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    Search the Dark
    Search the Dark
    Search the Dark
    Audiobook11 hours

    Search the Dark

    Written by Charles Todd

    Narrated by Samuel Gillies

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Search the Dark is the third of Todd's mysteries set just after the First World War. Dorset is the latest setting for the talents of Inspector Ian Rutledge, a veteran of the First World War still haunted-literally-by his actions. Indeed, his personal ghost only serves to complicate things as his inner doubts blend into the trauma of the case. The disappearance of two children, the murder of a woman supposed to be their mother, and an unstable suspect who may or may not be guilty form the bones of Todd's latest psychological thriller, augmented by the in-depth and impressive character analysis that distinguishes his novels.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateNov 26, 2007
    ISBN9781428199613
    Search the Dark
    Author

    Charles Todd

    Charles Todd is the New York Times bestselling author of the Inspector Ian Rutledge mysteries, the Bess Crawford mysteries, and two stand-alone novels. A mother-and-son writing team, Caroline passed away in August 2021 and Charles lives in Florida.

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    Reviews for Search the Dark

    4/5

    287 ratings17 reviews

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    • 5/5
      If you enjoy well-done mystery thriller fiction....and would also enjoy the fascinating environment--WW1 Great Britain police work and society, in the years just after WW1, this series of intricately woven, complex / satisfying.
    • 5/5
      Excellent read , but then again all of the books in this Series so far is excellent. I recommend whole wholeheartedly.
    • 4/5
      Rutledge is sent to Dorset to investigate the murder of a woman and to find two missing children. Although the woman's estranged husband is the logical suspect, further sleuthing proves he may not be.
    • 3/5
      Ian Rutledge is still a compelling character, and this novel has its moments. While it's still good, it's not as excellent as the other Rutledge novels.
    • 3/5
      Well, this third installment in the Inspector Rutledge series didn't engage me nearly as much as the first two. I'm getting really tired of the higher-ups and local constabulary treating Rutledge like a bumbler. He's already solved two difficult cases, and here he is saddled with a "look busy" kind of assignment which turns out to be much more involved than anticipated, and no one wants to let him do his job. Enough, already. It also seemed to me that the story line kept the reader treading water too often and too long...pacing was not handled well. Rutledge doesn't seem to be growing much as a character. All of his war-related torments continue, although his "relationship" with the ever-present memory of Hamish McLeod has changed a bit, I think. It's been a couple years since I read the 2nd book in this series, but it feels like Rutledge in more "in conversation" with Hamish than just hearing his voice in his head, and that Hamish is often trying to be helpful, more than taunting his superior officer for his "failures" as those aforementioned colleagues and superiors do so readily. I will probably give this series one more outing, but if Rutledge still doesn't seem to be "getting somewhere" with his life and/or career, I'll bow out.Review written March 2017
    • 4/5
      Synopsis: A man on a train sees his wife and children, who he believed dead, on the platform. He can't get off the train until the next station, so by the time he makes it back they are gone. A bit later he is found sleeping under a tree and the woman who is believed to be his wife has been battered to death; the children have not been found. Rutledge is called in to find the children. As the case develops, he is less sure that the man caught is a murderer or that he actually saw his children. Rutledge is vindicated when he finds the children, identifies the murdered woman, and connects a previous death to the current one.Review: Although not on the same level as his other books, this is still a good one.
    • 4/5
      Ian Rutledge, inspector for Scotland Yard, is sent to Devon to discover what has happened to two young children, whose mother was found murdered. The local cops have arrested the murderer, but there is no sign of the children she had with her. Excellent as usual, with a lot of emphasis on what WWI did to the soldiers who came back, and pointing out that many came home without visible scars but just as broken as anyone. Excellent characterization, and complex mystery.
    • 4/5
      Once more, Inspector Rutledge is sent into the country for another slowly unfolding and complex investigation involving damaged and trouble WW1 veterans. He faces the usual "your on my turf" issues with the local constabulary because of his insistence on the correct rather than the convenient solution. A good story peopled with interesting but troubled characters that cause his own internal WW1 issues to resonate strongly as he plods to the surprising but valid finish.
    • 1/5
      Many people can make a hefty case for Search the Dark for being a good, even excellent book. The evidence to the contrary is tenuous. Most of the book is splendidly written, but it amounts to naught for me, if it doesn't deliver in the last act. Add to that the lack of follow up to the real struggles of the detective and the hindrances he faced...add to that the lack of support for the little bits of clues that went unheeded by the authors themselves, then I think I may be justified in my summation. Look, the previous two books worked because the endless questioning tallied with the solution. Maybe this book was too clever for it's own good. The next book I'll be reading next will be the antidote to this book. I need something cathartic, and fast.
    • 4/5
      Following the end of the first World War Ian Rutledge has returned to his work as an Inspector with Scotland Yard after nearly dying on the battlefield. He is called to a case in Dorset where a man has been arrested for killing the woman he believed to be his wife, despite the fact his wife and two children had supposedly died during a bombing raid two years earlier. Rutledge is assigned as a trouble-shooter to coordinate with the jurisdictions involved to locate the children who were assumed to have been with the murdered woman when she was killed. His presence is not universally welcomed by the local coppers.

