A Test Of Wills

Inspector Ian Rutledge #1

by Charles Todd

The first novel to feature war-damaged Scotland Yard inspector Ian Rutledge, A Test of Wills is the book that brought author Charles Todd into the spotlight. This Edgar® and Anthony Award-nominated, New York Times Notable mystery brilliantly evokes post-World War I Great Britain and introduces readers to one of crime fiction’s most compelling series protagonists. Here the shell-shocked Rutledge struggles to retain his fragile grip on sanity while investigating the death of a popular army colonel, murdered, it appears, by a decorated war hero with ties to the Royal Family. Phenomenal writing, a twisting puzzle, a character-rich re-creation of an extraordinary time and place… It all adds up to one exceptional read that will delight fans of Elizabeth George, Martha Grimes, Jacqueline Winspear, Ruth Rendell, and other masters of the British procedural.

Genres: Mystery, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical Mystery, Historical, Mystery Thriller, Crime

282 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1994

About the author

Charles Todd was the pen name used by the mother-and-son writing team, Caroline Todd and Charles Todd. Now, Charles writes the Ian Rutledge and Bess Crawford Series. Charles Todd ha spublished three standalone mystery novels and many short stories.

Reviews

[Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies · Rating 5 out of 5]

In terms of book boyfriends, the main character in this series, Ian Rutledge is my number one. That's right, he beats out Valek, Ash, Morpheus, The Darkling. I love Ian Rutledge that much. I have read every single book in this very long series.

On a marry-fuck-kill scale, Ian Rutledge is a solid marry. I want to love him. He is a wounded warrior, a former soldier, more noble in character than any I have read.

I want to make a home with him. I want to spend evenings together with him in our comfortable little home in the English countryside. We will have quiet nights together, both of us reading, with a nice pot of tea. Occasionally, we will glance up and exchange a smile with each other.

I want to embrace him in his darkest moments, as he remembers the horrors of war, as he is haunted by the specter of the ghost named Hamish, within his head. I want to hold his hands as he ponders the moral dilemmas within his cases. I want to ease his suffering.

In turn, he will love me, respect me. His is an eye that will never wander.

We will grow old together, our love never fading as our lives fade into the twilight.

Please meet my book boyfriend sometimes, if you get the chance.

[Adina ( back from Vacay…slowly recovering) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook narrated by Samuel Giles

I found A Test of Wills to be a very strong debut mystery series. Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge returns to work after WW1. He is severely scared mentally from the horrors he witnessed and the terrible decisions he had to make. His boss, Bowles, does not like the inspector much and when he finds out that he suffers from PTSD (or shell shock), decides to get rid of him. When the decorated and royalty connected Colonel Harris is found dead, Bowles thinks he finally found the best way to get rid of Rutledge. In addition to the possibility of the case igniting a diplomatic scandal, the main witness is a veteran deeply affected by shell shock. Bowels hopes that the encounter with the witness will tip the inspector over the edge.

As it might be guess from the blurb, the novel is both a mystery and a character study. All the characters have been affected by the war one way or another. I believe the author did a wonderful job in portraying their struggles and the interactions between them. The murder case was interesting and I did not guess the culprit until the very end. The pace was slow but it did not bother me at all. I will definitely continue with the series.

[Jeffrey Keeten · Rating 4 out of 5]

We have to be ashamed to not want to die.

It is 1919 and Inspector Ian Rutledge has returned from the trenches of France to resume his duties at Scotland Yard. Before the war he had a knack, a way of seeing beyond what people were willing to tell him. It is described at one point as putting his fingers on the pulse of a dead man and bringing him back to life. The war has left Rutledge shattered. His fiance has broken off their engagement. She is terrified of the man England has sent back to her. He has a dead Scottish soldier named Hamish residing in his head, dogging his every move, insistently casting doubt on every decision. To make matters worse he has a boss, Bowles, that wishes Rutledge had died in the war, and is intent on not only seeing him removed from Scotland Yard, but broken as well. Little does Bowles know how little of a push that would take.

Rutledge is dispatched to Warwickshire to investigate the bloody murder of Colonel Harris. The prime suspect is a decorated war hero who is friends with the crown prince. Bowles sees the perfect opportunity to put Rutledge in an impossible position that should see him embarrassing the wrong people, and insuring his ouster from the force. We follow along with Rutledge as he tries to make sense of a small town murder where information is scarce and what people do know they don't want to share with an outsider from London. As if that isn't enough for him to contend with, he also has to keep a death grip of control on Hamish. If anyone where to find out that he has this insistent Scottish voice in his head he would be sent away for treatment and his career would be ruined.

