A Long Shadow

A Long Shadow takes Rutledge to a Northamptonshire village where a constable has been killed and a three-year-old girl's disappearance remains unsolved, two crimes that may or may not be connected. Todd's eighth novel is characteristically rooted in the particular textures of English rural life after the war, where trauma runs beneath polished surfaces and the most ordinary communities can harbor the most persistent violence.

Samuel Gillies narrates with the quiet authority that has become his signature in this series, his voice well-suited to the landscape's meditative atmosphere. The balance between Rutledge's internal struggle with Hamish and the external investigation is maintained with care, and Gillies gives both threads their proper weight without allowing either to overwhelm the other.