A Test of Wills [Import] [Hardcover]

Charles Todd (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 214 pages
• Publisher: Headline Book Publishing (June 12, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747219877
• ISBN-13: 978-0747219873
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (67 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,154,255 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Charles and Caroline Todd are a mother-and-son writing team who live on the east coast of the United States. Caroline has a BA in English Literature and History, and a Masters in International Relations. Charles has a BA in Communication Studies with an emphasis on Business Management, and a culinary arts degree that means he can boil more than water. Caroline has been married (to the same man) for umpteen years, and Charles is divorced.

Charles and Caroline have a rich storytelling heritage. Both spent many evenings on the porch listening to their fathers and grandfathers reminisce. And a maternal grandmother told marvelous ghost stories. This tradition allows them to write with passion about events before their own time. And an uncle/great-uncle who served as a flyer in WWI aroused an early interest in the Great War.

Charles learned the rich history of Britain, including the legends of King Arthur, William Wallace, and other heroes, as a child. Books on Nelson and by Winston Churchill were always at hand. Their many trips to England gave them the opportunity to spend time in villages and the countryside, where there'a different viewpoint from that of the large cities. Their travels are at the heart of the series they began ten years ago.

Charles's love of history led him to a study of some of the wars that shape it: the American Civil War, WWI and WWII. He enjoys all things nautical, has an international collection of seashells, and has sailed most of his life. Golf is still a hobby that can be both friend and foe. And sports in general are enthusiasms. Charles had a career as a business consultant. This experience gave him an understanding of going to troubled places where no one was glad to see him arrive. This was excellent training for Rutledge's reception as he tries to find a killer in spite of local resistance.

Caroline has always been a great reader and enjoyed reading aloud, especially poetry that told a story. The Highwayman was one of her early favorites. Her wars are WWI, the Boer War, and the English Civil War, with a sneaking appreciation of the Wars of the Roses as well. When she's not writing, she's traveling the world, gardening, or painting in oils. Her background in international affairs backs up her interest in world events, and she's also a sports fan, an enthusiastic follower of her favorite teams in baseball and pro football. She loves the sea, but is a poor sailor. (Charles inherited his iron stomach from his father.) Still, she has never met a beach she didn't like.

Both Caroline and Charles share a love of animals, and family pets have always been rescues. There was once a lizard named Schnickelfritz. Don't ask.

Writing together is a challenge, and both enjoy giving the other a hard time. The famous quote is that in revenge, Charles crashes Caroline's computer, and Caroline crashes his parties. Will they survive to write more novels together? Stay tuned! Their father/husband is holding the bets.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Historically interesting, mystery needs work..., January 2, 2002

By 

K. L Sadler "Dr. Karen L. Sadler" (Freedom, Pa. USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Test of Wills (Inspector Ian Rutledge Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

This was the first of Todd's books introducing readers to Rutledge and Hammish. I actually disagree with one of the previous reviewers that Hammish should 'leave'. Having family members who came back from WWI very scarred and subdued (from their letters and diaries), I can imagine that the British soldiers came back in even worse shape, than the Americans. We've only just started delving into the conditions known as post-traumatic stress disorder. Before the Vietnam War, this disorder was not recognized and treated as an illness. WWI veterans were referred to as being shell-shocked, but it wasn't just the noise from the constant bombardment. Most of these men were not even men yet, merely adolescents. They were exposed to trauma that we can only guess at: constant noise, mud, chemical warfare at its nastiest, dealing with daily fear and situations which would leave most of us very damaged. Yet when they came home, they were expected to 'buck up' and get over it, because society didn't understand what they had gone through.

Todd's history is much better then his mystery. I've read another of his further down the line, and enjoyed it very much. This first book tended to bog down, and there was not enough information to even expect the possibility of who the person responsible for the murder was. I was caught by surprise by the last couple of chapters, and it was not logical or sequential.

To be fair, this was a more than adequate first book. I am pleased to find another author who can write well, and since I expect that Todd will probably just get better as he continues writing these books (especially since I really enjoyed the last one I read)...I will continue to look for his material. If the reader enjoys an intelligent mystery, this is a good author to go to.
Karen Sadler
University of Pittsburgh

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poke around Upper Streetham with Rutledge and Hamish., January 2, 2006

By 

JAD (The Sunshine State) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Test of Wills (Hardcover)

In the charming village of Upper Streetham, Colonel Harris, a kind and good man and a veteran of both the Boer War and the Great War, is shot dead in so foul a manner that his corpse is horribly deformed. His ward, Lettice Wood, her fiancé the famed flying ace Captain Mark Wilton, and a host of supporting characters all come to the attention of Inspector Rutledge, who has been sent to investigate this politically charged case, by his jealous superior, "Old Bowels" who would like nothing more than to see Rutledge disgraced.

Now if that doesn't make you want to put down the remote and get reading, well how about this...

Rutledge will be helped in his detecting by an unseen but not silent partner, Hamish MacLeod. Hamish is - well, who is he? A ghost from the battlefield? A figment of Rutledge's shell-shocked imagination? A stabilizing presence for the Inspector, who has not yet fully recovered from his ordeal in the war? The first sign of Rutledge's impending descent into madness?