He meets the enticing Lettice Woods. "She leaned forward slightly and he could see her face then, blotched with crying and sleeplessness. But most unusual nevertheless, with a high-bridged nose and a sensitive mouth and heavy-lidded eyes. He couldn't tell their color, but they were not dark. Sculpted cheekbones, a determined chin, a long, slender throat. And yet somehow she managed to convey an odd impression of warm sensuality. He remembered how the Sergeant had hesitated over the word 'attractive,' as if uncertain how to classify her. She was not, in the ordinary sense, beautiful. At the same time, she was far, very far, from plain." There is also a determined, talented female artist and an attractive wealthy widow that also quicken the pulse of our detective. The women of Warwickshire do their best to cloud his mind.

Clues are locked up in the addled mind of a shell shocked drunkard and a little girl scared into a catatonic state. Even if he does discover what they know they hardly make for star witnesses. Rutledge can feel the fear of failure circling over his career. Just as he is on the verge of conceding defeat he gets an unexpected break.

Charles Todd is the son and mother duo of Charles and Caroline Todd.


Charles and Caroline Todd

At the time of this review there are fourteen entries in the Ian Rutledge series. I for one will be exploring more of them to see how the writing duo intends to handle the forces arrayed against our stalwart hero. There is also a new series from this writing team involving a World War One nurse that looks interesting as well. If you like period pieces and good old fashioned Agatha Christie who-done-its you should give this series a try.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was at my weekly local library visit, and in the mood for finding first in the series mysteries. This one stood out, so I thought I would give it a try.

This isn’t a typical mystery that I would find myself in, as it is historical fiction, set after WWI. (I am mostly attracted to contemporary mysteries. Although, being a fan of Agatha Christie opens me up to this time period!)

Interestingly enough, Charles Todd, the ‘author’ is actually a pen name for the American mother-son writing team of Carolyn Todd and David Watjen. Carolyn used the pen name Caroline Todd, but was born Carolyn Watjen. She passed away in August, 2021. This book was originally published in 1996 and is, as mentioned, the first in the series, I was looking to read.

Readers meet deeply flawed, battle-scarred Inspector Ian Rutledge who is still recovering from his war-time traumatic experiences. This has left him with a ‘ghost’ in the name of Hamish who speaks to him throughout.

The case involves the brutal shooting of a Captain Harris, and concerns that it may involve other persons of high rank. Thus, Scotland Yard is quite happy to have a ‘scapegoat’ investigate, should any embarrassment come from having to ‘arrest’ persons of interest in ‘high positions.’

But Inspector Rutledge, their ‘scapegoat’ is only concerned at finding the truth.

The story is well-plotted with good character development. The author does an incredible job of infusing the landscape and post-war England into the storyline.

As readers are led toward the end reveal, it may feel a bit confusing with the many psychological twists that lead to the final conclusion. Still, it was an interesting premise that highlighted the devastation that war places on its veterans, which made the story fairly compelling.

[Magdalena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read a couple of Charles Todd's Bess Crawford books and I thought it was time to check out the mother and son duos other historical series; the Ian Rutledge series. The Bess Crawford books take place during WW1, but the Ian Rutledge series takes place just after the end of WW1. And, while Bess Crawford is a nurse at the front is Ian Rutledge a policeman at the Scotland Yard.

Ian Rutledge is back at work after five years at the front. But what not many know is that he is suffering from shell shock and he hears voices. Or rather he hears voices of one particular man that he knew from the war. A man that never got home alive and he feels guilty about it. But he still tries to do a good job, despite the fact that he suffering from shell shock.

In this, the first book is he sent to deal with the murder of well-liked Colonel Charles Harris who was shot while he was out riding in the morning. He was seen by the house staff arguing with Mark Wilton, the main suspect on the day before. Mark Wilton is also the Colonels wards fiance and Charles and Mark are good friends. There is no evidence that Mark is the killer and the only man that says that he saw the two men together arguing on the day the Colonel died is a man suffering from shell shock. That disturbs Ian Rutledge who starts to suspect that someone at Scotland Yard knows about is affliction and that he was given this case so that he would fail.

