Watchers of Time - Charles Todd [0]
Title Page
Dedication
Praise
CHAPTER 1 - SEPTEMBER 1919
CHAPTER 2 - OCTOBER 1919
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
A FEARSOME DOUBT
About the Author
ALSO BY CHARLES TODD
Copyright Page
For Elayne K. McCullough—
For whom traveling the world was a joyous adventure
And whose friendship was a treasured gift.
And for Bill and her family, who brought her so much
happiness.
Bon voyage . . .
Praise for the novels of Charles Todd
WATCHERS OF TIME
“A COMPELLING MYSTERY RICH WITH DEPTH AND SHADING.”
— The Washington Post Book World
“A SPOT-ON RECREATION OF THE 1919 PERIOD, SOME WILY USE OF THE TITANIC TRAGEDY AND VILLAGERS’ XENOPHOBIA, AND THE MOST PERSISTENT PLAGUING BY A GHOST SINCE MACBETH. TODD FANS WILL QUEUE UP FOR THIS ONE.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“COMPELLING . . . PSYCHOLOGICALLY ASTUTE.”
—Publishers Weekly
“POIGNANTLY MOVING AND SUSPENSEFUL . . . THIS IS A SERIES THAT ONLY GROWS STRONGER AS IT GOES ALONG.”
—Romantic Times
LEGACY OF THE DEAD
“ELOQUENT . . . RICH.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“TIGHTLY WORKED, POIGNANT . . . A MOST MOVING STORY.”
— Booknews from The Poisoned Pen
“A RICH, COMPLEX NOVEL INTELLIGENTLY WRITTEN AND VERY AFFECTING.”
—The Purloined Letter
“IMMENSELY INTRIGUING . . . A FINE, UNIQUE, AND MOVING MYSTERY.”
—Booklist
“POWERFUL.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“SUPERB . . . CLAIM[S] OUR INTEREST AND HOLD[S] US FAST UNTIL THE LAST CHILLING PAGE.”
—Romantic Times
“READERS WILL CONTINUE TO BE CAPTIVATED BY TODD’S PORTRAIT OF THE DANGEROUSLY UNRAVELING DETECTIVE, AND HIS EQUALLY INCISIVE EVOCATION OF THE GRIEVING POSTWAR WORLD.”
—Publishers Weekly
“MUCH MORE THAN YOUR AVERAGE ENGLISH COUNTRY HOUSE MYSTERY.”
—Mystery Lovers Bookshop News
A TEST OF WILLS
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
“TODD GIVES US A SUPERB CHARACTERIZATION OF A MAN WHOSE WOUNDS HAVE MADE HIM INTO A STRANGER IN HIS OWN LAND, AND A DISTURBING PORTRAIT OF A COUNTRY INTOLERANT OF ALL STRANGERS.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“TODD DEPICTS THE OUTER AND INNER WORLDS OF HIS CHARACTERS WITH AUTHORITY AND SYMPATHY AS HE CLOSES IN ON HIS SURPRISING —AND CONVINCING—CONCLUSION.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“THE EMOTIONAL AND PHYSICAL CARNAGE IN WORLD WAR I IS USED TO REMARKABLE EFFECT.”
—Chicago Tribune
SEARCH THE DARK
“TODD WORKS . . . VOLATILE ELEMENTS INTO A REMARKABLE VILLAGE MYSTERY . . . DRIVEN BY CHARACTERS OF GREAT PSYCHOLOGICAL COMPLEXITY.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“TODD’S IAN RUTLEDGE MYSTERIES ARE AMONG THE MOST INTELLIGENT AND AFFECTING BEING WRITTEN THESE DAYS.”
—The Washington Post Book World
WINGS OF FIRE
“[TODD WRAPS] HIS CHALLENGING PLOT, COMPLEX CHARACTERS, AND SUBTLE PSYCHOLOGICAL INSIGHTS IN THICK LAYERS OF ATMOSPHERE.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“A STRONG MYSTERY, FILLED WITH FINE CHARACTERIZATIONS [AND] A SUPERB EYE FOR CORNWALL . . . WISE AND WILY.”
—The Boston Globe
CHAPTER 1
SEPTEMBER 1919
Osterley
DR. STEPHENSON TURNED AWAY FROM THE bed where the dying man lay breathing so lightly the blanket over his thin chest barely stirred. His bony, restless fingers plucking at the edge of the wool were the only signs of life and awareness. Twice the young woman sitting on the bed beside him had tried to still them, covering them with her own, but her father’s hand picked up the silent tattoo again, like a drummer remembering his place, as soon as she released it. He had already frayed an inch of the binding. She gave up and sat back, sighing.
His face was grooved by illness, and a stubble of beard emphasized the lines, like a rough landscape of suffering below the sun-weathered skin of forehead and nose. Shaggy gray eyebrows hung heavily over the sunken lids. Age weighed him down, but there was a certain strength