Test of Wills - by Charles Todd
I like men who have a future and women who have a past
Oscar Wilde
Unfortunately, I don’t think Ian Rutledge, protagonist of Charles Todd’s detective series, has a particularly bright future with me. This is not to say that the book is badly written or in any way illiterate, but it just didn’t engage me enough to make me want to pull it up on my smart phone app at every opportunity, which is always a bad sign with a detective story. After I’d finished, I was kind of glad it had been so cheap on Kindle, which is an even worse one.
The story is set in 1919, in rural Warwickshire, England. When Colonel Charles Harris, local squire, gentleman and pillar of the proverbial establishment doesn’t return after his morning ride (but the horse does), Laurence Roystone, the colonel’s man of business, orders out the search parties, only to find the colonel dead in a field, minus half his head courtesy of a shotgun blast. Inspector Ian Rutledge of Scotland Yard is ordered in to investigate. There is an appropriately wide field of suspects, but the problem for Rutledge is that all the evidence is pointing straight at Captain Mark Wilton. Wilton is the fiancé of Lettice Wood, the colonel’s ward. Wilton had been involved in a violent argument with Harris the previous night and was seen in the area where he was killed the following morning. Rutledge’s problem is that Wilton, dashing veteran of the Royal Flying Corps, is a hugely popular war hero, complete with Victoria Cross and a standing invitation to Buckingham Palace. Dropping somebody like that through a scaffold trap could be a real career breaker, as Rutledge’s superior, Superintendent Bowles, is aware. Therefore the shell-shocked and suitably expendable Rutledge (himself a veteran of the trenches) is dispatched.
On paper, it looks like an interesting story with a good setting and an enjoyable puzzle. Rutledge can’t find anybody to speak a word against the colonel, so motive is a question mark. The locals are all trying to point Rutledge towards Bert Mavers, the resident rabble-rouser and agitator, but Mavers has a cast iron alibi. All in all, it isn’t looking good for Captain Wilton - or for Rutledge’s career.
But Rutledge has other problems to contend with. The war and its carnage has destroyed his nose for justice. Eagerness to do right by the dead tends to dissipate when you’ve seen so many of them. When one of them won’t lie down, you might have an interesting movie; unfortunately, what is a genuinely intriguing idea which would work spectacularly well on film is just not handled very well in the book. This is the constant presence of Corporal Hamish McLeod, executed by Rutledge during the war for refusing to go over the top, but now back as a voice in Rutledge’s head, the manifestation of his shell-shock, commenting on witnesses, suspects and other officers. However, what could have been an interesting investigatory ‘double-act’ unfortunately reads like an add-on, as though Todd doesn’t quite know what to do with Hamish.
Charles Todd is actually a pseudonym for the mother and son writing team, Charles and Caroline Todd. A mother and son writing team is unusual enough, but one writing so far out of their own milieu is even more so. They are actually American, but on their Amazon page profess a deep interest in British history. Unfortunately, it didn’t show in the mix. The book is not exactly littered with cultural and historical mistakes, but there are enough of them to break the spell of what otherwise is a reasonably well-written detective story. The constant use of American spelling; words like ‘mail’ and ‘drapes’ instead of ‘post’ and ‘curtains’; references to the Second Boer War in which, apparently, the Boers used muskets, all of this makes for annoying intrusion into what is in any event only a good - not a great - story. There are, unfortunately, a lot of little things like this in the book, including - amazingly - the protagonist's name. 'Ian' was a very uncommon name in Britain at that time, and even in Scotland it was rare outside of Gaelic speaking areas. And there is nothing in the book to even suggest Rutledge is actually Scottish. This is just lazy, and authors who profess an interest in a particular culture should be able to do a lot better.
Initially reminiscent of River Of Darkness, previously reviewed on this blog, it never comes near Rennie Airth’s brilliant post WWI story, and although it’s not the worst book I’ve ever read, I have to say I was disappointed by its failure to measure up.