This is the kind of book that takes awhile to get into. You don't know that much about Ian Rutledge, but clues about him, about his time in the war and what happen to him, is revealed throughout the book. In the end, I came to like him very much, he is a man that been through hell, that is trying to get back to the life he had before the war, but it's hard. Jean, the woman he loves, broke up with him after he got home. He was not the man she had known before the war and neither was she the girl he knew before the war. And, it doesn't make it better that he is hearing the voice of Hamish in his head.

The case was interesting, albeit the start of the book was a bit slow as much of the time, in the beginning, is spent on getting to know all the involved characters, their relationship with the murdered man. It was in no way boring, but it felt like it took some time to get somewhere with the case. But it's well worth it since it made you really get to know the characters, they feel well developed. Rutledge had to during the days he was on the case painstakingly try to find out the answers from people that not always was that forthcoming with the truth. And, I really liked the last part of the book when it all started to make sense and the truth about the murder was revealed. I was surprised about how it all turned out and never suspected that kind of ending.

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the books in the series. I like Rutledge, and I hope he will get better and that he someday will find peace. Also, I really hope that he will meet Bess Crawford some day.

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in 1919 just after the First World War, this story was about the murder of a respected Colonel and about Scotland Yard investigator Ian Rutledge who is suffering from shell-shock. The atrocities of war seen by Rutledge and a certain event involving his sergeant, Hamish, are a burden he constantly carries. This murder is Rutledge's first case since returning to Scotland Yard; in addition to Hamish's voice in his head, he’s worried about his ability to solve the case.

I found this book to be very bland. In 1919, there’s no ballistics, no fingerprints, no hair or fiber to analyze. The investigation consists of Rutledge alone having multiple conversations with numerous characters until he has all the information he needs. This means the pacing is very slow and there’s no suspense. It was the characters and their emotions that carried the story.

I have no strong desire to read the next book, but I am curious about what the authors have planned for Rutledge's future.

[Heidi (can’t retire soon enough) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great way to start a new year of reading... with a new-to-me mystery series that starts out strongly.

I like Rutledge— demons and all. The post-WW1 time period is fraught with tension for all of those young men who survived unimaginable horrors to take up living again. Those they left behind have changed as well. I can see how those changes can lead to more murder and mayhem.

I look forward to reading more of this series in the coming year!

(Reviewed 1/2/19)

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Detective Rutledge makes a compelling protagonist--with the voice of a dead man criticizing his every step, he's completely aware that he's inches from failure, disgrace, and most likely suicide. It's a pity that his mystery, while it ties up very neatly, relies too heavily on coincidence.

This is a very well constructed small town mystery, in which no one has an obvious motive and everyone has a hidden one. The characters are vivid, sympathetic in their own ways, and baffling. Rutledge himself is under pressure for political reasons both inside and outside of Scotland Yard, and it keeps the tension going nicely. The plot unfolds, with plenty of well constructed red herrings. The author has enough insight into human nature to show people's frailties without demonizing them, and to construct reasons why "good" people would do awful things and "bad" people generous ones. The ending is unexpected, but in retrospect, all the clues were there.

So why only a three? Rutledge suffers from post traumatic stress syndrome of a particularly picturesque manifestation. From what I understand of how this works, well, it doesn't work that way. For all that it's popular in fiction, people who hear voices don't generally hear the voice of a specific, real life person, who merely sits in the back of their heads making snarky commentary. And schizophrenia isn't typically triggered by PTSD--they're two seperate illnesses. But I'm willing to grant artistic license. Maybe for this one guy, that's how it works. But the plot ends up hinging on not one, not two, but four different characters each suffering from PTSD, each with entirely unrelated, unrealistic, but completely plot-driving symptoms. And it's too much. I'm willing to accept one sensationalistic fictional mental disorder. Not four. (I was actually willing to accept up through the first three. It's the climactic one that finally broke my suspension of disbelief.)

Also slightly annoying is the fact that this is so obviously pitched as the beginning of a series. The overall plot is very carefully constructed to have multiple parallels to Rutledge's own situation, so that his personal damage makes the case that much harder. I would have liked to see him work through some of that damage as a result. Not a cure, of course, but it would have been nice to see him recover a little confidence, come to a working relationship with the voice in his head, something. Despite the personal nature of the case, though, Rutledge has no discernable character arc. He's the same as when he started. As is his unexplainedly malevolent boss, who's still stroking his moustache and thinking "I'll get you, Gadget, next time, next time..." including ending the book on a literal set of periods of ellipsis.

