A Test of Wills
A Test of Wills (Inspector Ian Rutledge #1)
By: Charles Todd
[Fulfilling “A book that’s been on your reading list but you never get around to it” as part of the 2021 Spring/Summer Reading Challenge]
“There was no such thing as a perfect English gentleman.”
Set in England post WWI, this series follows Inspector Ian Rutledge, inspector in the Scotland Yard, as he investigates and solves cases.
What sets Rutledge apart is that his PTSD (or shell shock) from WWI exhibits itself in the form of Hamish, a fellow comrade deceased in the war, who now haunts Rutledge as a second conscience he hears in his head. This book explains why this is.
I read the second book in this series about 4 years ago and am finally getting around to reading more in the series. I would recommend starting at the beginning. Even just starting in book two I was really confused about this Hamish character and it turned me off a bit. It’s still not my favorite aspect of this book but if you want to read this series you will have to get used to it.
I would compare this book to Charles Finch’s Charles Lennox series, Magpie Murders, or Anne Perry’s mysteries. It’s an old-timey historical fiction type of mystery with old English vernacular and the classic clue-hunting type of investigation.
In A Test of Wills we find Rutledge being sent to a village in England where a prominent war hero has been found murdered and the primary suspect is also a war hero— decorated and friend to the Crown. His nemesis, at the Yard, who has learned about Hamish, has assigned him the case hoping it will prove to be too much for him mentally and politically. No one wants to arrest a friend of the Prince of Wales!
It is a lose/lose situation for Rutledge.
He must gather his wits about him and find the intuition he once had before the war and figure out who in the village is lying and who the real murderer is.
We are presented with several suspects with varying motives and opportunities. Early on, when one of the townspeople is introduced I pinned them correctly as being the key witness, but there were enough red herrings that I went back and forth in my head and ultimately didn’t have it figured out exactly as it ended up being. It kind of came out of left field and I had to reread the last few pages twice to understand what I missed!
One thing I wish they would have included for this book was a sketch at the beginning mapping out the town for us. Much of Rutledge’s investigation deals with the layout of the town and the route the victim and murderer would have taken. They try to explain the different paths and house positionings but I think it would have been easier to just throw in a map at the beginning like many books do to help the readers visualize what is being described.
I also wanted to mention that I appreciated the lack of swearing in this book and that they were creative in their use of it without printing it. For example: “He called them all every unprintable name he could think of…” It still gets the point across and describes his demeanor without making readers read crass language. I wish more authors got creative with this when they insist on including swearing in their books. So thank you, Charles Todd, for your creativity.
This series solves a mystery in each book, but we also have this psychological thread following Rutledge’s inner turmoil— figuring out how to endure and overcome his shell shock:
“He’d learned, in France, to face dying. He could learn, in time, how to face living.”
If you like a good mystery, I would recommend this book! Plus I have it on good authority (aka my mom) that the whole series is good!
**Bonus new word I learned: pugilist= boxer
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