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1-Page Summary of Wings of Fire
Overall Summary
Charles Todd’s mystery/detective fiction follows the life of Inspector Ian Rutledge after WWI. It is a series that explores many themes, including loss, war trauma, greed and guilt.
Wings of Fire is a novel that continues the story of Inspector Ian Rutledge, who was introduced in A Test of Wills. He served in World War I and has been dealing with his time there since. The book’s plot revolves around Lady Rachel Ashford, who asks for Scotland Yard to investigate her family because she suspects murder.
Rutledge must investigate the deaths of Olivia Marlowe and her half-brother, Nicholas Cheney. Both were war poets who wrote under the pen name O.A. Manning. They were found dead from laudanum poisoning after their apparent double suicide, but Rutledge isn’t sure that’s what happened because days later Stephen FitzHugh dies from injuries sustained in World War I at Trevelyan Hall after their funerals have occurred. Rutledge then investigates fact versus fiction to discover if there is a conspiracy behind all these tragic events or not.
While trying to solve the mystery of who killed Olivia Trevelyan, Rutledge uncovers secrets from her family’s past. For instance, he learns that Rosamund had died earlier of a laudanum overdose and that she’d lost two children before dying herself.
Rutledge is still dealing with the aftermath of his last case. He’s trying to solve a new murder mystery involving a family that has been plagued by tragedy for years. A man named Stephen Trevelyan, who died under mysterious circumstances, was involved in an ongoing feud over land and inheritance. This causes problems for Rutledge when he tries to investigate the death because people are afraid of what they might uncover. There are also ghosts from Rutledge’s past haunting him as well as those from Trevelyan’s past that seem connected to this new murder investigation too.
Some critics have said that the writing in Wings of Fire is too dense, and it slows down the narrative. However, others believe that this density helps to develop Inspector Rutledge’s character. This book has a lot of internal monologues from his perspective, which are written with his Scottish accent. It may be hard for some people to read through all of those thoughts and ideas because they’re delivered so quickly.
