Racing the Devil audiobook

Nineteenth in the Inspector Ian Rutledge historical mystery series and revolving around events from World War I and a roving Scotland Yard inspector. Events take place on the frontline in France in 1916, along the road from Paris to Nice in 1919, and in 1920 in East Sussex.My TakeAnd, yep, the callous behavior of the British command comes through right at the beginning with the description of the German trenches, as does governments who ignore the plight of the men who come back from war.Government blindness is not the primary theme of the story — man's greed and using others without thought is — but the horrible aftereffects of war is one of the issues that brings life to the story. There are plenty of minor conflicts to add yet more life: Standish's psychological issues and his refusal to cooperate is too typically bullheaded and stupid; the family constraints between father and daughter when it comes to love; the wandering husband; the gullible women who think nothing of blackmail; the prideful, poor and otherwise; and, the ranging aid of the police inspectors and constables.It's one of the things I adore about mysteries: how the detective manages to find the guilty party with so few clues! Luckily, it's third-person point-of-view from Rutledge's perspective, so we know everything he does. Even if there are a few obscure scenes that weren't cleared up until later in the story — Standish's hand was one.One scene that is NOT obscure is the one with Barnes, lol. Rutledge does NOT like him. I love it! It's a nice bit of support for Mrs. Saunders, who colludes with Rutledge.It doesn't take long before the killer begins to target Rutledge, but it isn't exclusive, as the killer is intent on eliminating anyone who might be able to identify him.Todd makes it so easy to slip into the time period with the show of how people behaved from manners to expectations to the use of dress to communicate class and career; the conflict between horse and automobile; the deficiencies of communication; and, the efforts involved in solving crime without all the forensic techniques we have today.It definitely makes me appreciate cellphones!The StoryThey'd lived through the worst of the war. And survived. Now they'll fulfill that pledge they made on the eve of the bloody Battle of the Somme: They will celebrate their good fortune by racing motorcars they beg, borrow, or own from Paris to Nice.What none of them will be brave enough to say is how they were nearly forced off the road. Not even the one man who was.Then "accidents" begin to happen in England. A heavy rainstorm. A crash into a tree.Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge discovers that the truth is elusive — and that the villages on the South Downs, where one accident happened, are adept at keeping secrets, frustrating his search.Determined to remain in the shadows, this faceless killer is willing to strike again to stop Rutledge from finding him. This time, the victim he chooses is a child, and it will take all of Rutledge's skill to stop him before an innocent young life is sacrificed.The CharactersNovember 1920, EnglandInspector Ian Rutledge still battles his own demons from World War I with Corporal Hamish MacLeod, a voice in his head. Fiona is the woman Hamish left behind. Frances is Rutledge's about-to-be-married sister.The very bright and efficient Melinda Crawford is an old family friend who appears in the Bess Crawford series as well. And, yes, Bess Crawford has a minor role in this. Shanta is Melinda's Indian housekeeper. Colonel Richard Crawford is Bess' "retired" father. Sergeant Major Simon Brandon "retired" with the Colonel. George is a friend, a retired naval officer, living in Nice.Scotland YardMarkham, a Yorkshireman of few words, has been appointed new acting superintendent. Sergeant Gibson isn't a friend, but more of a coworker of my enemy with Rutledge. Chief Constable Cummings had been a mentor to Rutledge early on in his career.Burling Gap is……a small village slowly growing smaller as the chalk cliffs drop off into the sea and is Constable Neville's patch. The Sailor's Friend is a local pub where Fiona is wife to the owner and serves as a waitress. Mrs. Grant is furious that her philandering husband, Timothy Grant, a rag-and-bone man, has taken off with her money. Mrs. Mitchell is a gossipy old biddy with a good heart. Mr. Davidson is a regular visitor to his widowed sister.Harry Dixon, Gerald, and Tom found the body at the lighthouse. Parson Dolby's cavern is named for the clergyman, who, two hundred years ago, was determined to prevent so many shipwrecks.East Dedham is……the closest bigger town and is policed by the unimaginative, uncaring Constable Brewster. Nathaniel Wright is the rector for St. Simon's, his first church. Mrs. Saunders is the Rector's housekeeper. Mr. Stapleton had subbed for Wright while he was a chaplain in the war. The nasty, snotty Jonathan Barnes is sent by the bishop to take over temporarily.Captain Roger Standish is the local squire with a handicap. Mrs. Donaldson is his cook. Wilson was the previous estate manager. The tenants on his estate include the Tomlinsons, the Meadowses are reduced to the missus and her child, Jem, and the Fieldings with three teenaged sons.Emily Stuart is the jilted fiancée. Sewell is her coachman.Dr. Hanby is the nearest doctor. James is a farmer. Trotter, the blacksmith, came back from the war and converted an old blacksmith shop into a motorcar garage. Dicky Melford finally died, leaving behind his grieving parents. The Misters Edgecombe, older and younger, are the local solicitors. Henderson is their clerk.EastbourneElizabeth Wilding is the younger daughter, seeing a gentleman on the sly. Ginger is the golden retriever she likes to walk. Her disapproving father is Dr. Wilding. Sally is a maid in the Wilding household. Margaret is the older sister who threw another man over to live in London and for a social upgrade to a barrister, Lawrence Montgomery, who is head of chambers at Montgomery, Applegarth, & Winter.Patricia Sedley runs a shop called Past Perfect. Constable Plant. Delilah and Betty are barmaids at The Jolly Sailor. The gullible Ivy Brown has fled to her mother's. "Ralph Mercer", a.k.a., Sergeant Miller, is suffering from head injuries.SevenoaksMajor Holt from Surrey runs into a tree. Inspector Judd is most uncooperative. Dr. Lodge is the local surgeon.RyeLieutenant Cedric Russell had moved home to his mother's. Captain Newland had been his commanding officer.HastingsMr. Ferris, the bishop's representative, is identified. Inspector Gage is in charge.CanterburyLady Kathleen Marshall is the widow of Sir Wilfred Marshall, who is engaged to be married to an American, Michael Reston. The Dowager Lady Marshall is/was Wilfred's mother.PevenseyConstable Arnold is in charge.1919, Paris to NiceEverett has gangrene. Captain Andrew Brothers of Kent is racing Williams', his brother-in-law's, [borrowed] car. Taylor, Standish, Russell, and Holt were the only other officers who raced.1916, before the Somme, FranceDobson bought it here. The rest who pledged included Brothers, Holt, Standish, Russell, Everett, and Taylor. Randolph Graves had driven in the Grand Prix de Monte Carlo twice and almost won. He bought it at Ypres.Eleanor Hardy receives some mercy at her trial. Boils is the innkeeper of The Boar where an inquest was held.The Cover and TitleThe cover is a deep, dusky blue of the night, a touring car, its headlights blazing, trundling down a dirt track, overshadowed by the arching bare branches of the massive trees that line the road. The author's name is in a thin serif font while the title is in a thick sans-serif below with both in white. The series information is tiny at the bottom in yellow.The title is all about Racing the Devil lest he push you off the road.

