A TEST OF WILLS - Book review

Charles Todd’s debut book A Test of Wills (1996) is an unusual well-written mystery novel.

It’s 1919 and Inspector Ian Rutledge returns from the Front to take up his job in Scotland Yard. His fiancée Jean walked away from him while he convalesced in a clinic. However, the trench warfare has left an indelible mark on his mind, though there are no outward signs of shell-shock. ‘he’d discovered din the trenches of France that hell itself was not half so frightening as the darkest corners of the human mind’ (p167).

[The cover is excellent - those hands holding the sufferer's head resembling the flames of conflict.]

Rutledge hopes that getting back into the work groove will finally heal him. Hamish is not so sure. Hamish is a Scot, killed in the war, and now Rutledge’s pestering conscience. ‘He’d seen his return mainly as the answer to his desperate need to stay busy, to shut out Hamish, to shut out Jean, to shut out, indeed, the shambles of his life’ (p64).  ‘Nightmares strip the soul’ he is told. Rutledge found no answers for that’ (p124).

It begins with the murder of Colonel Harris by person or persons unknown in a Warwickshire village. The main suspect is Captain Wilton, VC. But there are other likely candidates, too: Lettice Wood is the ward of the late Colonel and the fiancée of Wilton; Mrs Davenant, previously in love with Wilton; Catherine Tarrant, a famous painter cursed by scandal; Reverend Carfield, who lusts after Miss Wood; Royston, who looks after Mallows, the Colonel’s home; Mavers, an unpleasant individual who has always plagued the Colonel; and Hickam, a village drunk who suffers from shell-shock and nightmares.

Rutledge felt he had to understand the murdered man, no easy task; at one time, before the war, he’d found it much easier. ‘How do you put your finger on the pulse of a dead man and bring him to life?’ (p63).

About halfway through Rutledge experiences a flashback to the trenches and in a mere three pages Todd conveys the terror and futility of trench warfare – very telling scenes that explain a great deal, including the voice of Hamish.

There are many instances of fine writing and description. When viewing Catherine Tarrant’s paintings, for example: ‘If you wanted to capture the waste of war, what better expression was there than this, the very antithesis of the dashing recruitment posters?  A girl in a rose-splashed gown whirling in  ecstasy under the spreading limbs of an aged oak. The lost world of 1914, the innocence and brightness and abandonment to joy that was gone forever’ (p119).

A bird began to sing in the trees beyond an open window of the Inquest room. ‘The sound was sweet, liquid, but oddly out of place as a background to a quiet discussion of death’ (p172).

The doctor’s housekeeper observes about Hickam: ‘… that man suffered. Whatever he did in the war, good or evil, he’s paid for it every hour since’ (p139).

The book’s title doubtless stems from this passage: ‘She looked up at him, eyes defensive but resolute. It was a strange test of wills, and he wasn’t sure exactly where it was leading…’ (p226).

The denouement is well done, shifting the book into psychological mystery territory.

At present there are twenty-two Inspector Rutledge books available, which is no mean feat for any author!

Editorial comment

My bête noir is this: ‘he thought to himself’ – (p89). He thought would suffice. ‘Himself’ is tautology.

Charles Todd is American and on the whole has successfully captured the English nuances. The text contains US English spelling. Many, many years ago a family friend used to work for Penguin books in London and her task was to Anglicise American spelling in books written by their US authors. I suspect this is no longer considered necessary or even viable. For interest, here are a few Americanisms I detected:

‘You’d better come, they’re about to lynch that stupid devil Mavers!’ – In England we’d say ‘hang’ not ‘lynch’.

 ‘He just lays there…’ (p138) – In England we’d say ‘he just lies there…’

‘… questions had gotten him nowhere. (p189) – In England we’d say ‘questions got him nowhere…’

American English uses ‘toward’ while UK English uses ‘towards’.

And, inevitably, Rutledge walks along a sidewalk instead of a path or pavement. (‘Pavement’ in US English is the road). Separated by a common language, indeed.