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The Murder Stone
 
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The Murder Stone [Mass Market Paperback]

Charles Todd (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 10.99
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Product Description

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How well do we really know the people we love? Maybe never well enough, to judge by the example of Francesca Hatton, the young British heiress around whom Charles Todd constructs his first standalone historical suspense tale, The Murder Stone. Leaving London and her volunteer work with wounded World War I soldiers, Francesca--"the last of the Hattons ... [a] long and distinguished line"--returns in 1916 to River's End, the rural estate where her powerful and beloved grandfather is dying of a stroke. Francis Hatton's passing hits Francesca hard, especially coming so soon after the demise of her five male cousins, all of them "mown down with their dreams of glory" in battle. But her mourning is interrupted by multiple mysteries. Why did Francis insist in his will that the Murder Stone, a large and cryptically named white rock in his garden, be moved to the farthest corner of Scotland? Why had he concealed his ownership of two other, distant estates? And could there be any truth in the charge, leveled by an invalided soldier, that Francis long ago "abducted and killed his mother, then buried the body where it couldn't be found"? Forced by new revelations to rebalance her faith in the man who'd taken her in as an orphaned child, while simultaneously contending with a random sniper who's invaded the neighborhood of River's End, Francesca struggles to build a new future, even as her trust in the "facts" of her past crumbles.

Over the course of six previous novels, beginning with A Test of Wills--all featuring shell-shocked soldier-turned-inspector Ian Rutledge--Todd (the nom de plume of a mother-son writing team) has shown considerable skill in formulating criminal conundrums against the backdrop of post-World War I Britain. The Murder Stone vividly recaptures the nation in the very midst of that international violence, a painful period of untimely deaths and stunning Zeppelin raids. However, this yarn is as much a Gothic romance as an abstruse puzzler. Most of the secrets here can be figured out faster by the average reader than by the incredibly naïve Francesca. And with the exception of that vexed protagonist, whose investigations paint her into ever tighter moral corners, none of this novel's characters achieve much dimension. They're mechanical players in a drama that is surprising mostly for its failure to surprise. --J. Kingston Pierce --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

After six superb historicals (A Fearsome Doubt, etc.) featuring Inspector Rutledge, a man haunted by his WWI experiences, Todd misses the mark in his first stand-alone, a predictable, unengaging story of family secrets. Francesca Hatton, an unworldly young woman who's been volunteering for the Red Cross in London since the start of the Great War, returns in 1916 to her family home in the isolated Exe Valley, where her beloved grandfather, Francis Hatton, is on his death bed. After Francis dies, she finds that he kept many things from her, ranging from large properties he owned and maintained to his personal relationships. Her confusion is only compounded when a wounded ex-soldier, whose days are numbered, appears and accuses the older Hatton of having murdered his mother decades earlier. Despite her adoration of the man who reared her and her five orphaned male cousins, she begins to question her faith in him. Those doubts lead her to reexamine the mysterious deaths of her parents and numerous other relatives, though her sleuthing is little more sophisticated than that of Nancy Drew. Given the masterful way Todd's Rutledge novels capture the horrors of trench warfare and the brutal slaughter's effect on those returning to civilian life, it's all the more surprising that his portrayal of the war and its scars here is superficial. Todd's many admirers would be advised to give this a pass and wait for the next entry in the Rutledge series. FYI: Todd is the pseudonym of a mother-son writing team.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:
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2 star:
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1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5.0 out of 5 stars Stoned!, May 2 2009
By 
Dave and Joe "De Video Darlings" (Toronto, Ontario) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: The Murder Stone (Mass Market Paperback)
Man, I loved this book. The plot developed with something new on almost every page ... this book defines 'page turner'! Some books have plot twists at the end ... this one twists and turns like a puppy trying to get out of your hands. I'd never read Todd before and now will search out others cause this one was so much fun.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Fast paced, Jun 19 2004
By 
Valerie Adolph "Coast Journal" (Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Murder Stone (Hardcover)
This is a rattling good story, well told. The writer, departing from his previous Ian Rutledge series, this time explores the world of Francesca Hatton, a young heiress who finds her previously ordered world crashing down around her. She has to discover the truth about her grandfather - truth that seems both hidden and horrific.

Set in the time of World War 1, a period that resonates for the writer, the novel traces the maturing of Francesca in a world where her five male cousins and close childhood playmates have been killed in the war and where damaged men return from the battlefields struggling to pick up the pieces of their lives. The horror of the war and its carnage are never far away.

Plot and characters are all well developed and the pacing is good throughout. I thoroughly enjoyed this story. My only quibble would be that the male writer loses touch with Francesca towards the end, and doesn't fully enter the emotional world of a young woman contemplating marriage.

Other than this, it is an exciting tale, told with wit and insight.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Can't Put It Down, Jun 16 2004
By 
Mitzy Moo "Eclectic Reader" (Costa Mesa, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Murder Stone (Hardcover)
Charles Todd's novel is not his usual detective story, but a mystery nonetheless. The themes are the impact on innocent people of one man's hatred of another, and how little we might really know the people we love. Set in World War 1, the story concerns a young lady whose grandfather died of a broken heart after his third grandson was killed in the war. A mysterious man shows up and accuses her grandfather of terrible things. The book relates how she pieces together her grandfather's true story and resolves the unfinished business of his life. I thoroughly enjoyed it and could not put it down. Believe me, that is not typical. Usually I read the first 30 pages and the last 10. If I can easily tell how the author got from one point to the other I will stop reading. This book passed that test, and I enjoyed every minute I spent reading it.
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