So basically, I loved this book until the last twenty pages. The writing is beautiful. The characters are fantastic. The solution to the mystery does, in fact, explain everything. But the flaws are quite irritating. There's enough potential here, though, that I'd be willing to give the series one more try to see if the author works out some of the kinks as he gets more experienced.

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first dip into the Inspector Ian Rutledge series and what a interesting character the writers have created. The author, Charles Todd, is actually a mother and son writing team. They have made it work. Inspector Ian Rutledge is a damaged man, who barely survived World War 1, he is tragically beyond repair due to shell-shock and guilt. Yet Scotland Yard decides to send him to a small village to uncover a murder. The English village is also shell-shocked from the war, each person is suffering some kind of loss. I did not guess the ending, like I do in so many mysteries, so I really enjoyed it. Looking forward to reading the next one soon.

[Barbara K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having re-read Dorothy Sayers' Whose Body? just a week or so before this book, I couldn't help but be struck by the ways in which both books address the lingering effects of the horrors of World War I trench warfare on surviving veterans. Sayers' books are a hallmark of the British Golden Age of crime fiction; the Rutledge series is set in that time, but has been written over the past 25 years.

In Whose Body?, Peter Wimsey succumbs to nightmares triggered by recollections of the war only periodically, while Ian Rutledge struggles with PTSD on a day to day basis. Not only do his memories of combat and death haunt Rutledge as he tries to re-establish his role at Scotland Yard after the war, the secret awareness by others of his condition drives part of the plot. A colleague jealous of Rutledge's investigative talents arranges for him to be assigned a case that has every appearance of becoming a political nightmare. When it all blows up, Rutledge should go down in flames.

The plot is very much a typical English village mystery, but with a thick overlay of issues tied to the war in different ways. Lots of the red herrings I love, and a very clever resolution. Rutledge pulls it out at the 11th hour, salvaging his reputation and setting up the rest of the series, which is now 23 books long! It's easy to see why it has been so popular and has won so many awards. I will definitely be returning to learn not only what crimes Rutledge is set to resolve, but how he moves forward with his life.

[Lewis Weinstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Todd has created a fascinating character in Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge, and an even more interesting character named Hamish MacLeod who lives in Rutledge's head, alternately helping and hindering his real life and his investigations. Rutledge is recently returned from the battlefields of France (WWI) where Hamish died (I won't say how, but it is startling when you learn). There are several books in the series, all very satisfying mysteries.

[Andy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay. The thing setting it apart from other mysteries is the shell-shock dead comrade hallucination going on in Inspector Ian's head, but that seems phony and so it irritated me more than anything else and I won't be reading more in the series. Plus the resolution of this mystery is pretty far fetched.

After writing the above, I went back and looked at when this was written: 1997. That figures. It just doesn't feel authentic to post WWI. Downton Abbey feels more authentic than this.

[Ellen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is obviously a successful series, with many installments and lots of good reviews, but after reading the first of the books in the series, I won't be reading any others. I love mysteries and historical mysteries, and am fascinated by WWI, but this book just isn't done well enough in any of these areas. True, Inspector Rutledge is a fascinating character and the device of putting the voice of Hamish in his head, as a result of shell-shock, is compelling. Hamish was a soldier in Rutledge's unit that he was forced, extremely reluctantly, to have shot for desertion. After that, it's all downhill. First of all, while some of Hamish's dialogue is given, he is often relegated to unspecified rantings, accusations, and tirades in Rutledge's head. As he was one of the few interesting characters in the book, I wanted to hear what he was saying.

Other than Rutledge and Hamish, there were few interesting characters, excepting perhaps Catherine Tarrant, the successful woman painter, and Dr. Warren's unnamed housekeeper and a shell-shocked soldier who has returned to the village (although neither of the latter two characters is developed at all). The rest were all stereotypes of upper middle class English society, flat and dull. The main female character, Lettice, is supposed to be alluring, fascinating and compelling, but the only way we know that is that the author keeps telling us so. Nothing she says or does is particularly interesting. The same is true of the other main female character, Mrs. Davenport, as well as her cousin, Captain Davenport and the murder victim. And not much really happens. Rutledge goes and talks to each of the main characters and when they refuse to tell him anything significant, he just sort of says, 'ok', and moves on to someone else. The dialogue was stilted and melodramatic. The author doesn't provide the reader with enough information to deduce the solution to the murder but just springs it on you in one fell swoop in the end. It's too bad; I wanted to like this book

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charles Todd is a pen name used by the American authors Caroline Todd and Charles Todd. A Test of Wills was written in 1996 but it could have easily been written in 1926. It is set in that period after W.W. I and is the first of many novels involving Inspector Ian Rutledge of Scotland Yard. Rutledge, as we find him in this novel, is still suffering the ravages of “shell shock.”

