Charles Todd--No Shred of Evidence

DEBORAH CROMBIE: As I said at the beginning of the week, my one consolation for coming home from Left Coast Crime in Phoenix with the flu was my copy of Charles Todd's new Ian Rutledge novel, No Shred of Evidence, clutched in my hot (literally) little hand.

I am such a fan. I have been since the first Rutledge novel, A Test of Wills (talk about a binge read!), and long before I was privileged to know Charles and Caroline, the mother/son writing team who are "Charles Todd."

Caroline, unfortunately, was one of the many other people who went home from Phoenix with the flu, and she is still really under the weather. So we're going to do something a little different today. I'm going to talk about the book, and then Caroline is going to chat with us in the comments. AND she is going to give a copy of NO SHRED OF EVIDENCE to one of our commenters!

First, here's the synopsis:

In this absorbing new entry in the acclaimed New York Times bestselling series, Scotland Yard’s Ian Rutledge is caught up in a twisted web of vengeance and murder.

On the north coast of Cornwall, an apparent act of mercy is repaid by an arrest for murder. Four young women have been accused of the crime. A shocked father calls in a favor at the Home Office. Scotland Yard is asked to review the case.

However, Inspector Ian Rutledge is not the first Inspector to reach the village. Following in the shoes of a dead man, he is told the case is all but closed. Even as it takes an unexpected personal turn, Rutledge will require all his skill to deal with the incensed families of the accused, the grieving parents of the victim, and local police eager to see these four women sent to the infamous Bodmin Gaol. Then why hasn’t the killing stopped?

With no shred of evidence to clear the accused, Rutledge must plunge deep into the darkest secrets of a wild, beautiful and dangerous place if he is to find a killer who may—or may not—hold the key to their fate.

Oh, there's so much this doesn't say! I'm going to have to try really, really hard not to give spoilers.

This is the 18th Rutledge novel. Can you believe it? If it seems like hardly any time has passed since the beginning of the series, it is in large part because the novels are so gripping. But it is also because little time has passed for Ian Rutledge. Remember we were talking about fluid time with Glen Erik Hamilton the other day, and of how writers must make a decision about how to handle time in a series? A Test of Wills takes place in June of 1919, when Rutledge, suffering from PTSD, takes up the job he held before the war as a detective with Scotland Yard. No Shred of Evidence has moved forward to the autumn of 1920. Less than a year and a half has elapsed. (For a recent reference, the last episodes of Downton Abbey take place in 1924.) So that is my first question for Caroline and Charles: did you decide, at the beginning of the series, that time would move very slowly? It gives the series a great immediacy, almost as if we were living Rutledge's life along with him.

The book takes place in northern Cornwall, and oh, golly, do I wish a map was included in the book! I was too engrossed in the story (the binge read) to stop and look up the geography, but I did afterwards. The sense of place is so strong I find myself thinking about the village as if I'd been there. Why Cornwall, Caroline and Charles? And why this particular part of Cornwall? 

And I realize there's probably no easy answer to this, but how do you manage to imagine the setting so realistically as it was then? (Other than time travel, of course...)

The village (is it a real place?) is just there, near Rock and Padstow.

I can't say too much about the plot, but I will tell you that there is a fun twisty-turny time thing. The previous book, A Fine Summer's Day (which I adored) takes us back to 1914, the summer before the beginning of the war. We see Ian Rutledge as he was before the horrors of the trenches damaged him so badly, and there is an almost unbearable suspense in the fact that we know what is coming. We also meet Rutledge's fiance, Jean, and her cousin, a young woman named Kate Gordon. Kate is a strong and engaging character and I hoped to see her again. She is indeed back in No Shred of Evidence, one of the four young women accused of murder. There's an obvious affinity between Ian Rutledge and Kate.  
Are we allowed to hope that Rutledge might be allowed to find some personal happiness, Caroline and Charles? Alas, I fear that life can't run too smoothly for our fictional heroes and heroines, but I can't wait to see what happens next. Any hints?

