A Game of Fear: A Novel (Inspector Ian Rutledge Mysteries Book 24)

Lady Benton witnesses a murder. Or does she? The victim’s body is nowhere to be found, and the ‘murderer’ died in a motorcar crash a few years ago. This is the bizarre situation confronting Inspector Ian Rutledge of Scotland Yard when he arrives at the coastal village of Walmer in Essex. Still suffering from shell shock, the damaged WWI veteran regularly hears the voice of his corporal, Hamish Macleod, shot on his orders for refusing to lead another pointless attack. With Hamish ever-present in his rearview mirror, Rutledge sifts through possible explanations for Lady Benton’s ‘sighting’. Was the car crash an accident? Did the young mechanic who disappeared from the nearby wartime airfield at that time desert? What is the surly innkeeper at The Monk’s Choice hiding? Or is Rutledge dealing with something that pre-dates the war? Matters are complicated further when two dead bodies turn up in the course of the investigation. Rutledge works painstakingly through the evidence, eliminating red herrings, drawing out suspicious villagers, and coping all the while with his own demons. The premise – the witnessed ‘murder’ – feels slightly manufactured, but the plot is devious enough to keep readers guessing, and the denouement adds a dash of action-oriented excitement.