The best-known stories in the Charles Todd collection feature Inspector Ian Rutledge of Scotland Yard. As a shell-shocked WW1 veteran, Rutledge is haunted by wartime memories of having shot a fellow soldier before being buried alive with the man’s corpse by an explosion. As he returns to his duties as a Scotland Yard inspector working to solve murders, Rutledge must live with his guilt, which is personified by the soldier, Hamish. Hamish is a voice inside his head that Rutledge must keep secret to avoid the social stigma which accompanied psychological, mental, or emotional issues in the early 20th century. Further complicating the issue is a superior who wants to see Rutledge removed from duty.
Titles for the entire Ian Rutledge series runs in consecutive order of publication.
Ian Rutledge Short Story Collection
A Guid Solder
Set during Inspector Rutledge’s time in the Great War, Charles Todd’s short story introduces a born killer.
It’s World War I, and young Glaswegian Dougal Kerr is a new recruit in the British army. Dougal has no family and no past, but his easygoing demeanor belies his cheerless upbringing. There’s only one thing that gives Ian Rutledge pause: Dougal is very good at killing, and he doesn’t seem to mind it at all – in fact he seems to relish it. In wartime, how does one tell the difference between a remorseless killer and a guid soldier?
The Guid Solder is available online in eBook form.
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Cold Comfort
It’s 1915, and the Great War is barely six months old. Lieutenant Ian Rutledge has left behind his career at Scotland Yard and is now serving in France. He’s temporarily with the sappers—men digging underground tunnels toward the German lines to set off explosions under the enemy trenches. In his sector, Rutledge and his men set their charges and get out of the tunnel as fast as possible. But the charges don’t go off. It’s madness to go back down and find out why, but Rutledge and Private Williams volunteer. They barely make it back before the tunnel blows up. Rutledge suspects that two Welsh miners cut the fuse too long, even though they deny it.
Then Williams confides to Rutledge that these same men, half-brothers Taffy Jones and Aaron Lloyd, have tried before this to kill him. And they’re determined enough to risk other men’s lives as well. Rutledge discovers in the midst of a raging battle that murder has made its way to France, and he must find a way to prove it. (This novella can also be found in the anthology Tales: Short Stories Featuring Ian Rutledge and Bess Crawford.)
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The Kidnapping
Published 2010, The Kidnapping is an original short story by New York Times bestselling author Charles Todd, where Scotland Yard inspector Ian Rutledge must put all his detecting skills to use to solve a baffling case in a short period of time.
A man and his young daughter were returning home from a dinner party when three men appeared from out of nowhere and grabbed the girl. Rutledge has to act quickly to find the child and bring the surprising culprits to justice. It should be noted that this is the one case that Hamish does not make an appearance.
The standalone copy of the Kidnapping also includes excerpts from three other Ian Rutledge mysteries: A Lonely Death, The Red Door, and A Pale Horse. This short story is also included in Charles Todd’s anthology Tales: which also features a few other short stories with Ian Rutledge and Bess Crawford.