I have to tell a little story on Caroline. When she told me she'd arrived home from Phoenix with a horrible case of the flu, she said, "It's given me a whole new perspective on the Spanish flu..." I think that's taking research a bit too far, Caroline! Armchair only, next time, please!

Readers, please stop and chat with Caroline and Charles in the comments. And join us at JRW in wishing Caroline a huge GET WELL SOON!

Charles Todd's newest Ian Rutledge novel, A FINE SUMMER'S DAY

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: BREAKING REDS NEWS! Red Hallie Ephron's THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN is #14 on the New York Times eBook list! Way to go, Hallie! We're all so, so, so happy for you!

(OK, now back to today's regularly scheduled blogging...)

Happy book birthday to Caroline and Charles Todd! Their newest novel, under the pen name Charles Todd, is A FINE SUMMER'S DAY. This novel is the latest in the acclaimed New York Times-bestselling Ian Rutledge series, about a brilliant but troubled Scotland Yard detective suffering from what we would now call PTSD after World War I. It's one of Hilary Clinton's favorite series and had a wonderful write-up in yesterday's New York Times Book Review.

A FINE SUMMER'S DAY is the seventeenth book in the Inspector Ian Rutledge series, and this one comes with a twist — it's a prequel, meaning we meet a young Rutledge before the war. Before he — and Britain — were changed forever.

And now, I am honored and delighted to introduce — Caroline and Charles Todd!

1. How did you come up with your character Ian Rutledge?

Caroline: I don’t really know. We wanted several things—to set A TEST OF WILLS in England because the Great War killed a generation of her young men, and we felt it would be interesting to see how a survivor of that war would return to civilian life—and to deal with murders committed by ordinary people, not gangsters or drug dealers or terrorists. The WHY rather than the how.  And so we needed a man capable of understanding people. Somehow we simply lucked out. I think I’ve been half in love with Rutledge ever since.

Charles:  Like the Bess Crawford series, we needed a character of his times, one who could act on his own. Much as we enjoy CSI, we didn’t want Forensics to solve the crime for our Inspector. Looking back to that first glimmer of Rutledge, he seemed to set the stage himself, rather than being “created” by us.  And I think that’s been his strength, just as it is Bess Crawford’s strength.

2. Why did you decide to set the new mystery, A Fine Summer's Day, in 1914?

Caroline:  After sixteen Rutledge mysteries, where we’d been examining him after the war, we were curious to see what sort of man he was before the trenches changed him forever. We weren’t sure we could carry it off, and yet, from the very first page, we realized that we must have known these things about him, however subconsciously. We couldn’t have done him justice in A TEST OF WILLS and the subsequent books if we hadn’t understood the bedrock of his mind and personality before the Battle of the Somme in 1916. It was an amazing journey of discovery on our parts.

Charles: As fans of the mystery ourselves, we’d come to admire so many characters created by other authors.  From Poirot to Dalgliesh, from Duncan Kincaid to Gamache, even Joe Leaphorn and Reacher and Stanley. It never occurred to us starting out with Rutledge that we might be creating another well known character. But he’s his own man, and we discovered while writing A FINE SUMMER’S DAY that he’s still full of surprises.

  

3. What kind of research do you do for your novels?

Charles and Caroline: You can’t write a good mystery without equally thorough research. In our case, with both series, we realized early on that we had to go to England if we wanted to get the time and the language and the settings right.  We also look for first hand sources of information about the period and the war. A friend found a little book by Florence Nightingale that was an interesting glimpse into what was known about dealing with war wounds and medicine at the time. Letters and memoirs and photographs are very important. But you have to be careful using a book written after 1920, you have to check that modern research hasn’t turned up information that a character living at the time couldn’t or wouldn’t have known. And England has lovely military museums. These and the ones here are an endless resource.

4. Do you generally know how your books will end before you start writing, or do you make changes as you go along?

Caroline:  We have no idea from page one forward who did it or why. We let the story evolve and the characters tell us what we need to know. And I think that’s a good thing, because it keeps the reader guessing too. We never outline, or write a proposal, because we prefer to be surprised as we work. Other writers thrive on outlines. That always amazes me because I was never good at them. Anyone who is has my respect.

