victim’s background, the Inspector discovers that Wentworth’s life was shrouded in mystery. His estranged family call him a murderer. But who did Wentworth kill? When a second suspicious death occurs, the evidence
suggests a predator is on the loose. But where is he?

Portrait

Charles Todd is the New York Times bestselling author of the Inspector Ian Rutledge mysteries, the Bess Crawford mysteries, and two stand-alone novels. A mother-and-son writing team, Caroline passed away in August 2021 and Charles lives in Florida.