{"id":17222,"date":"2022-08-29T19:09:35","date_gmt":"2022-08-29T23:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=17222"},"modified":"2022-08-29T19:09:35","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T23:09:35","slug":"a-divided-loyalty-by-charles-todd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=17222","title":{"rendered":"‘A Divided Loyalty,’ by Charles Todd"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Charles Todd,<\/strong> author of the Inspector Ian Rutledge series, is actually a mother-son writing team (our commenter Paul informed me of this). I found the first book in the series (the first I I read; we\u2019re actually pretty far along in the series here) a little depressing, but I liked the positive attitude displayed toward Christians and the church. So I figured I\u2019d try another, when a cheap download became available. Thus did I purchase A Divided Loyalty<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inspector Ian Rutledge is an isolated man. He\u2019s unpopular at Scotland Yard because he\u2019s a victim of shell shock, considered a moral coward by other officers. He hangs onto his job only because they\u2019re short of manpower, due to the losses of World War I. His shell shock takes a particularly painful form \u2013 persistent hallucination. His friend Hamish MacLeod, a wartime subordinate whom he was forced to order shot on the front lines, is forever at his shoulder, commenting on events. These comments are mostly \u2013 but not always \u2013 negative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avebury in Wiltshire is a famous place in England. It\u2019s a double stone circle, not far from Stonehenge, less complete but larger. The village of Avebury nestles inside it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A young woman was found stabbed to death in the ditch that surrounds the stones. Inspector Leslie, an older, respected officer, was the first to investigate, but he found no clues. Rutledge recently solved a similar mystery in another town, so his superior (who despises him) sends him to see if he can do any better. His real motive, Rutledge believes, is a desire to see him fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No clue to the woman\u2019s identity has been found. She doesn\u2019t \u201clook English,\u201d but she might have come from anywhere in the world. And what brought her here? How was she lured to the murder site?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rutledge goes to work systematically, asking questions in a widening circle, investigating routes by which the woman might have come. Gradually a few facts \u2013 or probabilities \u2013 appear. And he begins finding indications of the culprit \u2013 indications that lead somewhere he does not want to go. However, the final twist will astonish even him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I liked A Divided Loyalty<\/em> better than I liked A False Mirror,<\/em> the first book I read. It was by no means cheery, but it was less a downer than that one. And I liked Inspector Rutledge\u2019s relentless professionalism in the face of depression and manifold obstacles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t recall any particular concerns in terms of language or themes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charles Todd, author of the Inspector Ian Rutledge series, is actually a mother-son writing team (our commenter Paul informed me of this). I found the first book in the series (the first I I read; we\u2019re actually pretty far along in the series here) a little depressing, but I liked the positive attitude displayed toward … Continue reading ‘A Divided Loyalty,’ by Charles Todd<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,15],"tags":[4316,3824,4315],"class_list":["post-17222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-reviews","tag-a-divided-loyalty","tag-charles-todd","tag-inspector-rutledge"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17222"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17223,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17222\/revisions\/17223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}