Charles:  My father, who was our proofreader for many years, always worried about the ending because when we handed him a chapter, he knew that the next one hadn’t been written yet, and having the logical mind of a chemical engineer, he was afraid we might find ourselves going astray before he could find out who did it and why. Somehow we never did, and he’d laugh and say, “I don’t know how you managed it this time.” And sometimes we weren’t sure how we did, either.

5. What are you working on now?

Caroline and Charles:  In December we turned in the next Bess Crawford. It will be out in late summer, and the title is A PATTERN OF LIES.  It’s a mystery about our version of an actual event, and how a pattern of lies can warp and twist the truth until people start to believe them. We always love writing a Bess mystery.  She’s one of our favorite people, and she’s fun as well as interesting. Her decision to become a nursing sister, her background in India, and her relationships with her flat mates, her parents, and of course Simon Brandon and even Sergeant Lassiter, and not least, her experiences in the war, give her so many dimensions that we never lack ideas for her series. Now, with that one finished and in production, we’re about to start the next Rutledge for the winter of 2016.  Starting a new manuscript is always so exciting.

6. Anything else we should know?

Caroline:  There’s a character in A FINE SUMMER’S DAY who just might walk back into this new Rutledge.  You can almost hear her asking to reappear six years later…   The question is, what will Rutledge have to say about that?

Charles:  We weren’t sure how reviewers would take this return to the Summer of 1914, but they got it right away, and I think Rutledge fans are going to find it very satisfying.

  

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Thank you, Caroline and Charles. I was lucky enough to receive a copy of A FINE SUMMER'S DAY and it is fabulous — a perfect start to the series for the new reader, or, for those of us following Inspector Rutledge, new insight into his character (along with a fascinating new mystery). 

Reds and lovely readers, what do you think about a prequel to a long-running mystery series? And what do you hope to learn about Inspector Rutledge from his past?

ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Charles and Caroline Todd are a mother-and-son writing team who live on the east coast of the United States. Caroline has a BA in English Literature and History, and a Masters in International Relations. Charles has a BA in Communication Studies with an emphasis on Business Management, and a culinary arts degree that means he can boil more than water. Caroline has been married (to the same man) for umpteen years, and Charles is divorced.

Charles and Caroline have a rich storytelling heritage. Both spent many evenings on the porch listening to their fathers and grandfathers reminisce. And a maternal grandmother told marvelous ghost stories. This tradition allows them to write with passion about events before their own time. And an uncle/great-uncle who served as a flyer in WWI aroused an early interest in the Great War.

Charles learned the rich history of Britain, including the legends of King Arthur, William Wallace, and other heroes, as a child. Books on Nelson and by Winston Churchill were always at hand. Their many trips to England gave them the opportunity to spend time in villages and the countryside, where there’a different viewpoint from that of the large cities. Their travels are at the heart of the series they began ten years ago.

Charles’s love of history led him to a study of some of the wars that shape it: the American Civil War, WWI and WWII. He enjoys all things nautical, has an international collection of seashells, and has sailed most of his life. Golf is still a hobby that can be both friend and foe. And sports in general are enthusiasms. Charles had a career as a business consultant. This experience gave him an understanding of going to troubled places where no one was glad to see him arrive. This was excellent training for Rutledge’s reception as he tries to find a killer in spite of local resistance.

Caroline has always been a great reader and enjoyed reading aloud, especially poetry that told a story. The Highwayman was one of her early favorites. Her wars are WWI, the Boer War, and the English Civil War, with a sneaking appreciation of the Wars of the Roses as well. When she’s not writing, she’s traveling the world, gardening, or painting in oils. Her background in international affairs backs up her interest in world events, and she’s also a sports fan, an enthusiastic follower of her favorite teams in baseball and pro football. She loves the sea, but is a poor sailor. (Charles inherited his iron stomach from his father.) Still, she has never met a beach she didn’t like.

