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    Wings of Fire
    Wings of Fire
    Wings of Fire
    Audiobook11 hours

    Wings of Fire

    Written by Charles Todd

    Narrated by Samuel Gillies

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    When reclusive war poet Olivia Marlowe and her half brother Nicholas Cheney die together in their ancestral home on the Cornish coast, it looks like suicide. The grieving relatives gather together to discuss the fate of Barcombe Hall, when another shocking death occurs. Inspector Rutledge, who is still shell-shocked from his experiences in the Great War, is sent from Scotland Yard to investigate. Rutledge is soon convinced that the answers to this baffling case lie within the family's secret history.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateOct 26, 2012
    ISBN9781470333508
    Wings of Fire
    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 Wings of Fire

    4/5

    68 ratings17 reviews

    What did you think?

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    • 3/5
      My reasons for choosing this mystery can be laid at Kinsey Millhone's door: she is constantly reminding us how much she enjoys Ian Rutledge mysteries.It wasn't until I re-met Hamish that I remembered [The Red Door]--one of the first books I ever read for EarlyReviewers.The book didn't let me go, even after I figured out "who dunnit," but it is not a book I would choose to read a second time. I suppose I will give Charles Todd one more chance and see how I feel after that one!
    • 4/5
      A more assured second outing for a mystery series that is becoming an addiction! This is a very well-written novel that happens to have a mystery at its center. The role of Hamish-the-voice is a little skimpier this time, not quite as loud on the page; I'm not sure that's entirely to my liking, but I think it's probably the best way to treat that difficult character. He could be a very great distraction, used too freely, though I find him fascinating...sleuth and sidekick only need one body!I'm always interested in stories set in Cornwall, as this one is. It's such a different place, one that doesn't seem quite like England but undeniably is; it's so isolated (in English terms) from the main flow of the country that it seems to have all the advantages of being foreign...mystery, exoticism...without the inconvenience of learning a foreign language. Necessarily, that is, since a determined (an American would say "bloody-minded") effort is underway to "save" the Cornish tongue.Inspector Ian Rutledge's work in this small Cornish village, whose Hall has seen three rapidly succesive deaths, is to determine with his London experience whether the local force did its job properly in ruling the deaths accidental or suicides. You can imagine that puts the backs up of pretty much the entire village as the news spreads! No one likes his territory big-footed across by the Big Noise from the City. It's just never a popular thing, and as the newsvine spreads the fact that it's a member of the Hall family...a cousin...who called in the Londoner, feeling runs even higher.Todd examines how people, no matter their connection to events, respond to them with fierce passion. A simple childhood slight, an accident of observation, a detail changed by a fearful witness in a larger plan...all these play their role in creating and then sustaining a mystery that has at its heart the simplest of human motivations: Envy. Coming fresh off the Great War, this trope has special poignance, since it was largely the German Kaiser's envy of his cousins that set the conflict in motion.I would recommend reading these books in order. I hope you'll give them a shot. They're good psychological novels that happen to come in a series and feature the same protagonist(s). Gladly recommended.
    • 4/5
      It isn't often you can find a mystery author who truly can throw you... you don't know who committed the crime after the first few chapters. Each chapter is a discovery, not only of the mystery but of Ian Rutledge himself.
    • 4/5
      Rutledge is off to another small English village to investigate two recent deaths, apparent suicides. It is just the tip of the iceberg with other previous suicides, fatal accidents and a long ago child lost and never found. Angst abounds and the Inspector turns to one of the suicide's poems for possible clues to the deaths that have decimated a family.
    • 5/5
      This is the second book in the Ian Rutledge mystery series. I found the series because it was a choice of my RL Mystery book group. I read the first 2 for the group, but will continue the series on my own because they are well written and interesting.In this story Ian is sent to another village in the country, Cornwall this time. A poet and her brother commit suicide, and then another brother falls down the stairs and dies. Another family member asks a relation, a minor lord in the Home Office (?) to send someone to find out if the deaths were really what they seem. The family is age old local gentry, and the poet was famous for her war poetry, though she used an assumed name.Ian is sent by his superior Bowles, who is trying to sabotage him. Sent without all the information, Ian and his haunt/illness Hamish, a lasting