"Rutledge had spread homemade jam on his toast. It was wild strawberry and looked as if it had been put up before the war, nearly as dark and thick as treacle. Poised to take a bite, he looked across at the Sergeant. “I’m not in London now. I’m here. Tell me how it happened.”
Davies settled back in his chair, frowning as he marshaled his facts. Inspector Forrest had been very particular about how any account of events was to be given. The Sergeant was a man who took pride in being completely reliable. “A shotgun. Blew his head to bits—from the chin up, just tatters. He’d gone out for his morning ride at seven sharp, just as he always did whenever he was at home, back by eight-thirty, breakfast waiting for him. That was every day except Sunday, rain or shine. But on Monday, when he wasn’t back by ten, his man of business, Mr. Royston, went looking for him in the stables.” “Why?” Rutledge had taken out a pen and a small, finely tooled leather notebook. “On this day, particularly?” “There was a meeting set for nine-thirty, and it wasn’t like the Colonel to forget about it. When he got to the stables, Mr. Royston found the grooms in a blue panic because the Colonel’s horse had just come galloping in without its rider, and there was blood all over the saddle and the horse’s haunches. Men were sent out straightaway to look for him, and he was finally discovered in a meadow alongside the copse of trees at the top of his property.”"

This novel is as much about the way men found themselves back home after serving in World War I as it is about who killed the Colonel. Inspector Rutledge suffered both physical and mental damage in the trenches and his return to duty at “Scotland Yard” is a “make it or break it” point for him. Through some malice and chicanery he is given a murder case that almost assures that he must confront many of the things that trigger what was then called “shell shock” and now is known as PTSD.

We are along with Rutledge as he investigates but there is very little to focus either his or our suspicions. For much of the book, we get character studies. Todd is most meticulous in describing people’s facial “tells” as they give their stories. Rutledge is supposed to be good at using these to winnow down the possible suspects. We aren’t as good.

The setting in rural England’s Midlands is full of local color – from the horses (along with automobiles) in use for everyday activities; to the class system; to the tugging of the forelock. Rutledge is an outsider who must understand these inner workings if he is to salvage his own career and catch the murderer.


My thanks for guidance and encouragement to Julie, Richard, Jeffrey, Jeanette, Kathy and Beata.

[Alex Cantone · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was hard to believe that Charles Harris had no sins heavy on his conscience, no faces haunting his dreams, no shadows on his soul. There was no such thing as the perfect English gentleman.

And hard to believe that this was a debut novel in 1997, by mother and son team, writing under the name Charles Todd. It opens in 1919 with Scotland Yard detective Ian Rutledge, burying himself in cases to overcome his PTSD, haunted by the decision in the fog of war to execute Cpl Hamish MacLeod for disobeying an order. Hamish hovers over his shoulder like some unwanted tenant, his wife Jean has left him and his boss sends him to Warwickshire to investigate the fatal shooting of landowner Colonel Harris, a man well-respected and without enemies.

A key suspect is decorated Group Captain, Mark Wilton, injured in battle, engaged to the Colonel’s ward, Lettuce Wood but the small town has more than its fair share of possible contenders for the role of villain, and everyone is tight-lipped. A possible witness to the murder is a shell-shocked drunkard Daniel Hickam, but can his evidence be relied upon?

At first I found this a slow burner: Rutledge worried that he had lost the edge, the instincts of a detective from before the war, struggling against Hamish’s jibes, aware that Scotland Yard want him to fail to avoid any kind of embarrassment to Buckingham Palace. Each person interviewed seems to be nursing their own secret, but I stayed with it, drawn by the almost poetic descriptions.

The rain had drifted away by morning, and a watery sun soon broke through the clouds, strengthening rapidly until there was a misty apricot light that warmed the church tower and touched the trees with gold. (Magical)

With Scotland Yard pushing for a result, albeit based on circumstantial evidence, a new line of enquiry occurs to Rutledge and the denouement blew me away. There were clues hidden throughout, and yet I never picked the killer. I am latecomer to this series but I will remedy that now.

