Tales: Short Stories Featuring Ian Rutledge and Bess Crawford

Tales: Short Stories Featuring Ian Rutledge and Bess Crawford (2015) Charles Todd

This collection is four short stories with Bess Crawford and Ian Rutledge.

“The Kidnapping”
“The Girl on the Beach”
“Cold Comfort”
“The Maharani’s Pearls”

“The Kidnapping” – Ian Rutledge, London 1920

I actually have a copy of this short story, but it had been ages since I’d read it, so I’d pretty much forgotten the story. Ian Rutledge is on duty when a man comes in demanding to see an inspector because his daughter had been kidnapped.

“The Girl on the Beach” – Bess Crawford, England, 1916

Bess is on leave and walking along the beach when she comes across the body of a young woman. She reports the murder and then wants to know more about the woman and why she was killed.

“Cold Comfort” – Ian Rutledge, WWI Front Lines

This is set during the war. Ian Rutledge is on the front lines with the sappers digging tunnels to the German lines.

I don’t think I’ve ever read anything before about the sappers and the tunneling that happened on the front lines in WWI. It sounds utterly horrifying, and I can’t even imagine the kind of person who would be able to consistently do that.

“The Maharani’s Pearls” – Bess Crawford, British Army Garrison, Northern India, when Bess Crawford was ten

This was the weakest story of the four. Bess does a LOT for a ten-year-old.

Publisher : Witness Impulse
Rating: 7.5/10

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