Both Caroline and Charles share a love of animals, and family pets have always been rescues. There was once a lizard named Schnickelfritz. Don’t ask.

Writing together is a challenge, and both enjoy giving the other a hard time. The famous quote is that in revenge, Charles crashes Caroline’s computer, and Caroline crashes his parties. Will they survive to write more novels together? Stay tuned! Their father/husband is holding the bets.

The December Book Haul — and What We're Reading in 2015

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Happy 2015, everyone! 

If your home's anything like ours, books played a big part in the seasons festivities. My bookish presents included VINTAGE SPIRITS AND FORGOTTEN COCKTAILS: From the Alagazoozlom to the Zombie 100 Forgotten Recipes by Ted Haigh. 

It was from the Hubby, who knows how to give gifts that keep on giving — and one that also counts as research for more Maggie Hope novels!

The Hubby also received books, including THE ESSENTIAL SCRATCH AND SNIFF TO BECOMING A WINE EXPERT: Take a Whiff of That by Richard Betts and Wendy MacNaughton. No, I'm not kidding. Yes, that's why I had to get it.




As did the Kiddo, who got the Knopf Everyman's Library edition of Charles Dickens's classic A CHRISTMAS CAROL, as well as the entire set of THE BOXCAR CHILDREN (which, er, just happens to be one of my favorite series, too, hmmm....)


One of the great things about being a Red is getting advanced copies of books. I nearly fainted away like a Victorian maiden when I opened the package containing Charles Todd's newest Inspector Ian Rutledge Mystery: A FINE SUMMER'S DAY. Yes, it was an advance copy, but the book will be out soon — January 6, 2015, so not long to wait!

And I'm delighted to announce that Charles Todd (really the mother-and-son writing team of Caroline Todd and Charles Todd) will be guests here on Jungle Reds!  Join us here TOMORROW, Tuesday, January 6, to meet the illustrious Todds!


Reds, what new tomes are you most itching to get your hot little hands on in 2015? 


HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Happy New Year! Susan,  I understand your swoon over the new Todd (s)! And how brilliant of them to... well, we can hear about it tomorrow.  Cannot WAIT to read. I am in love with Rutledge. 

Anyway,  I have been telling everyone about a book called WHAT IF, which I picked up by chance, hoping it was a compendium of mystery plots (:-))  but it turned out to be a completely fascinating and hilarious book of "real answers to ridiculous hypothetical questions" — like, what if everyone in the world showed up at the same place and the same time and jumped up and down? And — could you make a rocket ship if you had enough hair dryers?  I love it, I must say, I am enchanted and enthralled. 

We also got a wonderful book called A YEAR IN ART, which is a huge volume, with a date on each day, and each day has a  gorgeous color plate of a painting and info about the work.  So we wake up to looking at our painting of the day. Plus, it has the added benefit of letting me know what day it IS, for which I am grateful.

HALLIE EPHRON: Friends and family know better than to get me books because I get so many sent to me and then I have to agonize over what to get rid of since my office is tiny and shelf space limited. But this year I bought myself a book/present: THE WORLD OF RAYMOND CHANDLER: IN HIS OWN WORDS. It's a compendium of quotes from his novels, essays, letters strung together with connective tissue about his life by editor Barry Day. A cross between a biography and a memoir. 

It's so nice to have a book that doesn't have to be read, start to finish. Where the ending is pre-ordained (he dies.) I dip into it regularly for inspiration... and to remind myself what writing is all about. 

So right now I'm opening at random as I often do... and find this from THE BIG SLEEP: "Under the thinning fog the surf curled and creamed, almost without a sound, like a thought trying to form itself on the edge of consciousness."

