He’s a romantic figure, too, in a sense—not in terms of Romance novels, but in the older tradition of the Greek heroes—men who were vulnerable even when they were demi-gods. Epics and legends and the long tradition of story-telling drew on characters who have a fault and whose tragedy is compelling. Hamlet is of that mold, and some of Jack Higgins’ men, and Shane, and the old legends of Arthur and Lancelot—men for whom there was a destiny. The anti-hero has his place but, over the centuries, it’s a man who stands alone and struggles with life and death who makes the most interesting reading.

The only problem was how to use this in a modern setting, where there are no dragons to slay and no damsels in distress, only dead bodies left behind by murderers. The solution came very naturally through Rutledge’s father, a barrister. Years before, Rutledge asked his father: Who spoke for the dead? He was told: No one. The law is concerned with punishing the killer so that he’s an example to other would-be lawbreakers, a warning that this will happen to you if you transgress the rules of a civilized society. The dead are simply evidence of wrong-doing.

And so Rutledge, instead of following his father in the law, chose to become a policeman, only just beginning to be seen as a respectable profession. A generation earlier, Inspector Pitt was expected to knock on the door at the servants’ entrance. Times were a-changing, but there was still a certain dislike of the sort of people a policeman must be involved with. If Rutledge began his career with the altruistic intent of speaking for the dead, he soon found that this way of looking at murder actually gave him a practical insight into why someone was killed.

Add to that the intuition of experience, which Rutledge believes he’s lost after four years in France. He fights to recover that in the first novel, A Test of Wills.

The Rutledge novels don’t have a large ensemble cast. There’s his sister Frances, single and busy with her own life, though possessed of an ability to read her brother’s moods even when she doesn’t understand what lies behind them. His god-father, the retired architect, David Trevor, plays a larger role in Legacy of the Dead, and he’ll return soon. There are the occasional friends from Rutledge’s university days or war years. Melinda Crawford appears from time to time—especially in A Fearsome Doubt. She’s actually of his parents’ generation. She’s had an interesting past of her own, and Rutledge is fond of her. Having known him as a child, she returns that fondness with a tart tongue that hides her deep caring.

Of course Chief Superintendent Bowles is always there, wishing Rutledge at the devil, because he feels threatened by the younger, more able man. Sergeant Gibson, who knows most of what’s happening in the Yard and who has been there long enough to become a fixture, is sometimes an ally and sometimes not. Since A Cold Treachery, Inspector Mickelson, protected by Bowles, is ambitious and often treading on Rutledge’s heels.