A Divided Loyalty: An Inspector Ian Rutledge Mystery

Set in 1921, bestseller Todd’s middling 22nd whodunit featuring Insp. Ian Rutledge (after 2019’s The Black Ascot) opens with a suspenseful tease. Scotland Yard Chief Insp. Brian Leslie is dispatched to Wiltshire, where an unidentified woman, who’s been fatally stabbed, has been found inside Avebury, a Stonehenge-like prehistoric stone circle. Leslie is startled to recognize the victim and fears that his reaction has alerted his colleagues that he knew the deceased, even as he reassures himself that, as the officer in charge, he can control the inquiry and its outcome. When Leslie fails to solve the murder, the Avebury case is reassigned to Rutledge, who recently handled a similar crime successfully. Rutledge finds himself in the awkward position of reviewing a superior’s work and questioning the man’s choices. The answers as to why Leslie felt guilt after seeing the woman’s corpse and what she meant to him are less satisfying than the series’ many superior solutions. Todd (the mother-and-son writing team of Caroline and Charles Todd) has done better. Agent: Lisa Gallagher, DeFiore and Co. (Feb.)