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! I finally got to reading an Ian Rutledge novel. I really like Todd's other series starring Bess Crawford. So, I finally got around to trying this one. Am I glad I did.

Now, I have to say any book set in this era is going to get my attention. I love books set just before, during, and just after WW I. But this book goes further than just having the Great War as a backdrop. He focuses on what the War did to people, to families...

It has a wonderfully complex detective with what would be called PTSD today. It's a lovely addition to your basic English country murder mystery. Can't wait to read the next in the series.

[Luffy Sempai · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good book. The tussle between the hero and the main female character was epic, there's no other word for it. Unlike classic mysteries, the climax and the reveal are not the highlight of this book. It's the journey, the exposition of Mavers as the main suspect, the victim's past life, and Inspector Rutledge's private demons that makes the book worth following.

[ᴥ Irena ᴥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A small town murder mystery where investigation drags out all the nastiness that's usually hidden in such a place. More than once I wished if the protagonist could just arrest everyone.
Right from the beginning you see that Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge is not in a good place in more ways than one. He is sent to deal with a sensitive case (out of spite and jealousy) with the hope he messes it up.

You get to know Rutledge bit by bit throughout the book. He's been through hell in the Great War. He has a very vivid conscience in a form of a solder who died in his arms so to speak. The Inspector does his best to hide the fact he is one of 'those'. I've read before how they treated shell-shocked solders back then. Most of those self-righteous idiots treated them like less than dirt. No wonder the man is trying to hide his inner turmoil.
I love this character so much. I am definitely going to read the rest of the series.

As for the mystery, the book takes its time to start properly. The people Rutledge interviews are far from helpful. Nevertheless, you are rewarded in the end. The less I say about it, the better.

[Richard Derus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3.9* of five

Not quite a four-star read because the solution to the mystery wasn't exactly fair.

Still and all, the character of Ian Rutledge, shell-shocked veteran of The Great War, is wonderfully realized. He's drawn with care and kindness, yet flawed in his core by the presence of Hamish MacLeod, a dead soldier whose afterlife is inside Rutledge's stressed-out brain. Hamish comes to life when Rutledge thinks he least needs him, but in the end it's Hamish whose voice resonates in the reader's skull long after the book is closed. I thought that was gutsy of Todd...making the crazy guy the sleuth and the manifestation of crazy the strong character that he is. Not many writers could pull it off, but Todd can.

As to the mystery itself, well...I had 95% figured out but the big reveal was marred only by its lack of interweaving with the plot. It was a good solution and it was nicely thought out, but it wasn't part of the rest of the book, and I think that's not fair.

Still, I am gaffed in the gills. This is just plain ol' good writing! Recommended because I *love* seeing others suffer the pangs of falling for yet another mystery series. Heh heh.

[Ingrid · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5 stars. The book is in a slower pace than we are used to these days, so I had to adapt my 21st century eyes. It's an oldfashioned whodunnit with Ian Rutledge as a WW I veteran who needs to get used to ordinary life after the war. A good description of the English atmosphere and countryside. I liked the book enough to pick up the next one some time from now.

[Scot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cris recommended this, and she's a fine judge of merit and a good source of suggested readings for the mystery genre. In this first book in the Inspector Ian Rutledge series, the hero has survived the horror of fighting on the Front against the Kaiser's forces in WW I, and now back in England he must deal with the haunting voice of a Scotsman he was forced to have killed for treason for refusing to fight on during a particularly spirit-numbing battle over in France. Rutledge keeps this shell shock touch of insanity to himself as much as he can, even as he tries to figure out who was responsible for blowing off the face of a beloved colonel out for a morning ride on his country estate in Warwickshire. Was it the decorated war hero, the village radical, the smarmy vicar? This tale, set in that intriguing period between the two World Wars, as British society went through some profound transitions, has a great ending I didn't see coming, and now I'm hooked into the series.

[Deb Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspector Ian Rutledge of Scotland Yard is on his first assignment after returning from duty in WWI. Rutledge is not the same man as before, all naivete gone and replaced by the horrors of war. Rutledge was hospitalized for some time after his active duty due to shell shock (what is now termed PTSD). Can he still perform his duties as before or will his mind succumb to the inner demons lurking there?

