Books by Charles Todd

Youre going to love Todd.Stephen King, Entertainment WeeklyThe critically acclaimed creator of the Inspector Ian Rutledge and battlefield nurse Bess Crawford mystery series, Charles Todd now offers readers a bittersweet love story and romantic mystery that unfolds at Christmas during the dangerous opening days of World War I. The Walnut Tree is an unforgettable story of a woman who puts herself in the line of fire for the sake of wounded soldiers and falls deeply in love with a man who may be forbidden to her. For anyone who has fallen under the spell of Downton Abbey, and for all the fans of the British-set mysteries of Elizabeth George, Anne Perry, Ruth Rendell, Martha Grimes, and Jacqueline Winspear, The Walnut Tree is essential reading.

Ian Rutledge of Scotland Yard must contend with two dangerous enemies in New York Times bestselling author Charles Todds Proof of Guilt.Can Rutledge solve the apparent murder of a top wine merchant while dealing with interference from his superior, the new Acting Chief Superintendent?Readers of Charles Todds Bess Crawford books and London-based Ian Rutledge mysteries will be thrilled with Proof of Guilt, clue by clue.

“Bess is among the most compassionate and intelligent characters.” –The Sun-Sentinel From the New York Times bestselling author of the Bess Crawford mystery series, a short story that unravels dark secrets from her close friend Simon Brandon’s past. Years before the Great War summoned Bess Crawford to serve as a battlefield nurse, the indomitable heroine spent her childhood in India under the watchful eye of her friend and confidant, the young soldier Simon Brandon. The two formed an inseparable bond on the dangerous Northwest Frontier where her father’s Regiment held the Khyber Pass against all intruders. It was Simon who taught Bess to ride and shoot, escorted her to the bazaars and the Maharani’s Palace, and did his best to keep her out of trouble, after the Crawford family took an interest in the tall, angry boy with a mysterious past. But the Crawfords have long guarded secrets for Simon and he owes them a debt that runs deeper than Bess could ever know. Told through the eyes of Melinda, Richard, Clarissa, and Bess, A Hanging at Dawn pieces together a mystery at the center of Bess’s family that will irrevocably change the course of her future. 

Scotland Yard's Ian Rutledge seeks a killer who has eluded Scotland Yard for years in this next installment of the acclaimed New York Times bestselling series. An astonishing tip from a grateful ex-convict seems implausible-but Inspector Ian Rutledge is intrigued and brings it to his superior at Scotland Yard.

World War I nurse and amateur sleuth Bess Crawford investigates an old murder that leaves her pondering a troubling question: How can facts lie?In 1908, when a young Bess Crawford lived in India, an unforgettable incident darkened the otherwise happy time. Her father's regiment discovered it had a murderer in its ranks, an officer who killed five people yet was never brought to trial.A decade later, tending to the wounded on the battle-fields of France during World War I, Bess learns from a dying man that the supposed murderer, Lieutenant Wade, is alive?and serving at the Front. According to reliable reports, he'd died years before, so how did Wade escape India? What drove a good man to murder in cold blood?Bess uses her leave to investigate. But when she stumbles on the horrific truth, she is shaken to her very core. The facts reveal a brutal reality, a reality that could have been her own fate.

Highly recommendedwell-rounded, believable characters, a multi-layered plot solidly based on human nature, all authentically set in the England of 1917an outstanding and riveting read.New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens Bess Crawford is a strong and likable character.Washington TimesAlready deservedly lauded for the superb historical crime novels featuring shell-shocked Scotland Yard inspector Ian Rutledge (A Lonely Death, A Pale Horse et al), acclaimed author Charles Todd upped the ante by introducing readers to a wonderful new series protagonist, World War One battlefield nurse Bess Crawford. Featured for a third time in A Bitter Truth, Bess reaches out to help an abused and frightened young woman, only to discover that no good deed ever goes unpunished when the good Samaritan nurse finds herself falsely accused of murder. A terrific follow up to Todds A Duty to the Dead and An Impartial Witness, A Bitter Truth is another thrilling and evocative mystery from one of the most respected writers in the genre (Denver Post) and a treat for fans of Elizabeth George, Anne Perry, Martha Grimes, and Jacqueline Winspear.