      The slant to this book is that Rutledge has a partner of sorts: a voice in his head. The voice belongs to Hamish McLeod, a soldier that Rutledge was required to shoot during the war when McLeod refused to lead his men into a particular battle. Rutledge seems resigned to Hamish’s presence which is at times angry and taunting and at other times almost supportive of Rutledge’s ways. He copes remarkably well with the interruptions at any rate. This is the third book in a series of what is now 11 books and frankly I’m not sure where else this particular element can go as, after only a short while, the novelty value had worn off for me and I simply accepted Hamish as a normal, fairly minor character. In a way I suppose this is good as it means it’s less of a gimmicky element than it might otherwise be, but the downside is that there’s less to differentiate this book from similar books in the crowded police procedural genre.

      As historical fiction goes the book is first rate. It captures the immediate aftermath of the war and its effect on both the people who fought in it and those who stayed behind. Although the book explores the psychological impact of the war in a way that a contemporary whodunnit might not have done, I don’t think that makes the exploration less legitimate and, for me, it was the most interesting aspect of the book. The depiction of the torment many people went through without the medical knowledge and social support systems that are available today is powerful and quite sobering to ponder. Of course this makes the book quite a sad one with an ending that should not have had to happen (but realistic nonetheless).

      A combination of slower pacing than I like and Rutledge’s way of working things out in his mind (with Hamish’s help) led to each twist and turn of the plot being telegraphed to me slightly before it actually happened so that in the end there were few genuine surprises in the story. However the plot, though somewhat convoluted, is logical and does hang together well. The characters more than make up for the duller moments.

      I’d definitely recommend this to fans of historical fiction (I have a friend who adores Foyles War and I think she’ll love this series) and those who like a solidly written police procedural with a touch of melancholy.

