A Cold Treachery

A Cold Treachery sends Inspector Ian Rutledge into a Lake District village in the teeth of a winter blizzard, where an entire family has been massacred at their farmhouse table with no sign of struggle. The most disturbing detail is what the investigation reveals: one of the children is missing. Todd's ninth Rutledge novel drives toward its resolution through snow that cuts off escape routes and silences potential witnesses, while Hamish, the voice Rutledge carries from the war, pressures the investigation with his own interpretations.

Samuel Gillies narrates the series with a delivery that matches Todd's measured, atmosphere-heavy prose. The Lake District in winter is almost a character in itself, and Gillies gives the cold and isolation a palpable weight, making the urgency of finding the missing child feel genuinely pressing against the silence of the snowbound landscape.