No Shred of Evidence

by Charles Todd

Book 18 in the Inspector Ian Rutledge series.

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Audio available 4.4

Four young women are accused of attacking a man during a boating outing after a witness claims to have seen them leave him to drown. The injured man dies before he can explain what happened, and the women’s social standing only intensifies public suspicion that influence will protect them. Rutledge is sent to Cornwall to find evidence where every participant has reason to shape the story.

The case exposes assumptions about female respectability, class and collective guilt in the post-war period. The women’s independence is treated as suspicious, while a single male witness is granted immediate authority. Rutledge must reconstruct the physical event rather than accept the moral judgement already imposed on the accused.