Thursday, January 21, 2010

Fun Mysteries


Acting on a tip I heard on BYU radio, I checked out a couple of novels by “Charles Todd” from the public library a couple of weeks ago. I quickly read both novels and then went back and checked out two more books in the series. The books are murder mysteries known as the “Inspector Ian Rutledge” mysteries. The author has received several awards and his books are New York Times best sellers.


Inspector Rutledge is a policeman with Scotland Yard. The action takes place in England after World War I. The Inspector has a voice in his head—that of a fellow soldier in WWI (“Hamish”) that he had to shoot because he disobeyed an order. Hamish is quite the character, talking all the time in a Scottish brogue.









Things I’ve enjoyed in the books: There are wonderful descriptions of the English countryside; they are clean with no steamy, suggestive scenes and without crude language; trying to figure out who the murderer is before the end of the story is a great challenge (brain exercise). The books are also hard to put down once you get into them, but not so scary that they create nightmares or disturbed sleep.






I will finish the fourth book today or tomorrow.
Only about eight more to go …. !






P.S. Charles Todd is a pen name--he is really a mother and son duo!





2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Coooool. I love murder mysteries! I just finished my first Sherlock Holmes..I will have to check out this new series!

Zaphod said...

The are many British writers that focus on the story and the characters without being crude or vulgar, Dorothy Sayers, Josephine Tay, and Ellis Peters among them.