#BookReview The Gate Keeper by Charles Todd @WmMorrowBooks

The Gate Keeper by Charles Todd
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

On a deserted road, late at night, Scotland Yard’s Ian Rutledge encounters a frightened woman standing over a body, launching an inquiry that leads him into the lair of a stealthy killer and the dangerous recesses of his own memories in this twentieth installment of the acclaimed New York Timesbestselling series.

Hours after his sister’s wedding, a restless Ian Rutledge drives aimlessly, haunted by the past, and narrowly misses a motorcar stopped in the middle of a desolate road. Standing beside the vehicle is a woman with blood on her hands and a dead man at her feet.

She swears she didn’t kill Stephen Wentworth. A stranger stepped out in front of their motorcar, and without warning, fired a single shot before vanishing into the night. But there is no trace of him. And the shaken woman insists it all happened so quickly, she never saw the man’s face.

Although he is a witness after the fact, Rutledge persuades the Yard to give him the inquiry, since he’s on the scene. But is he seeking justice—or fleeing painful memories in London?

Wentworth was well-liked, yet his bitter family paint a malevolent portrait, calling him a murderer. But who did Wentworth kill? Is his death retribution? Or has his companion lied? Wolf Pit, his village, has a notorious history: in Medieval times, the last wolf in England was killed there. When a second suspicious death occurs, the evidence suggests that a dangerous predator is on the loose, and that death is closer than Rutledge knows.

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I found The Gate Keeper to be a more enjoyable book to read than Racing the Devil, the previous book in the series. The story is definitely more compelling in this book and the mystery of the man killed by a stranger in the night on a desolated road is perplexing. It's the kind of mystery where much of the investigation hangs on interviews of those around the dead man. Which to be honest, can be a bit of a problem when a book's story isn't that engaging. This book handles that in a good way, although there are moments in the book when I felt that the investigation didn't move along especially fast. When it felt like nothing really happened other than Ian Rutledge trying to figure out what to do next.

Besides the case are Ian Rutledge dealing with his sister's wedding. He's both happy for her and sad that this will bring a change in their lives. He's still dealing with the haunting of Hamish and meeting some really awful characters in this book isn't brightening his mood. Thankfully Melinda Crawford shows up to lend him some support. Although I'm still waiting for Bess Crawford to make an appearance...

The Gate Keeper's best part is the end when a little hint leads Ian Rutledge the right way and finally to the killer. It's an interesting case and the ending, the reason for the killing felt genuinely surprising. Without Ian Rutledge's tenacity would the killer probably have managed to get away with it...

I want to thank William Morrow for providing me with a free copy through Edelweiss for an honest review!