The Murder Stone

This was my first Charles Todd book (I'd gone to a local bookstore in search of the first book in either of Todd's two series, but this was all I could find), and I have a bit of a mental split in what I thought of this book. On the one hand, I found it really enjoyable to read -- nicely paced plotti......more

This book might have been better had it been more focused and less convoluted. There is a lot of authorly 'how many plot devices can I shoehorn into this thing?' The plot(s) of this novel doesn't really hold together into an integrated whole. The book rambled on far too long. Most of the inserts by t......more

I am a big fan of the Charles Todd authored Ian Rutledge series, set in the years immediately after WWI in England. I was disappointed in this stand alone book, which is set during the last years of the war itself. I compulsively finished it but I didn't feel like the mystery was logical, nor did I......more

I am quite enthusiastic concerning this excellent thriller, at a rather slow pace, where a young woman must deal with people trying to smear the reputation of her beloved grandfather who died shortly after the loss of his five grandsons, who all died in the first world war, the cousins of francesca......more

I picked up this book thinking it was next in one of my favorite series, the Ian Rutledge mysteries. I was surprised, but pleased, to find it a very well done stand alone, more a gothic than a mystery, set in Todd’s era of expertise, WWI. As in the mysteries, the time and place, rural England during......more