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Overview
Overview
"Todd has written a first novel that speaks out, urgently and compassionately, for a long-dead generation....A meticulously wrought puzzle."
--New York Times Book Review
"An intricately plotted mystery. With this remarkable debut, Charles Todd breaks new ground in the historical crime novel."
--Peter Lovesey, author of The Circle
"You're going to love Todd."
--Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly
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(R) 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. A phenomenal writer, 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.
- Format: MassMarketPaperback
- Author: Todd, Charles
- ISBN: 9780061242847
- Condition: Used
- Dimensions: 6.74 x 0.88
- Number Of Pages: 320
- Publication Year: 2006
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Great story and characters - 1st in a series
Raul M. - 5 years 9 months agoA wonderful new series for fans of Agatha Christie, Jacqueline Winspear and Boris Akunin. Richly immersive, this book is a wonder to read, but it is the protagonist who has great appeal: Inspector Ian Rutledge returns from the Great War haunted and troubled by is experience there; while under heavy shell fire, he has had to execute Hamish MacLeod, a young Scot soldier, for refusing to follow orders. Rutledge himself is buried under the rubble of a shell burst that occurs immediately after and thus suffers from a combination of claustrophobia and what we would call PTSD today. He is also haunted by the voice of Hamish - and the Scot rants about his end but also helps Rutledge in his investigation serving as both partner and conscience. An imaginative approach to the story of a murdered colonel in the beautiful English countryside.
HPB Staff Review