      Audio book specific comments: A great narrator who manages the balance between performance and reading too perfection. I did find myself looking forward to getting back to this one and was quickly lost in the story each time I came back to it.
    • 3/5
      Search The Dark by Charles Todd
      Inspector Ian Rutledge is sent to a small town to find two missing children but instead of answers he finds more questions. Haunted by a ghost from his past the inspector expertly wades though the evidence to find the real truth.
      This is a mystery book so there are several crimes to solve. I found that about halve way though I was yelling at the pages saying all right that's enough time to solve. The clues were subtle but obvious and a casual gumshoe would get it right away. That said I love the fell of this book and would recommend it to anyone who likes mysteries.
    • 4/5
      Our war damaged Inspector is once again sent out by his boss to look into the murder of a woman and her missing children. The village police chief, resenting Scotland Yard's intrusion into his territory, believes he's arrested the murderer but Inspector Rutledge appears to harbor doubts. In speaking with the prisoner, he discovers another war damaged soul, but the man is horrified and shocked by what he believes he has done and cannot be drawn into speaking at length about his wife and children without collapsing in catatonic grief. But where are these missing children? And what of the man who was seen with them? At the same time, another body is found. Is there a connection?
    • 3/5
      It's a quite good case
    • 4/5
      What on Earth are the murders of some seemingly unrelated women in the Dorset countryside to do with Scotland Yard? Well, as always, Ian Rutledge and his internal nemesis Hamish are sent where the Yard thinks they stand the best chance of getting rid of them (though the only one they KNOW they're getting rid of is Ian). As always, strict instructions are issued for Rutledge to avoid antagonizing the powerful people involved in this case; as always, he fails; and as always, Rutledge and Hamish bring home the bacon (bad pun--there's a fire in this book that crisps Rutledge a bit) with some tidy last-minute inspiration.But the book's characters, the book's post-WWI England, the book's solid construction provide a happy experience for the seasoned veteran of the Mystery Wars, and a soothing, orderly sense that the guilty will suffer. (My, how they're going to suffer in this book, and not just the murdering guilty. It's *very* subtly, nicely imagined, and almost perfectly executed. I smiled my most Schadenfreude-laden smile those last 20pp.)I don't think the series will appeal to everyone, especially those who find mental challenges unpleasant reading, but the books offer a lot of pleasures of atmosphere and of justice served. I hope many more of you will give them a shot soon.
    • 4/5
      Much better than the previous Inspector Rutledge novel, 'Wings of Fire' - the pacing is tighter (relatively speaking), the characters are sympathetic, and we learn more about Rutledge's personal history. Hamish is also becoming a character in his own right, which is fascinating, but slightly worrying for the poor Inspector! (I love how his ghost varies between Rutledge's conscience and a Watson-like sidekick, depending on how unsettled the detective is by the case at hand. The psychology behind Hamish's 'voice' is interesting to think about.)Rutledge is once again dispatched by his boss, 'Old Bowels', to a far flung corner of the English countryside to investigate what appears to be the murder of an estranged wife and the disappearance of two children. Of course, he finds it's never as simple as he's been told, and soon he is investigating two murders and the secrets of a small Dorset village. The ending, once again, is rather contrived, but I enjoyed the series of red herrings packed into the final chapters - from 'Too obvious!', to 'what an anti-climax', until finally getting to, 'I didn't see that coming!' I love mysteries that make the reader think back through the novel, picking up clues and re-reading crucial scenes, and this didn't disappoint. Again Rutledge discovers that he is not the only man still haunted by the war, and is charmed by the lovely French wife of the local landowner. Todd's characters are much the same - strong women, broken men - but he infuses these figures with so much human frailty and depth of emotion that it's hard not to care for them. And the setting, of both time and place, is picture-perfect once again. Charles Todd rarely trips up, even on the smallest detail, and when he does, any mistakes can usually be attributed to the American editing of his writing.I'm glad I have the next book in the series to hand!
    • 5/5
      This is the third in the Ian Rutledge series, and the second I have listened to. It is a "village mystery", with quite a confined setting. A returned soldier travelling south by train to find work looks out of the window as the train passes through a small village and sees a woman and two children on the platform with a man. The soldier, Mowbray, believes his wife and children were killed in the bombing of London in 1915, and yet there they are on the platform.He frantically tries to get off the train, but is not put off until the next stop. By the time he gets back to the station, the woman and children have gone. Distraught he searches the town, threatening his wife harm when he finds her. The next day a woman's body is found, face battered, some miles away in the countryside and the local police inspector assumes it is Mowbray's wife. But there is no sign of the children.Ian Rutledge from Scotland Yard is brought in to find the children, but there are too many things that don't add up, and he is not convinced it is Mrs Mowbray. When another young woman is discovered to be missing, it seems Rutledge may be right. However the local policeman is not so easily convinced.What I found as I listened is that I really cared about what happened to these characters. Rutledge is a bit pedantic about getting things right, and more than once I found myself saying " get on with it man!" but then I find he has thought of something that didn't even cross my horizon. And just when you think you've got it all worked out, the plot takes another turn, another body is found, or whatever, and off we go again.The war is a recent memory and Rutledge is not the only one damaged by it. Several of the characters in the book, including the unfortunate Mowbray, have been deeply affected by the war. Rutledge himself is constantly reminded of the war by the ever present voice of Hamish MacLeod.For me this time, the voice of "Hamish in his head" is much stronger in this early novel, the conversations Rutledge has with Hamish are more like dialogue between the detective and his offsider. I commented on this in my Sleuths and Foils post. By A PALE HORSE, which is #10 in the series, and set a year or two later than SEARCH THE DARK, Rutledge is learning how to control Hamish to an extent, and to respond less automatically to his voice.I am "hooked" on these stories, but next time I really must read a book, not listen to one.
    • 4/5
      Protagonist: Inspector Ian RutledgeSetting: southern England at the end of WWISeries: #3In 1919, a former soldier is arrested for murder in the village of SingletonMagna after the battered corpse of a young woman is found nearby. Withdrawnand suicidal, the suspect will speak to no one, and the police call ScotlandYard for help in finding the two young children who may have been in thedead woman's care. Rutledge arrives, still carrying in his head the voice ofHamish MacLeod, a Scottish deserter whom he executed during the war andwhose harsh conscience-like presence in the inspector's mind seems to softenas the story progresses. In his investigation, Rutledge meets others whosespirits were ravaged in the war: Simon Wyatt, leader of the local gentry,who has abandoned his plans to serve in Parliament; his French wife,unaccepted by the villagers; Wyatt's former fiancée, who may not have givenup her expectations; a young local man whose head wound has left himmentally diminished; and an independent young woman from London. Thediscovery of a second woman's battered corpse further complicates Rutledge'stask--which is rooted as much in love as it is in war.This series is extremely well-done. Todd does a brilliant job of portrayinga country and its people shattered by a devastating war. Although I found itall too easy to figure out whodunit, I enjoyed the immersion in another timeand place. Unfortunately, the time and the place are so bleak that it wouldbe impossible for me to read these books back to back.