DEBORAH CROMBIE: It wouldn't be Christmas without books, now, would it? My daughter gave me HUMANS OF NEW YORK, which I absolutely adore, and has been given pride of place on the coffee table. She also gave me the new Jamie Oliver cookbook, Jamie Oliver's Comfort Food, which I am less enamored with even though I asked for it.  I have most of Jamie's books, love them and use them regularly, but I think this one will not be a fave--too many things I would never cook, although it may come in handy for the feeding-lots-of-people recipes. (I gave my daughter Ottolenghi's Plenty, which I love so much I've now had to order a copy for myself...) And my friend Gigi gave me Cary Elwe's The Making of The Princess Bride, which is huge fun.

Hallie, I love the Chandler quote!  Shivers...

And Susan, I brought my daughter Enid Blyton books every time I went to England (the days before you could just order them) so she grew up with The Famous Five and The Secret Seven, as well as The Boxcar Children. Brilliant stuff!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Add me to the list of readers anxiously awaiting A FINE SUMMER DAY - which, btw, got an excellent review from Marilyn Stasio in the New York Times Sunday Book Review yesterday. For Christmas, I got  A BETTER WORLD, the second book in Marcus Sakey's BRILLIANCE series, and I have to say it was just as good as the first. Can't wait for the third book to be released! I also got FOXGLOVE SUMMER, the fourth in Ben Aaronovitch's RIVERS OF LONDON series, a marvelously conceived world where London's Metropolitan Police has a department of magic, and where ancient British nature gods are real. Debs, you might really enjoy these books.

For Ross, I found (at a used book store) almost the entire run of Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey/Maturin saga in a very nice trade paperback edition. He's happily reading THE COMMODORE as I write. Youngest got a book on the pre-revolutionary Russian royals (she's the only 14-year-old I know who has a thing about the Tsars) and all three of my kids were lucky enough to get generous Amazon gift cards from their Uncle Pat and Aunt Julia, so I'm sure more books will be forthcoming soon.

DEBS: Julia, I ran across the first Ben Aaronovitch, Rivers of London, quite by accident when I was staying in a flat in Covent Garden a few years ago. I saw it in the window at Waterstones, went in, bought it, then stayed up all night. (He used to work at that Waterstones.) You'll understand when I say I've never looked at Covent Garden in quite the same way again! I've since bought every book as soon as it came out--must have the UK editions, not even sure they're being published here now. I loved Foxglove Summer. Not quite as dark as the previous two books. I just wish Aaronovitch would write faster. Oh, where have we heard that???

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Lovely readers, what mysteries and thrillers did you get for the holidays and what titles are you itching to get your hands on in the new year? Tell is in the comment section!

Charles Todd--An Unwilling Accomplice

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Most of you know I am a huge fan of Charles Todd (mother-and-son writing team Caroline and Charles) and not much makes me happier than a new book in their Bess Crawford series. While their series featuring Scotland Yard detective Ian Rutledge has moved into the 1920s, WWI nurse Bess Crawford is still in the thick of the conflict in 1918. But in the just-released Bess novel, AN UNWILLING ACCOMPLICE, Bess has a break from the battlefields. That certainly doesn't mean, however, that Bess stays out of trouble!

 

World War I Battlefield nurse Bess Crawford’s career is in jeopardy when a murder is committed on her watch, in this absorbing and atmospheric historical mystery from New York Times bestselling author Charles Todd.

Home on leave, Bess Crawford is asked to accompany a wounded soldier confined to a wheelchair to Buckingham Palace, where he’s to be decorated by the King. The next morning when Bess goes to collect Wilkins, he has vanished. Both the Army and the nursing service hold Bess negligent for losing the war hero, and there will be an inquiry.

Then comes disturbing word from the Shropshire police, complicating the already difficult situation: Wilkins has been spotted, and he’s killed a man. If Bess is to save her own reputation, she must find Wilkins and uncover the truth. But the elusive soldier has disappeared again and even the Shropshire police have lost him. Suddenly, the moral implications of what has happened—that a patient in her charge has committed murder—become more important to Bess than her own future. She’s going to solve this mysterious puzzle, but righting an injustice and saving her honor may just cost Bess her life.

Like all the Bess books, AN UNWILLING ACCOMPLICE is chock full of fascinating historical details and a wonderful sense of place--not to mention a plot that kept me reading straight through until I finished it. And as a bonus, I got to quiz Caroline and Charles about the book!

