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A review by lgpiper
A Test Of Wills by Charles Todd
4.0
This is the first of Todd's Inspector Ian Rutledge stories. I had read one three years ago (GoodReads claims I read two of them, but I appear to have reviewed only one of the two) and liked it enough to consider reading more. I decided I should begin at the beginning.
Ian Rutledge was a police inspector who went off to World War I and came back with some rather severe "shell shock", or as we term it these days, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). One of the features of this PTSD is that Rutledge hears voices in his head, notably that of a Scott, named Shamus, whom Rutledge had to have executed for refusing orders on the battle field. It doesn't help that his fiancée dumped him after he returned from the war.
Rutledge thinks that returning to work with Scotland Yard will help his healing process. In theory, the folks at Scotland Yard don't know about his medical issues. But one, his immediate superior does seem to know. Further, said superior doesn't much like Rutledge and would like an excuse to get rid of him. So, Rutledge is sent off to investigate the murder of a war hero, Col. Wood. The most obvious suspect is a local rabble rouser who has had run-ins with the war hero, but Rutledge finds evidence to exonerate him. Then, there's another war hero, Capt. Wilton, who happens to be betrothed, to Col. Wood's niece and ward, Lettice, and who also appears to have been highly decorated by the royal family. So, Rutledge has to sort out all the various relationships in the local village, all the while being abused verbally by the voice of Shamus in his head. Something like that.
It was a pretty good book, and although it was written fairly recently by Americans, most of the background feels reasonably true to post World War I Britain. I'm not sure I liked this book as much as the first one I read (which was the sixth in the series), but I liked it enough I'll likely pick up a few more somewhere along the line.
Ian Rutledge was a police inspector who went off to World War I and came back with some rather severe "shell shock", or as we term it these days, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). One of the features of this PTSD is that Rutledge hears voices in his head, notably that of a Scott, named Shamus, whom Rutledge had to have executed for refusing orders on the battle field. It doesn't help that his fiancée dumped him after he returned from the war.
Rutledge thinks that returning to work with Scotland Yard will help his healing process. In theory, the folks at Scotland Yard don't know about his medical issues. But one, his immediate superior does seem to know. Further, said superior doesn't much like Rutledge and would like an excuse to get rid of him. So, Rutledge is sent off to investigate the murder of a war hero, Col. Wood. The most obvious suspect is a local rabble rouser who has had run-ins with the war hero, but Rutledge finds evidence to exonerate him. Then, there's another war hero, Capt. Wilton, who happens to be betrothed, to Col. Wood's niece and ward, Lettice, and who also appears to have been highly decorated by the royal family. So, Rutledge has to sort out all the various relationships in the local village, all the while being abused verbally by the voice of Shamus in his head. Something like that.
It was a pretty good book, and although it was written fairly recently by Americans, most of the background feels reasonably true to post World War I Britain. I'm not sure I liked this book as much as the first one I read (which was the sixth in the series), but I liked it enough I'll likely pick up a few more somewhere along the line.