You be the judge.

Poke around Upper Streetham with Rutledge and Hamish. Visit the famous artist who lives in the town, the Sommers sisters, one shy and one outgoing, the flying ace's cousin and perhaps lover the widowed Sally Davenant, the faithful (or his he?) estate manager Laurence Royston. Suspects all. Scotland Yard would like the mystery solved quickly, but Rutledge moves at a pace that will get to the truth, even if it means the embarrassment of Buckingham Palace and the end of his wobbly career.

Will Hamish help or hinder him?

And how will the Inspector deal with the fact that one of the chief suspects is also a veteran of the war, not yet healed?

This is the first in remarkable series of classic whodunits. The reader will be hooked. And will wish to read all of the Rutledge mysteries, in order. A Test of Wills, Wings of Fire, Search the Dark, Legacy of the Dead, Watchers of Time, A Fearsome Doubt, A Cold Treachery, A Long Shadow. There is also a stand-alone Todd mystery called A Murder Stone, without Rutledge or Hamish. Read more about them at: www.Charlestodd.com

Todd intertwines the supporting characters from book to book, so that Rutledge's and Hamish's friends and family you meet herein will appear in subsequent books, at some times, mentioned, and other times, key to the story.

If you find this review helpful you might want to read some of my other reviews, including those on subjects ranging from biography to architecture, as well as religion and fiction.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Extraordinary Psychological & Historical Study - A Good Mystery Too!, August 28, 2005

By 

Jana L. Perskie "ceruleana" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Test of Wills (Inspector Ian Rutledge Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

"A Test of Wills" is the first book in the Inspector Ian Rutledge mystery series, and while this whodunit is good, it is not exceptional. The protagonist, his unique circumstances, and the period in which the novel is set, however, are most unique and make this a very special read. It is 1919 England and the Great War is over. Soldiers have returned to their homes and families. Many are maimed in mind and body. And then there are those who do not return at all. Approximately 720,000 British soldiers, (from the UK alone), were killed in WWI. Then the terrible influenza epidemic of 1918 devastated the country, and all of Europe, killing millions. Although nothing will bring back the relative innocence of life before 1914, people are slowly rebuilding their lives and a society that had been so hideously interrupted.

In Scotland Yard, Inspector Ian Rutledge, who was an army officer in France, is resuming his once promising career. He is also keeping a terrible secret. After falling under direct shelling and being buried alive in a frontline trench, he suffered an emotional breakdown - they called it shell shock. He has not recovered. The doctors told him that hearing voices is not uncommon for a soldier who had undergone such a traumatic incident. It is a way for his mind to accept something of its own creation, in order to conceal what it cannot face otherwise. The particular voice that the Inspector hears is that of Corporal Hamish Macleod, a young man who had served under him. Macleod had refused to continue fighting and Rutledge ordered his execution. He knows that if he does not succeed in recovering the skills he had before the war, he may well wind up in a sanitarium for the rest of his life. He is determined to put one foot in front of the other and fight his debilitating illness before it destroys him. Superintendent Bowles, Rutledge's unscrupulous superior, is jealous of his subordinate's pre-war success and has learned of his mental instability. He is determined to see the man fail.

In the village of Upper Streetham, Warwickshire, Colonel Charles Harris, an ex-Army officer, has been murdered and the Chief suspect is Captain Mark Wilton, a Victoria Cross decorated war hero, friend of the royal family, and fiance to the dead man's ward. When the local police request the aid of Scotland Yard, Bowles assigns the politically charged case to Rutledge.

The Inspector actually does begins to function despite his alter ego's harassment and running commentary. He finds more than one person with a motive to murder the Colonel. The complex psychological study and mystery unfold with much suspense and, although the pace slows at times, the character study of Rutledge more than makes up for any weaknesses in the narrative. The Inspector is a really special character and it is impossible not to like and admire him. His empathy with both victims and suspects is extraordinary. Even under extreme stress, it is clear why he was such a strong leader under fire. In a way he represents a generation of emotionally fragile veterans, trying to resume life after a carnage such as the world had never seen before.

Author Charles Todd writes of Rutledge: "Before the war it had been the case that drove him night and day - partly from a gritty determination that murderers must be found and punished. He had believed deeply in that, with the single-minded idealism of youth and a strong sense of moral duty towards victims who could no longer speak for themselves. But the war had altered his viewpoint, had shown him that the best of men could kill, given the right circumstances, as he himself had done over and over again. Not only the enemy, but his own men, sending them out to be slaughtered even when he had known beyond doubt that they would die and that the order to advance was madness."

Todd's descriptions of post war England, the main characters and the villagers, even the scenery are extraordinary. Oddly, Mr. Todd, who writes like a native of the UK, is an American. I definitely plan to read the second book in the series. Ian Rutledge has become very real to me, as has Hamish. I am rooting for the two to merge and am certainly interested in their further activities. I give this first effort 4+ stars. Highly recommended!
JANA