Inspector Ian Rutledge Timeline
Many fans of our book series aspire to read every murder case Inspector Ian Rutledge pursued–in their proper chronological order. That said, the very first in the series, A Test of Wills (Book #1), published in 1994, is where you should begin.
Book # 1, A Test of Wills begins in June 1919, introducing the war-damaged Scotland Yard Inspector with PTSD named Ian Rutledge. After returning home to England, Rutledge has put his life back together and is thrown into a baffling murder case. Adding to the madness of what he had seen and experienced during the bloody 1916 Battle of the Somme, Rutledge must also learn to battle the ill spirit of one Corporal Hamish MacLeod, whose voice keeps emerging in his head.
For those interested in obtaining a better image of the demons that haunt Ian Rutledge’s mind we suggest the standalone novella The Piper (published in 2017). The Piper provides a back story of sorts about Hamish before the Great War (WW I) and his search for answers to a murder close to his home in Scotland.
If you are further intrigued by the turn of events that has shaped Inspector Rutledge’s life during the Great War, you will find the short stories Cold Comfort (published 2013), also available in the anthology Tales – published 2015), and A Guid Solder (published 2015 as an e-book), which take place in 1915 France.
Below, we provide the chronological timeline. Note there is a title or two that will be out of sync with the rest of the series’ stories and the dates on which the books were published.
Book # 2, Wings of Fire (published 1998) rolls right into a new case in July 1919 in Cornwall, Southern England, when Inspector Rutledge investigates the sudden deaths of three members of the same eminent family.
Book # 3, Search the Dark (published 1999) takes place in August 1919, Dorset, England during which a dead woman and two missing children, followed by a second murder, bring Rutledge’s quest to find answers up against both the locals and Londoners whose privileged positions and private passions work to prevent it.
Book # 4, Legacy of the Dead (published 2000) takes you to Scotland in September 1919 when Rutledge takes on a murder investigation involving a young mother accused of committing the crime. She turns out to be the former fiancée of Hamish MacLeod, whom Ian had killed during the war.
Book # 5, Watchers of Time (published 2001) moves the story line to October 1919 in the marshy Norfolk backwater village of Osterley, where Inspector Rutledge is on the case of a Catholic priest murdered days after receiving confession from a dying man.
Book # 6, A Fearsome Doubt (published 2002) takes you on a case that involves sending a man to the gallows in 1912 and back to Rutledge’s life in November 1919.
Book # 7, A Cold Treachery (published 2005) presents Rutledge as he faces off against one the most savage murders he has ever encountered, a cold-blooded killing of an entire family. The story takes place during a violent December blizzard that hits Westmorland.
Book # 8, A Long Shadow (published 2006) takes place in January 1920. Unexpectedly drawn away from London to a small Northamptonshire village, Rutledge investigates the strange case of a local constable shot with a bow and arrow in an allegedly spirit-infested wood. Here among the taciturn townsfolk, embroiled in a three-year-old mystery of a vanished young girl, he hopes to keep his own ghosts at bay.
Book # 9, A False Mirror (published 2007). Taking place in March 1920, Rutledge is sent posthaste to Hampton Regis to find answers as to why a man is nearly beaten to death and his wife taken hostage by his assailant.
Book # 10, A Pale Horse (published 2007) begins in April 1920 with a case on the bizarre side. A dead man is found in the ruins of Yorkshire’s Fountains Abbey wrapped in a cloak with his face covered by a gas mask and a book on alchemy laying next to him.
Book # 11, A Matter of Justice (published 2008). In May 1920 a successful, though much despised London businessman, is found savagely murdered in a medieval tithe barn on his estate in Somerset.
Book # 12, The Red Door (published 2009). During the onset of an English summer in June 1920, a woman savagely bludgeoned to death lies lifeless behind a door she had painted red to welcome her husband back from the Front two years prior. Only he never came home.
The Kidnapping (published 2010) is a short “who done it” story. 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. This short story includes excerpts from The Red Door, A Lonely Death, and A Pale Horse. It is available in eBook form as well as featured in the Charles Todd’ anthology Tales published in 2015.
Book # 13, A Lonely Death (published 2011) takes place in July 1920 when three men have been murdered in a Sussex village and Scotland Yard has been called in to investigate. With few clues to go on and the pressure building, Rutledge must gamble everything—his job, his reputation, and even his life—to find answers.
Book # 14 – The Confession (published 2012) takes place in August 1920. A London a man who confessed to killing his own cousin five years earlier during the Great War, is found floating in the Thames river with a bullet in the back of his head.
Book # 15 – Proof of Guilt (published 2013). We come to the end of summer in September 1920 with an unidentified body that appears to have been run down by a motorcar. Ian Rutledge leads the investigation to uncover the truth.
Book # 16, Hunting Shadows (published 2014) is a slight jump back in time to August 1920 involving a second murder investigation to that in Book 14, The Confession. In going over the details of the case, Rutledge is reminded of a dark episode he witnessed in the war. While the memory could lead him to the truth, it also raises a prickly dilemma.
Book # 17, A Fine Summer’s Day (published 2015, 15 years after Legacy of the Dead), is a break from the Ian Rutledge series timeline and serves as a prequel to A Test of Wills. The last case Rutledge worked before heading off to battlefield the story revolves around a series of murders across England, seemingly unconnected, that Rutledge will race to solve in the weeks before the declaration of war in August that will forever transform his world. This book can be read in sequence or before Book # 1, A Test of Wills.
Book # 18, No Shred of Evidence (published 2016). Four young women take a rowboat outing on a fine autumn afternoon—but before the afternoon is over, a man will be dead, and the same four young women will be accused of his murder by one lone witness.
Book # 19, Racing the Devil (published 2017). A series of events that began on the eve of the Battle of the Somme will accumulate into a number of deaths between the roadways from Paris to Nice and back to the coast of East Sussex.
Book # 20, The Gate Keeper (published 2018). In this twentieth installment of the series Scotland Yard’s Ian Rutledge encounters a frightened woman standing over a body, launching an inquiry that leads him into the lair of a stealthy killer and the dangerous recesses of his own memories.
Book # 21, The Black Ascot (published 2019). An astonishing tip from a grateful ex-convict seems implausible—but Rutledge is intrigued. He seeks to find Alan Barrington, who has evaded capture for ten years and is the suspect in an appalling murder during Black Ascot, the famous 1910 royal horserace honoring the late King Edward VII.
Book # 22, A Divided Loyalty (published 2020). Detective Rutledge is assigned to one of the most baffling investigations of his career—a cold murder case with an unidentified victim and few clues to follow. At the same time, a respected colleague of Ian is sent to Avebury, a village set inside a great prehistoric stone circle not far from Stonehenge. It is there a young woman has been murdered next to a mysterious, hooded, figure-like stone, but no one recognizes her—or admits to it.
Book # 23, A Fatal Lie (published 2021). Inspector Rutledge must delve deep into a dead man’s life and his past to find a killer determined to keep dark secrets buried. Looking for the truth, Rutledge uncovers a web of lies swirling around a suicidal woman, a child’s tragic fate, and another woman bent on protecting her past.
Book # 24, A Game of Fear (published 2022). Spring, 1921. Scotland Yard sends Inspector Ian Rutledge to the sea-battered village of Walmer on the coast of Essex, where amongst the salt flats and a military airfield lies Benton Abbey, a grand manor with a storied past. The lady of the house may prove his most bewildering witness yet. She claims she saw a violent murder—but there is no body, no blood. She also insists she recognized the killer: Captain Nelson. Only it could not have been Nelson because he died during the war.