I absolutely love it when a mystery author (or in this case, a team of authors) is able to fool me about the guilty party. I fell for the entire story and was genuinely surprised when the solution was revealed. I read lots of mysteries, and I do mean lots, so that surprise doesn't happen very often. This is a really, really good book added to the accumulated works.A group of seven officers were gathered completely by happenstance in France on the evening before one of the largest offensives of World War I. Even though they hadn't known each other in civilian life their circumstances forged a sense of kinship on this night. Each knew their chances of surviving through the remainder of the war were slim and yet, as if to taunt the devil, they made plans for meeting in Paris one year after the war ended and racing each other in motorcars to Nice. Five survived the war and met in Paris. How many would survive the drive through the mists along the twisting, dangerous road leading to Nice?For some inexplicable reason this book had the feeling of moving backward in the story arc and yet the year of this investigation doesn't show that. It must have been my imagination. It was absolutely captivating to see how two tiny villages being so close together could remain so separate from each other simply because of the difficulties of transportation in 1920. Two villages, two police constables, each extremely aware of his own territory and professional jurisdiction. When Inspector Rutledge was called in by one of the constables, as the representative of Scotland Yard, he had to practically insist on help from both villages - so isolated within themselves were they. It made for very entertaining reading watching Rutledge work his way around the complications something as simple as geography set up. The one thing both villages had in common was their disbelief and grief over the death of the Rector of East Dedham, Sussex, but what none could understand was why he was driving a car belonging to someone else.There are, as usual, many characters in this novel, but I didn't have trouble keeping them clear in my mind. Rutledge uses his own experiences in the war to help him understand the undercurrents of what is happening in this mystery and series of deaths. Hamish MacLeod, that persistent voice in Rutledge's subconscious, is present again in this story and contributes his usual warnings when Rutledge is in danger. This book especially was written to make it easy for readers new to the series to feel they understand what is happening. Those of us who have followed the books as they have been published understand about Hamish, but sometimes the books can be a little sparse on explaining about him and in making him a sympathetic character. Rutledge calls on his many contacts to gather information in an unofficial capacity as well as using Sergeant Gibson at Scotland Yard in London. There are a lot of trips in Rutledge's motorcar, but they seemed completely necessary and didn't bother me quite as much as usual. At least he did stop for petrol one time in this story. The only slightly negative thing I found was the exceedingly abrupt ending. I turned the page only to find the book was finished. I think that might have been handled better, but I'm sure it will play a part in another novel down the road. I can't wait.