present from WWI, are supposed to discretely determine if murder is afoot.Hamish is the sergeant that Ian executed at the front for refusing to advance. He has been verbally 'haunting' Ian since he woke up in the hospital. Ian suffered from shell shock after being buried alive in a bomb blast in a trench at the front. Ian keeps Hamish a secret, otherwise he would be judged crazy and sent back to the hospital.Hamish is angry and vindictive and tries to upset Ian, but sometimes he forgets and actually helps Ian with his detection. The reader is never sure if Hamish is part of Ian's diseased mind, or is really a separate entity haunting Ian (a bit of fantasy). Ian is very rattled to learn the dead poet was a woman, since he found that she was spot on about being at war and on the battlefield. The poet a woman, and a cripple, was never at the front even in a supporting capacity, so how does she come by her knowledge ?This story is a very tangled one about the most recent generation of the family in question. The mother married 3 times and had multiple children and a step son. Those remaining alive are suspects that Ian has to question, but they are all outraged (except for the secret requester) that the police are involved. The locals also have knowledge of the family secrets and wish to protect them. Ian finds that he has to look into many more than 3 family deaths, all while not upsetting the family and the locals.I really liked it, even more than the first book. The only problem is towards then end the list of suspects is dwindling, and Ian makes a statement that gives it away. Good writing, great characters, wonderful setting, and an intricate plot, just a great read.
    • 4/5
      It isn't often you can find a mystery author who truly can throw you... you don't know who committed the crime after the first few chapters. Each chapter is a discovery, not only of the mystery but of Ian Rutledge himself.
    • 5/5
      I read this book and it is very good . I got inspire very much after reading it . I learnt a moral that FAILURE IS STEPPING STONE TO SUCCESS . I really thank the person who made this aap . ?????☺?
    • 3/5
      2nd in the Inspector Rutledge of Scotland Yard series, set in post-World War I.Rutledge, having just come back from solving his last case in Warwickshire, is shuffled off to Cornwall by his jealous superior, Bowles, who doesn't want the possibility of Rutledge muscling in on the glory of finding a serial killer. There really isn't a case; a relative of two members of the landed gentry who have committed suicide has asked the Home Office to send an investigator to make sure that all has been handled properly. Rutledge has been assigned what looks like a fool's task so that he is out of London and away from a high-profile case as well as in the hopes that he will fall flat on his face and give Bowles something with which to damage Rutledge's career. Rutledge arrives in Borcombe to find yet another dead body, this time from an accident, and a baffling inability to make any sense out of the family of the suicides and what really might have happened. Was it a double suicide or was it really murder-suicide? Instead of the usual police procedures, Rutledge looks for motive as a way of determining if there was a murder and who, then was the killer.While better than the first book, Test of Wills, Todd still is unable to pull off what has the potential for a very good series. His background--post World War I Great Britain and his incorporation of the horrors of the Great War itself into his plots--is extremely well done. But the psychological approach simply does not come off. Rutledge in his mind is simply too analytical, too self-absorbed to make his character really credible. The voice in his mind, that of his dead corporal Hamish McCloud, which is the physical manifestation of his shell shock, is not well done. Todd can't seem to make up his mind if Hamish is the voice of Rutledge's conscience, his survivor's guilt, or some supernatural manifestation who comments on places and events that Rutledge can not possibly know about. Additionally, Hamish gets the worst writing in the book--he "grumbles" and "rumbles" a great deal, "growls'" too much, and "stirred" too restlessly. The character simply does not work.The minor characters are adequate, although Chief Inspector Bowles is really badly done as the villain--it's a poor imitation of Chief Inspector Racer in Grimes' Richard Jury series; Racer is a wonderful character in his own right, while Bowles is a stick figure.While the plot is good, Todd does some unfortunate things at the end, leaving gaps in the reader's understanding, loose ends that are never tied up, leaving a sense of dissatisfaction with the resolution.Despite its potential, there's just not enough to keep me reading this series.
    • 3/5
