Watchers of Time

In the Norfolk marshland town of Osterley, a dying Anglican man's final request for a Catholic priest for his last confession is strange enough, but the subsequent murder of that very priest makes the case genuinely baffling. Scotland Yard sends the fragile but determined Ian Rutledge to investigate a seemingly simple robbery gone wrong, and he finds himself uncovering secrets the local authorities actively prefer to leave buried. Charles Todd's fifth Rutledge novel is set in 1919, with the First World War's damage present in every scene.

Samuel Gillies navigates both Rutledge's damaged psyche and the Norfolk setting with care, giving the novel's atmospheric fog-bound quality full presence in the narration. The voice of Hamish, the Scot Rutledge executed in the trenches and who now haunts him as an interior presence, is handled with the delicacy the series requires. At just under fourteen hours, this is a character study as much as a mystery, and Gillies honors both dimensions.