World War I nurse Bess Crawford, introduced in A Duty to the Dead, returns in an exciting new mystery in which a murder draws her inexorably into the sights of a cunning killerIt is the early summer of 1917. Bess Crawford has returned to England from the trenches of France with a convoy of severely wounded men. One of her patients is a young pilot who has been burned beyond recognition, and who clings to life and the photo of his wife that is pinned to his tunic.While passing through a London train station, Bess notices a woman bidding an emotional farewell to an officer, her grief heart-wrenching. And then Bess realizes that she seems familiar. In fact, she's the woman in the pilot's photo, but the man she is seeing off is not her husband.Back on duty in France, Bess discovers a newspaper with a drawing of the woman's face on the front page. Accompanying the drawing is a plea from Scotland Yard seeking information from anyone who has seen her. For it appears that the woman was murdered on the very day Bess encountered her at the station.Granted leave to speak with Scotland Yard, Bess becomes entangled in the case. Though an arrest is made, she must delve into the depths of her very soul to decide if the police will hang an innocent man or a vicious killer. Exposing the truth is dangerous?and will put her own life on the line.

It is 1919, and the War to End All Wars has been won. But for Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge, recently returned from the battlefields of France, there is no peace. Suffering from shell shock, he plunges into his work to save his sanity. But his first assignment is a case certain to spell both personal and professional disaster.A popular colonel has been murdered in Warwickshire, and the main suspect is a decorated war hero. No matter what the outcome, Rutledge may not escape with his career intact. And, win or lose, the cost could be even higher: The one witness who could break the case is himself a shell-shock victim. In this war-ravaged man, Rutledge sees his own possible future, should he fail.

Lancashire, England-June, 1920 Who was the woman who lived and died behind the red door? What did she see before she died? And who was the man who never came home from the Great War, for the simple reason that he had never gone to war? How is the woman′s death linked to his disappearance? And why is Scotland Yard blind to the connection, even when Inspector Ian Rutledge points it out?

At the end of a terrible war, a woman painted the door to her house red to welcome her husband home from the Front . . . but he never returned. Two years later, in the English summer of 1920, she lies lifeless behind that door, savagely bludgeoned to death. In London, a man suffering from a mysterious illness goes missing, and his family members offer conflicting accounts of one another's whereabouts at the time of his disappearance. Then, suddenly, he reappears, miraculously recovered, offering no clues to the puzzle or to the reason behind his brothers' and sister's silence and rage.Now Inspector Ian Rutledge, still haunted by the battlefield's horrors, must solve two possibly connected mysteries. He must uncover the family secret that nearly drove one man mad, and bring a ruthless killer to justice.

?Todd's novels are known for compelling plotting with a thoughtful whodunit aspect, rich characterization, evocative prose, and haunting atmosphere.??Richmond Times-Dispatch?Readers who can't get enough of [Jacqueline Winspear's] Maisie Dobbs...are bound to be caught up in the adventures of Bess Crawford.??New York Times Book ReviewTo great critical acclaim, author Charles Todd introduced protagonist Bess Crawford in A Duty to the Dead. The dedicated World War I nurse returns in An Impartial Witness, and finds herself in grave peril when a moral obligation makes her the inadvertent target of a killer. As hauntingly evocative as Todd's award-winning, New York Times bestselling Ian Rutledge novels, An Impartial Witness transports readers to a dark time of war and involves us in murder, intrigue, and the fascinating affairs of a truly unforgettable cast of characters.

New Year's Eve, 1919. Called away from dinner at the home of friends, Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge finds a brass cartridge casing on the steps outside. While it looks identical to the countless others he'd seen during the war, this one has a mysterious engraving. Curious, he pockets it.