As usual the writing carries you along. However, there were a few aspects of this entry in the series I thought were not that great. The plot itself is very complicated, and although the authors flesh out a lot of the minor characters, some seem to appear for no reason other than padding. And once again Rutledge seems to spend a) a great deal of time motoring around and b) not sleeping enough. Why the Yard doesn't give him an iPad and access to the Internet to look up stuff is a mystery in itself. The re-emergence of Hamish was particularly troublesome; I'd hoped he was a thing of the past (so to speak.) Also annoying is the dependence on outlandish co-incidences which cause an eye-roll.

I usually envision Rutledge as I do the character of "Smithy" in Random Harvest -- also a shell-shocked WWI vet with memory issues -- as a young Ronald Colman, who played the character in the film.

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