Search the Dark

It’s disappointing when a good mystery stalls... and stalls some more after a promising start. If I could have skipped about 50 pages in the middle— pages where not much happens and Rutledge tortures himself (and the reader) with insecurities and doubts— we get it, he’s stuck and can’t move on— but......more

I enjoyed reading the first two Inspector Ian Rutledge titles in this series but found Search the Dark to be a bit too plodding for me. Rutledge is definitely a thinking man's detective. These books are character-driven rather than action-packed. Rutledge, like many men who served in World War I, ret......more

This book had its moments, but not enough of them. The plot was confusing and not terribly gripping. The ending was flat. Charles Todd has done better.......more

What is it that keeps fans reading book after book in a series of detective novels? I should know as well as anyone, since I keep going back again and again to the work of Michael Connelly, Karin Slaughter, Henning Mankell, Jacqueline Winspear, James Lee Burke, Cara Black, John Sandford, Tana French......more

This one is difficult. It really highlights the mental effects of the war on the people who came back. And then tells a series of tragedies that unfold as a result. It's effectively done, if fairly depressing. Also, this series is dark enough without the continual tediousness of Bowles. I get that t......more