I felt like this was another solid installment in the series. The mystery is interesting. This one doesn't fall into the trap of making everyone in the small town Rutledge ends up in vaguely sinister. I don't have a lot to say about it. Character arcs continue to not to move, but it's a competent mystery.

Racing the Devil is the latest Ian Rutledge mystery and I have read most of them at this point. An excellent story and the writers do weave together different story lines and Ian is often the only person looking for connections and open to thinking about how people can do evil. We see again the themes of status and wealth, including what people will do for wealth. The class tensions are significant and one can think about how World War I brought segment of the British population together in roles that were different from civilian life. Is this where some people learn they want more? Yet among the civilians, Ian has to negotiate class and status territories, both above him and below him, like how he cannot seem to pity the poor young girl, but let her have a sense that she is in control of her own life, even when she is not. During the war, the upper class is not as pleasant up close and personal. Yet, he war has a toll on many, which we see as Ian interviews many men who did survive the war with their own set of scares. This murderer has a grand plan, but it takes a while to connect the crimes and then find the source of the plot, as the villain is quick to disguise who he is in complicated way. He murders many people in accomplish what he sees as a path to wealth. Yet, others are also plotting to blackmail and find other ways to secure funds. Many questions are still left, but Ian has proof of enough crimes to secure a guilty verdict and sometimes that is the best we can get in life. In this book he is mostly out of London, so the internal dynamics of Scotland Yard are very much in the background. However, we get to see how different Constables in small communities vary in their own skills and willingness to listen to others.

The latest Inspector Ian Rutledge begins in a makeshift bar in France during WWI when 7 officers make a date to meet in Paris a year after the war ends and race each other to Nice. Five survive the war and head off to Nice and a bottle of champagne. Later, back in England, a minister crashes a car he has borrowed and dies but did he crash or was he pushed and how was this all related to the race in France. Rutledge, who is fighting his own war demons is asked to investigate. Not just a mystery but a bit of thriller that brings in all the who done it elements along with the suspense of who’s next. You might guess who the villain is but the trip there is worth it. Get Racing the Devil from the Denver Public Library- Lisa B

The novel begins in June of 1916 as the battle of the Somme is raging. A group of English officers are having a last drink before they return to the Front. They do not know each other, but under the influence of drink, they make a pledge to reunite every year to celebrate their love of motor cars if they survive. They plan to meet a year after the war ends in Paris and race to Nice. They reunite in 1919 and set out. In the mountains just north of their destination, a car crashes after being struck from behind is an attempt to push him off the road. He succeeds and one year later, a rector driving the same route finds the remains of the car and it looks like he was ejected from the car and hut his head and was killed. Another set of car tracks raise questions. Was the car deliberately pushed off the road? Inspector Rutledge is investigating the death. The rector is a friend of the man killed and has to inform his wife of his death. Rutledge begins his search for a search for a merciless killer. When the next victim is a child, he will stop at nothing to find the victim in time. The Charles Todd duo of mother and son are the best selling writers of the Ian Rutledge and Bess Crawford series and a delight to read.

