A Lonely Death by Charles Todd (reviewed by readafew)

Here's another one. It also happens to be quite a ways into the series as well ;)

Any Suggestions are appreciated.

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A Lonely Death is the 13th Inspector Ian Rutledge book put out by the mother and son author team Charles Todd. I had heard about Rutledge before but this was the first one I’ve been able to read and I have to say I wish I had started sooner! It took me a little while to get into this one because I had no idea who Rutledge was or anything else about him, but by the 4th chapter I was hooked. I think the authors did a good job of balancing cluing in a new reader vs. boring a fan with repetitive back story. Not all series writers do that well. I think this was an excellent mystery/thriller and I highly recommend it.

In a sleepy little town of Eastfield near Hastings where nothing has happened since Henry VIII, 3 men who survived the Great War were garroted and an identity disk is left in their mouths. When the son of an influential business man becomes one of the victims, Scotland Yard is called in.
It appears someone is exacting revenge for some past wrong, but what that wrong is and who could harbor such hate has everyone baffled and worried.

While Rutledge is running around southern England interviewing the men whose names where on the tags a woman in Eastfield had a complaint about his behavior so when he arrived back to continue his investigation he finds he’s been replaced and told to go back to London. Ian is pretty sure the recall is more political maneuvering to ruin his chances of promotion and less to do with the actual complaint. More smoke clouds the issue as more attacks occur and Ian takes matters into his own hands to find the murderer, and clear his own reputation.

The only comment I have is that the last sentence of the first paragraph makes it sound like the review is finished. But then there's the two paragraphs of plot summary. Maybe you could do the plot summary first and then the first paragraph, or you could leave at the last sentence of the 1st par. and give a small par. at the end with your overall opinion on the book and your reccomendation.

How's this?

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A Lonely Death is the 13th Inspector Ian Rutledge book put out by the mother and son author team Charles Todd.

In a sleepy little town of Eastfield near Hastings where nothing has happened since Henry VIII, 3 men who survived the Great War were garroted and an identity disk is left in their mouths. When the son of an influential business man becomes one of the victims, Scotland Yard is called in.
It appears someone is exacting revenge for some past wrong, but what that wrong is and who could harbor such hate has everyone baffled and worried.

While Rutledge is running around southern England interviewing the men whose names were on the tags a woman in Eastfield had a complaint about his behavior so when he arrived back to continue his investigation he finds he’s been replaced and told to go back to London. Ian is pretty sure the recall is more political maneuvering to ruin his chances of promotion and less to do with the actual complaint. More smoke clouds the issue as more attacks occur and Ian takes matters into his own hands to find the murderer, and clear his own reputation.

I had heard about Rutledge before but this was the first one I’ve been able to read and I have to say I wish I had started sooner! It took me a little while to get into this one because I had no idea who Rutledge was or anything else about him, but by the 4th chapter I was hooked. I think the authors did a good job of balancing cluing in a new reader vs. boring a fan with repetitive back story. Not all series writers do that well. I think this was an excellent mystery/thriller and I highly recommend it.

Just one tiny typo: "The men whose names WHERE on the tags." You want WERE there.

Nice review!

Thanks changed it.

Reads like a charm :). The order is better like this, more logical.

A couple of suggestions:

Are the first and second paragraphs run together?

It looks like Scotland Yard is called in is the end of paragraph two and It appears someone... is the beginning of paragraph three. But they are run together (though that might just be a mistake on the post. I haven't checked the actual review).

Now that I've written all that, I would suggest combining it. Pardon the long quote, but what about doing this:

In a sleepy little town of Eastfield near Hastings where nothing has happened since Henry VIII, 3 men who survived the Great War were garroted and an identity disk is left in their mouths. It appears someone is exacting revenge for some past wrong, but what that wrong is and who could harbor such hate has everyone baffled and worried. When the son of an influential business man becomes one of the victims, Scotland Yard is called in.

Also, your first mention of Rutledge feels like he has been mentioned before. To clarify, you might want to mention him in the 'Scotland Yard' sentence. Maybe ...Scotland Yard sends Inspector Rutledge in.

The sentence beginning While Rutledge is running around... is a run-on. ou might want to add a few commas and split the sentence. I'd suggest a comma after ...on the tags and a period after ...his behavior.

There's a bunch of switches in tense within that sentence: I think had a complaint should be has a complaint and 'arrived' should be 'arrives'.

You might want to change more attacks to further attacks so you avoid using 'more' twice in a single sentence.

Sorry for the long-winded post.

Thank you!

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A Lonely Death is the 13th Inspector Ian Rutledge book put out by the mother and son author team Charles Todd.

In a sleepy little town of Eastfield near Hastings where nothing has happened since Henry VIII, 3 men who survived the Great War were garroted and an identity disk is left in their mouths. It appears someone is exacting revenge for some past wrong, but what that wrong is and who could harbor such hate has everyone baffled and worried. When the son of an influential business man becomes one of the victims, Scotland Yard is called and they send Inspector Ian Rutledge.

While Rutledge is running around southern England interviewing the men whose names were on the tags, a woman in Eastfield has a complaint about his behavior. When he arrives back to continue his investigation he finds he’s been replaced and told to go back to London. Ian is pretty sure the recall is political maneuvering to ruin his chances of promotion and less to do with the actual complaint. More smoke clouds the issue as more attacks occur and Ian takes matters into his own hands to find the murderer, and clear his own reputation.

I had heard about Rutledge before but this was the first one I’ve been able to read and I have to say I wish I had started sooner! It took me a little while to get into this one because I had no idea who Rutledge was or anything else about him, but by the 4th chapter I was hooked. I think the authors did a good job of balancing cluing in a new reader vs. boring a fan with repetitive back story. Not all series writers do that well. I think this was an excellent mystery/thriller and I highly recommend it.