So-so.
Oscar Wilde
Unfortunately, I don’t think Ian Rutledge, protagonist of Charles Todd’s detective series, has a particularly bright future with me. This is not to say that the book is badly written or in any way illiterate, but it just didn’t engage me enough to make me want to pull it up on my smart phone app at every opportunity, which is always a bad sign with a detective story. After I’d finished, I was kind of glad it had been so cheap on Kindle, which is an even worse one.
The story is set in 1919, in rural Warwickshire, England. When Colonel Charles Harris, local squire, gentleman and pillar of the proverbial establishment doesn’t return after his morning ride (but the horse does), Laurence Roystone, the colonel’s man of business, orders out the search parties, only to find the colonel dead in a field, minus half his head courtesy of a shotgun blast. Inspector Ian Rutledge of Scotland Yard is ordered in to investigate. There is an appropriately wide field of suspects, but the problem for Rutledge is that all the evidence is pointing straight at Captain Mark Wilton. Wilton is the fiancé of Lettice Wood, the colonel’s ward. Wilton had been involved in a violent argument with Harris the previous night and was seen in the area where he was killed the following morning. Rutledge’s problem is that Wilton, dashing veteran of the Royal Flying Corps, is a hugely popular war hero, complete with Victoria Cross and a standing invitation to Buckingham Palace. Dropping somebody like that through a scaffold trap could be a real career breaker, as Rutledge’s superior, Superintendent Bowles, is aware. Therefore the shell-shocked and suitably expendable Rutledge (himself a veteran of the trenches) is dispatched.
On paper, it looks like an interesting story with a good setting and an enjoyable puzzle. Rutledge can’t find anybody to speak a word against the colonel, so motive is a question mark. The locals are all trying to point Rutledge towards Bert Mavers, the resident rabble-rouser and agitator, but Mavers has a cast iron alibi. All in all, it isn’t looking good for Captain Wilton - or for Rutledge’s career.
But Rutledge has other problems to contend with. The war and its carnage has destroyed his nose for justice. Eagerness to do right by the dead tends to dissipate when you’ve seen so many of them. When one of them won’t lie down, you might have an interesting movie; unfortunately, what is a genuinely intriguing idea which would work spectacularly well on film is just not handled very well in the book. This is the constant presence of Corporal Hamish McLeod, executed by Rutledge during the war for refusing to go over the top, but now back as a voice in Rutledge’s head, the manifestation of his shell-shock, commenting on witnesses, suspects and other officers. However, what could have been an interesting investigatory ‘double-act’ unfortunately reads like an add-on, as though Todd doesn’t quite know what to do with Hamish.
Charles Todd is actually a pseudonym for the mother and son writing team, Charles and Caroline Todd. A mother and son writing team is unusual enough, but one writing so far out of their own milieu is even more so. They are actually American, but on their Amazon page profess a deep interest in British history. Unfortunately, it didn’t show in the mix. The book is not exactly littered with cultural and historical mistakes, but there are enough of them to break the spell of what otherwise is a reasonably well-written detective story. The constant use of American spelling; words like ‘mail’ and ‘drapes’ instead of ‘post’ and ‘curtains’; references to the Second Boer War in which, apparently, the Boers used muskets, all of this makes for annoying intrusion into what is in any event only a good - not a great - story. There are, unfortunately, a lot of little things like this in the book, including - amazingly - the protagonist's name. 'Ian' was a very uncommon name in Britain at that time, and even in Scotland it was rare outside of Gaelic speaking areas. And there is nothing in the book to even suggest Rutledge is actually Scottish. This is just lazy, and authors who profess an interest in a particular culture should be able to do a lot better.
Initially reminiscent of River Of Darkness, previously reviewed on this blog, it never comes near Rennie Airth’s brilliant post WWI story, and although it’s not the worst book I’ve ever read, I have to say I was disappointed by its failure to measure up.
So-so.