Rutledge is a shell-shocked veteran of the first world war who has returned to his pre-war vocation as a Scotland Yard investigator. He is accompanied by a psychological side-kick, Hamish MacLeod, who exists only, and vividly, in Rutledge's mind.

In Wings of Fire, Rutledge is sent to Cornwall to investigate a double suicide and accidental death at Trevelyan house near the seaside village of Borcombe. During his investigation he discovers that the house of Trevelyan is haunted by accident and self-murder. The mater-familias, Rosamund, a suicide, had lost two husbands and two of her six children to accident. When Rutledge enters the scene, two more of her adult offspring have committed suicide and another has succumbed to a fatal fall down the ancestral stairway. Small wonder that Rutledge begins gnawing at this circumstantial bone despite the demur and protestation of the good and gentle folk of Borcombe.

Todd's work has been compared to another fine American writer of the English procedural genre, Elizabeth George. To me, he closely resembles Dick Francis in his generous handling of every character who crosses the inexorable path of his tortured hero. Even the dead come vividly to life in Todd's skilled narration.

He explores the relationship between author and reader in Rutledge's agonized reaction to the possibility that a poet who has spoken to the needs of his soul may be a monster of soul-less evil. Rutledge, along with many a reader, muses "Olivia's poetry had been an anchor for many men. Why hadn't the woman herself lived up to the talent she'd been given?"

Only two things marred my pleasure in this exquisite novel. The initial chapter featuring a gathering of the Trevelyan clan and their labyrinthine relationships escaped my comprehension despite the author's skill in narration. And the denouement, while admittedly thrilling, left me unsatisfied. I wanted to know more about the villain. But this, too, may be a testament to Charles Todd's talent.

This paperback edition of Wings of Fire includes a 15-page excerpt from Todd's current hardcover, Search the Dark. I don't think I can wait until it comes out in paperback.

--Lee Gilmore