A well-written, character-driven story. Rutledge is a man besieged with self-doubt; his physical self gaunt and tired-looking -- no doubt a reflection of his inner turmoil. Unbeknownst to Rutledge, his supervisor at the Yard has sent him on a mission that could well be career ending, solved or unsolved. The tension of the unsolved murder lasts into the final pages of this one.

[Jaksen · Rating 2 out of 5]

So here I am about 80 pages from the end and I can't be bothered to finish. Sad. The problem is it's so darn boring.

Set just after WWI, small English village, and Detective Ian Rutledge is called in to investigate the murder of Colonel Harris. Seems the colonel's head was blown off while he was out riding. Of course Rutledge is treated with varying degrees of indifference and disdain by just about everyone. The locals want to believe the local drunk - or maybe local crazy guy - killed the colonel, and very little is going to budge them from this opinion. So Rutledge goes about investigating, which in this book is just a lot of talk to this guy, talk to her, talk to that guy, talk to her again. People are lying their heads off, btw, which Rutledge suspects, but he can't quite get his finger on what's behind it.

That's mostly the entire book. Rutledge IS an interesting MC; he has a ghost named Hamish who follows him around. Rutledge also saw service in WWI and if one more character was going to say, 'And of course, if you went to war, you'd understand...'

Why do characters make such blanket assumptions? Do they all get together at the local pub and decide 'hey, we're going to make this guy's life difficult and let's all keep reminding him that he wasn't in the war?' (And by the way, Rutledge did serve, in the trenches, but he hardly ever mentions it to anyone.) At some point all the local people - entitled and not; rich, poor or in between - are speaking in the same voice. There are three women who are major characters. Could I tell them apart? Not really, except for the one named for a vegetable - Lettuce. (Or was it Lettice?)

Anyhow, I was so bored reading this I went to sleep once, woke up with a start with the book on the floor. Yes, it happened!

And as for the fact almost every piece of dialogue has at least one ! or maybe two or three ! in it, no, no, no...

Not the book or writer(s) for me.

[Mary Ronan Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Ian Rutledge mysteries are unique and not just because the pseudonymous author is a mother/son collaboration. In this first in a series, A Test of Wills (1996), it is immediately post World War I and Rutledge has returned to his pre-war job as a detective at Scotland Yard. But like so many men, he came back from the war changed in fundamental ways, the primary way being his hallucination, Hamish MacLeod, a soldier in his company whom he was forced to execute shortly before the end of the war for refusing to lead yet another hopeless charge "over the top." Hamish comments continually on what Rutledge is observing and thinking. It is a classic case of post traumatic stress disorder, then called shell shock.

Hamish MacLeod is not visible to Rutledge. He seems always to be just behind him, so close that Rutledge is afraid to look behind him. But his voice accompanies the detective wherever he goes reminding him of the trauma he has undergone during and just after the war, criticizing him, and reminding him of what he and Rutledge have lost. Hamish occasionally observes subtleties and correlations that help Rutledge to solve the murders.

In this first book Rutledge's much-disliked (and with good reason) boss at Scotland yard suspects something is not right with the detective and sends him off to Warwickshire to solve the murder the purportedly popular Col Charles Harris. Rutledge suspects the victim is not so benign a figure as the village presents him to be. And there are plenty of suspects.

A wonderful start to a high quality series.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a long time I assumed that I did not like historical crime fiction. So it’s taken me a quite a while to get around to reading this novel, the first in a series set in post World War I England featuring a war veteran, Inspector Ian Rutledge of Scotland Yard.

Charles Todd (an American mother and son writing team) clearly read Dorothy L Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey novels before embarking on this series. Rutledge, like Wimsey, suffers from shell-shock: the term coined in World War I to describe what is now called combat stress reaction and which is also encompassed by the condition known as post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. As is the case for Wimsey, Rutledge’s condition is in part attributable to being buried alive during combat.

However, Sayers described Wimsey’s shell-shock from her knowledge of returned soldiers with the condition who had fought in the battlefields of France. They had been her fellow students and the brothers of fellow students at Oxford University. This first hand experience brought an immediacy and a poignancy to the descriptions of Wimsey’s suffering and the plight of World War I soldiers. (See, for example,The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club)

It may be that the combined Todds know soldiers who suffer from PTSD and I have no doubt that they did their World War I research well. But for me, there was something a bit clinical, a bit manufactured, about the character of Rutledge. I really wanted to like him and to empathise with him, but he didn’t ring entirely true. Other characters remark how ill and thin he looks and rhetorically ask themselves what he has endured, but I didn’t get a true sense of his suffering. To my mind, Todd tends to tell and not show the reader what Rutledge is really like.

