The Gate Keeper: An Inspector Ian Rutledge Mystery

Scotland Yard’s Ian Rutledge is a witness to murder in the twentieth installement of the acclaimed New York Times bestselling series

Rutledge gives the bride away at his sister's wedding, filling the role of his late parents. And when the evening ends, he's too restless to sleep. Changing his clothes, he begins to drive aimlessly. Late that night, he comes upon a motorcar standing, doors wide, in the middle of a dark and lonely road. Standing beside the motorcar is a woman with blood on her hands and a dead man lying at her feet.

She swears she didn't kill him-and there's no weapon to be found. Is her story the truth, that a stranger stopped them as they drove home from an evening party, and then without warning, took out a revolver and fired one shot at Stephen Wentworth before disappearing into the night? Certainly there's no sign of him now! And she swears she never saw the man's face.

The victim is well-liked in the village where he lives, yet his bitter family accuses him of murder. Who did he kill? And has retribution finally caught up with him? Or has his companion lied all along?

Rutledge manages to persuade the Yard that this should be his inquiry, although he is a witness after the fact. He believes this will give him an edge, but the Chief Superintendent is not completely convinced. Nor is Hamish, who flatly tells Rutledge he's evading the fact that he's not ready to go back to London, that the wedding has brought back too many memories he's unwilling to face.

Wolf Pit, the village where Stephen Wentworth lived, is where the last wolf in England was killed in Medieval times. When there is another death, the evidence begins to suggest that a lone killer, like a lone wolf, is hunting prey of his own.