DEBS:  Caroline and Charles, are your books most often inspired by particular places?

CAROLINE:  Absolutely!  For each book we look for just the right setting, and then spend some time there.  Take your own book, THE SOUND OF BROKEN GLASS.  I can’t think of any other part of London that would have suited Andy’s story as well.  So not only the look and feel of a place matter. You must ask what happened there in the past, because it will affect the lives of the characters in one way or another.  The setting also determines the action, because it’s the limit in time and space for what is going to happen.   Driving off a cliff may sound like a dramatic finale for a mystery—but you have to make sure to start with that you’re in a countryside that has cliffs.      

CHARLES:  Sometimes we drive to a village we think is going to be ideal.  Bur when we get there, we discover it has no "character" after all, nothing that would make a mystery interesting.   So we have to move on. One of the reasons Rutledge works in the countryside so often is that English villages have so much to offer in the way of opportunity and variety.  And the same is true of Bess.  Of course occasionally we change the name of the village, if we think it would be best for the people still living there.  This is particularly true in next year's Bess, which we're working on right now. But if you know England, you can usually figure it out from the geography.

DEBS: I was so fascinated by your depiction of Ironbridge (both the town and the bridge) that I had

to look it up. Did you visit it?

C&C:  We really enjoyed our time there.  It’s in Shropshire, not far from Shrewsbury.   That iron bridge is very dramatic.  Just right for the first murder.   And there’s a lovely little town that climbs the hill that rises on this side of the bridge.  We discovered a bookshop there, and found books on Shropshire and the Great War. (The story of our lives—we’re always hunting for a way to get books back home! ) Believe it or not, that bridge was opened in 1781, the first arched bridge ever built of cast iron.  It’s on the UNESCO Heritage list.  We tend to take bridges for granted, but this one spans the River Severn where it passes through a narrow gorge, and it must have been a godsend locally!  Imagine having to travel for miles to find a place where you could ford or take a ferry.  We liked it so much that Morrow put it on the jacket.

DEBS: Bess finds herself in a very difficult position in this book, appearing to have been remiss in her duty at best, and at worst possibly helping a soldier desert. Was there any particular incident that inspired this story line?

C&C:  We'd seen an audience with the Queen where she gives out honors and medals, and we were intrigued with the idea of taking Bess to one.  It was when we were deciding what sort of person the wounded man would be, the one she was accompanying in order to manage his wheelchair, that the rest of the story fell into place.  And we were in Wales on that same trip to Ironbridge when we happened to see something on TV that triggered a very intriguing possibility.   Can’t tell you more about that—some people haven’t read the book yet.  Oddly enough, though, most of that information is still classified, and we can’t help but wonder why…  

 

DEBS: Bess gets to spend almost the entire book with handsome and intriguing Simon Brandon, which was a real treat. They have such an interesting relationship, and we learn more about Simon in this book. And of course readers want to know if they will ever be more than friends. Do you know, or do you let the relationship chart its own course from book to book?

CAROLINE:  Everyone loves Simon, I think!   We just wrote an e-short story,  "The Maharani's Pearls," where we learn a little more about the early relationship between Bess and Simon while the regiment was still in India and she was a young girl.  What’s in their future?  We have no idea, they haven’t told us yet.  Whatever their ultimate relationship, though, there’s definitely a strong bond between them, and that has intriguing possibilities.  Meanwhile, there’s still a war on, and nobody is thinking about the future just yet.  Stay tuned.

DEBS: Are the Dysoes (a unique setting in the book) real, and if not, what inspired them?

C&C:  The Dysoes are quite real.   And such a strange formation of high rounded hills with a single road snaking through them.   Not what you’d ever expect to find in Warwickshire.  A perfect place to set a story.  Just driving through that area was claustrophobic.  And think how cut off those villages must have been for centuries.  Bess and Simon were the strangers there, and not very welcomed.