It was very confusing...I felt very "removed" from Ian...strange ending...I'll have to wait another year !

Title: Racing the Devil (Inspector Ian Rutledge #18)Author: Charles ToddPages: 345Year: 2017Publisher: William MorrowMy rating is 5 stars.This story takes place in 1920 just two years after the end of WWI. It involves seven soldiers who, the evening before the Battle of the Somme, pledge to meet in Nice, France one year after the war has ended as a race. Two men die of wounds later in the war, but five men survive to make the journey to Nice. They each return home and try to begin living again; however, they are changed men.The local rector in a small village in England is killed in a car accident. The only mystery at first appears to be why he has borrowed the car involved in the accident without asking permission from the owner of the car. The owner is out of town when the car is borrowed and upon his return he learns of the accident. The local law enforcement thinks there is something fishy with the accident and requests Scotland Yard’s help. Inspector Rutledge is sent to the scene and soon discovers that the Rector was actually murdered and not killed in the car accident. The car he borrowed just happened to be owned by one of the five men who drove to Nice, France for a reunion with four of his fellow soldiers. Soon another man is found dead, but is his death related to the Rector’s death. There is no doubt this second man has been killed in the same way as the Rector, a broken neck, but he has no link to any of the five former soldiers. Who killed him and why? Yet, another mystery for Inspector Rutledge to solve.I love it when Ian is hunting down answers to questions and clues! To me, that is when he is at his best. Although he was pretty good when confronting the culprit and putting him in his place too. I also enjoyed his encounters with the little girl, Jem, in this story. The reappearance of family friend Melinda Crawford is also a treat in each story in which she appears. I just really like how these mysteries are put together, how they are written and the flow of the writing style. For me, these are some of my favorite British mysteries. I like too how time progresses from book to book. I’m already looking forward to the next adventure Ian will encounter in book 19!

This is my 3rd Ian Rutledge book--and, IMHO, by far the best. I'd give this a 4+. Of course, it's far along in the series, and the Todds have found their writing rhythm. The Hamish quirk is subdued and only occasional, and Rutledge shows some anger as the facts of the case emerge, instead of presenting as the perfect gentleman from The Yard. The fact that the bad guy is not easily identifiable, and also has some wrecked-by-the-war baggage makes it more poignant. There are a lot of characters in this book--maybe too many. Rutledge dispatches them all handily near the end of the book, using the only means available to a police officer a century ago. I found the plot, beginning with seven men who agree to meet in Paris if they make it through the upcoming Battle of the Somme, very real and touching. War changes people, and not usually in a good way. Every time Rutledge meets another soldier, you feel this gut punch.

Inspector Ian Rutledge is back in this installment of a long-running series, this time investigating a car crash that leaves a well-liked village priest dead. The trouble is, the rector didn't own the car he was driving when he died ...That's the setup for a novel that races back and forth in time and location, linking people and their pasts even as more bodies pile up--but not so many that it felt like overkill (sorry, that was an inexcusable pun!).And once again, the authors deliver more insights into Rutledge, a troubled ex-soldier who relies on his work for Scotland Yard to keep shell shock at bay.

Another excellent Ian Rudledge investigation. Based in England between the two world wars, Rutledge uses common sense and little forensics, if any to lead him to the murder suspect. This one was particularly troubling as it had more than one murder none of which seemed to have any connection. What little evidence Rutledge had was destroyed before he could examine it closely. He always manages to find the perp and solve the mystery. Interestingly, Bess Crawford, another series character of Charles Todd, is mentioned as an acquaintance of Rutledge.