This feels like a gentle book reflecting a pace of life that was much slower than today. The horror of WWI is carried by Inspector Rutledge and most of the male characters in the novel and provides a shared experience that binds strangers together and shadows the book with a context of dread. The story can be viewed as a standard murder mystery but this is not the gory descriptions of dead bodies that I'm used to in crime fiction. The reaction of the ordinary people is what depicts the unsettling nature of these crimes. Inspector Ian Rutledge is a strong and intriguing lead who's mind is quick but troubled. The landscape of the fens becomes a character in itself and each of the human characters is clearly written. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will be reading more Charles Todd in the future.