DEBS: Bess and Simon seem to drive all over England in this book! How do you figure out how long it would have taken them to get from one place to another in 1918?  I would love to have a map!  I think your (our) publisher should commission Laura Hartman Maestro to draw maps for the Bess books. And the Rutledge books!

 

CAROLINE:  We love your maps!  And we have a map for A FINE SUMMER’S DAY, the next Rutledge!  Morrow found a wonderful cartographer who put his travels on the map.  Literally.   Bess actually has only four sites in this book--for the mystery part of the story.  There's London, of course.  Then Shropshire (Shrewsbury --think  Brother Cadfael!—and Ironbridge).  And then traveling to Warwickshire and the Dysoes, which aren’t all that far away from Stratford.   Bess also goes to Bakewell, just a skip and a jump from Chatsworth.   We tried to keep it interesting but manageable.

CHARLES:  It’s often frustrating, figuring out mileage for Rutledge and Bess.  Some of the roads they would have used don't exist any longer, so you sort of have to imagine how they would get from A to B and how long it would take.  We don't know if we are always precisely right, but we’re close enough to feel good about it.   The roads were hopeless.  But the motorcars of the day were marvels. A friend owns Rutledge's motorcar.  We've driven in it many times. Just recently it went from Pennsylvania to New Orleans without a hitch. We think it has even climbed Pike's Peak.   A hundred years old and still one of the most beautiful motorcars you can imagine. A burgundy red with a dark cream top, everything on it spit and polish, and an elegant Flying Lady (The Spirit of Ecstasy) for the bonnet ornament.

DEBS: You got a head start on the Great War, long before current writers decided to go back to that period.  The first Rutledge, A TEST OF WILLS, was published in 1996. Now we’ve come to the centennial of 1914-1918. What are you doing to mark this occasion?  (The photo is the stunning exhibit filling the dry moat of the Tower of London to mark the centennial. The installation of 888,246 ceramic poppies by ceramic artist Paul Cummins is called "Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red." Each poppy represents a British military fatality from the war.)

C&C:  We’ve just turned in A FINE SUMMER’S DAY, and we think it’s rather special.  January always means a Rutledge mystery, but this year we go back to June of 1914, when Rutledge had a brilliant career going at the Yard and is falling in love.  He has one last inquiry he must close before he can think about enlisting in the British Army.  What happens in those months between June and late September made him not only the detective he is, but the man he’s to become.  Not a prequel so much as a chance for readers to look deeper in Rutledge’s past, before the Battle of the Somme in 1916 changed him forever.  

CAROLINE:  On a personal note, it was a very emotional book to write, and we had just turned it in, still fresh in our minds, when I went to see WAR HORSE in London, with a friend.  I can’t describe the impact it had on me. It was as if I’d suddenly stepped into war with Rutledge. 

C&C:   Before we move on, we’ve just got to say something about your newest Kincaid and Gemma, TO DWELL IN DARKNESS.   Having the same publisher, we managed to get our hands on an early copy, and it blew us away.   It all takes place in four days, and the plotting is so clever we were unable to put it down.  There was only one problem with it:  we read the whole thing in one weekend, and now we have to wait a year before we find out what happens next!  Get to work! 

DEBS:  Thank you, Caroline and Charles! Caroline and Charles are great motivators (they write TWO fabulous books a year!) and cheerleaders! We're very fortunate that, because we have the same publisher, we often get to do events together, so I'm including a couple of my favorite photos. In the first we are

signing together somewhere in the wilds of central Florida (I think.) In the second, we had an event together in Charleston, SC. We got to eat oysters (Charles and I share the passion) and do a little sightseeing. This is Caroline shooting me shooting

Caroline!

I'm very excited about the map in the new Rutledge, A FINE SUMMER'S DAY, in January (and what a great title!) and I wondered, REDS and readers, if everyone else loved maps in books as much as Caroline and Charles and I do? 

Charles and Caroline will be dropping in to chat today, so do tell us in the comments! 

P.S. I want to see a photo of Rutledge's motorcar!

P.S.S. Isn't that a terrific cover???