      I still like Inspector Rutledge, and will definitely read more of the series, but there is just some vital spark lacking from this mystery. Still considered an embarrassment/potential threat by his superior at Scotland Yard, Rutledge is dispatched to Cornwall to solve an unusual trio of deaths in one family, two suicides and an apparent accident. He learns that one of the suicides was a famous poet whose insightful verse about the war helped Rutledge himself to survive the aftermath of the trenches, and this fact threatens to prejudice his investigation.The formula is there for a great story: the atmosphere and setting of a Du Maurier novel, Christie-esque characters and plotting, and a pitch-perfect reproduction of post-war England, but the tension is stretched too thin. Rutledge is lead to first one conclusion and then another as facts and secrets are revealed, but the clues are paced to intrigue and not confuse the reader - it's just that the resolution could have been tighter. I did finish, because I wanted to confirm my suspicions, but it took more of my time than a book of this size would normally demand.
    • 4/5
      Great twists & turns and a surprise ending!!One of their best!
    • 5/5
      a poet... a murder... a family with a dark past... siblings who don't like each other... all the elements of a good English mystery... plus a main character who still fights his inner demons from the horrors of WWI and the trenches
    • 3/5
      Second in a long series; better than the first. The main character, an inspector with a split personality as a result of having experienced the horrors of World War I, is more functional and more appealing in this volume. Both books require strenuous suspension of disbelief for the backstories to hang together, but the atmospherics and the sleuthing works. Still some problems with the wrap-up, which doesn't come out of left field this time, but turns back to a solution eliminated with some finality by the inspector -- and, here's the problem, by the authors as well -- much earlier in the story.
    • 4/5
      Inspector Ian Rutledge carries in his head the voice of Hamish Macleod. Rutledge had been forced to witness Hamish=s execution for disobedience of orders just before they were all buried by shelling that collapsed the walls of their trenches in the later part of WWI. Rutledge was hauled out barely alive, but the voice of Hamish and his running commentaries on Rutledge=s actions continues to haunt him so clearly that he wonders no one else can hear Hamish’s voice. The inspector is sent to investigate the deaths of three related individuals: two apparent suicides and an accidental fall down a long stairway. A well-connected relative finds the coincidence too unlikely and pressure from the Home Office being what it is, Ian is to verify or disprove the findings of the local constabulary. One of the suicides is an Olivia, a crippled poet. As Rutledge delves deeper into the tragedies, he learns from other members of the family that Olivia may be hiding several rather dark secrets. Evidence, all anecdotal, much to Rutledge’s despair, reveals that someone has been systematically murdering members of the family, making each killing appear to be an accident.. Soon even the local citizenry wish that this Scotland Yard interloper would just abandon the investigation, declare everything an accident, and go home. The wounds being opened are just too deep. After all, if Olivia is the culprit, and she is dead, what good can be served. “O. A. Manning [her pseudonym] is alive,” is Rutledge’s response. Todd writes very well and the suspense becomes quite unbearable as the suspicion moves from one member of the family to another. This is an excellent mystery.
    • 3/5
      Certainly not the best of the Rutledge series but worth a listen. Needed more Hamish!
    • 2/5
      While well written, I found this book to be less enjoyable to read than A Test of Wills. The characters' relationships were just confusing enough to make for slow reading for me. I look forward to reading the 3rd book in the series to see how Rutledge develops.
    • 4/5
      Wings Of Fire is a sensibly better book than its predecessor and kick starter, A Test Of Wills. The common thing between them are the descriptions of forceful personalities, natures, if not mettle. Another similar chord that struck with me is the aloofness, the cold, the distant colors put in use in the books. Alas that the author does not deem it necessary to go step by step to the primordial murders, and pertinently glosses over them. There was neither sorrow nor much fun in the fiber of this story. That's why its score is not perfect. But it's a wonderful study of human nature.
    • 1/5
      WINGS OF FIRE** by Charles Todd (Mystery Fiction, 1920s England) 1 star ratingIn 2010, I also greatly enjoyed Charles Todd’s first Ian Rutledge mystery, A Test of Wills. I was excited to find a new series set in a period that fascinates me (WWI and shortly after) and to root for the protagonist, who suffers from shell-shock.This entry, Wings of Fire, was agonizing to read and I would have dumped it early on but that the title satisfied a reading challenge category. There was a not-quite mystery of a murder-suicide, but it wasn’t enough to fill a book. The same material was presented over and over, in different ways, and then in the same ways, until I was ready to scream on several occasions. The only content remark I made for myself was to note the meaning of ordure. Go ahead: look it up.I know this series is highly acclaimed, and I know that first sequels are often weak, so I may try another. I’d really love a series with the promise that first book had.Read this if: honestly – don’t bother. 1 star