And then there’s Hamish. When under stress (which is often) Rutledge hears the voice of Hamish, a Scottish corporal he executed for insubordination in the moments before he was buried alive. I am aware that auditory hallucinations can be a symptom of PTSD. However, I’m not sure that they manifest themselves in quite the way depicted in this novel. Hamish is partly the voice of Rutledge's conscience, partly a manifestation of his sub-conscious, partly a symptom of his psychosis, partly … well, I’m not exactly sure what. In any event, I’m not convinced that the voice of Hamish is an entirely satisfactory device.

As for the mystery, it was competent enough, although with a bit too much dithering around chatting to suspects and not a lot of actual detecting. Plus, the resolution seemed to come out of left field. I’ll have to go back over the book to see if the clues to it were really there for a reader more discerning than I proved to be on this occasion.

Overall, I was interested enough in both the central character and the plot to finish the book – and to do so pretty quickly. I’ll put down its weaknesses to the authors' attempt to find an authentic voice for their central character. I’ll read the next book in the series before deciding whether they were successful in doing so.

[Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

c1996. FWFTB: colonel, murdered, war-hero, affair, sanity. I usually agree with the comments made by the New York Times Book Review but in this case 'a harrowing pyschological drama' is not how I would describe this book at all. It is essentially a village mystery ala Midsomer Murders/Cabot Cove but with an unusual detective (he has a 'voice' in his head which is remarkably perceptive and knowledgeable). The tension is racheted up with POVs by the various characters confirming that all is not as it seems. Then, about two thirds through the novel, I found myself stalling much as the investigation seemed to. And then, boom, bang, its solved with a denouement that has been overused in the past. There is not much lightness in this book at all and for that reason, I won't be working through the follow on novels. So, we all know by now that this author is actually a team - a mother and son. FCN: Ian Rutledge (our troubled and heartsore detective), Lettice Wood (sadly, by name and by nature - a real weak female 'lead), Mr Carfield (the vicar who wanted to be an actor), Hamish (unseen but not unheard), Bert Mavers (the village idiot with a sad past). " The damnable thing was, except for Catherine Tarrant's dead lover and Mark Winton's quarrel, and possibly Mrs Danenant's jealousy, there was nothing to make Colonel Harris a target."

[Tamora Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge is a veteran of WWI, haunted by shell shock and the psychological ghost of a man he had to shoot for cowardice. Now he's home, back at work, and given his first case after the war, the murder of a highly respected man. The top suspect is another highly respected man and high profile war hero, and the professional enemy who gave the case to Rutledge is hoping that he will either accuse the war hero and be dismissed for arresting the unpopular man, or have another breakdown and be dismissed. Worse, everyone in the small village where the crime took place is trying to steer Rutledge away from the well-liked war hero to the town malcontent.

I really liked this writing pair's Bess Crawford mysteries, and since I'm running out of those, I thought to try their longer Rutledge series. This is a really promising, thoughtful start. I like this and the Crawford books because the writers (a mother and son) take their time in establishing characters and setting as well as events, and they show the effects of the war in all kinds of ways.

[Janete on hiatus due health issues · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 stars. Scribd.com's English text, and translation for Portuguese + audio in English from Google Translate. Continuing the Project Learning English by myself.

[Dylan]

DNF @ 20%

Pretty weak writing and I don’t care about the plot or any of the characters.

[Lata · Rating 4 out of 5]

2019-11: Test of Wills: 4 stars. An interesting start to a series. Inspector Ian Rutledge is tasked with discovering the murderer of a Colonel Harris in a small village outside of London. It's soon after WW1, and Rutledge is holding on, barely, to his sanity. Recently released from a hospital, he hears a voice in his head of a soldier, Hamish, and is struggling to maintain his equilibrium. A sufferer of shell shock, now known as PTSD, Rutledge runs into obstructions from the locals, and constantly struggles with his tenuous hold on his sanity.
The case keeps circling around a few locals, one a former decorated pilot, the other the town trouble maker. Rutledge is given the run-around, and despite his lack of perceived progress, narrows down the conflicting alibis and information to eventually find the murderer.
This was surprisingly good, and I particularly liked the way the author handled Rutledge's very slow recovery from his experiences in the war.