Rating: 
Summary: A gripping mystery tale in the countryside of England
Review: Charles Todd does an excellent job bringing a reader into the tortured mind of a WWI veteran soldier, Ian Rutledge, who is suffering from shellshock. This veteran soldier returns to his job at Scotland Yard where he was a top detective in the force before the war. His coworkers are oblivious to his condition. Rutlege's boss is jealous at his return to Scotland Yard and assigns him a dangerous murder case that he may not live to solve. Todd captivates the reader's attention to the last page where he lets us discover the totally unsuspected murderer.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting and Evocative
Review: Charles Todd re-creates the era of 1918 England so vividly that I'm walking around in a kind of an historical daze, part of my mind on work and part in an English village 85 years ago. I'll admit that I liked his later books a bit better than this first one, but as a whole this series does an incredible job at evoking a mood and a time that is far different than our modern world. Todd portrays so well the shocking dissonance between the England of pre-World War I, of laughing girls in white dresses with silk sashes playing lawn tennis, and the world of gaunt, haunted veterans who returned from the war shell-shocked and touched by death. His main character is such a veteran, and it is the story of how he tries to fit back into his pre-war life that is the point of these books rather than the actual mystery he is trying to solve. So, if you are more interested in characters than the mechanics of the plot, you are going to love this series!
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding first novel/psychological mystery
Review: Charles Todd's 1996 A Test of Wills is a good, old fashioned mystery. Todd's story features a dogged detective, a brutal killing, numerous suspects, and suspect witnesses. It is also clean (no sex, no foul language). An added plus is the detective's own battle with shell shock following World War I, including an ongoing dialogue with his personal demon, Hamish, a deserting soldier he was forced to execute on the battlefield. Todd writes extremely well; his prose is clear, descriptive, fresh, wholly lacking cliche. His characters (especially Rutledge, the detective) are well-drawn, believable. The story itself is well plotted, leaving the reader in doubt until the denouement in the final pages. Wills is Todd's first novel; I look forward to his next!
Rating: 
Summary: Not the best, not the worst
Review: CONS: The pace is a bit slow, the ending is built around a hackneyed mystery gimmick, and the idea of a "Watson" as a tortured voice inside the detective's head (created by the psychological scars of WWI shell shock) works better in theory than in practice. PROS: I enjoyed the detective, Rutledge, and his overall likeability, and I appreciated the sort of Golden Age feel that underlies the tone of the work (FYI: There is much more character psychology in this novel than you'd get from a 1930s puzzle mystery, which many modern readers will like while others won't).
Rating: 
Summary: Unfullfilled Promise
Review: I agree with the reviewers who found Rutledge's constant fights with his own shell shock condition and with Hamish (deliver us all from writers who produce voices in the head torments)to be too much (easy way to fill space, etc.). I also agree that the ending was trite and easily obvious...this was the second Rutledge book that I read and I was disappointed as with the first one...Todd can't seem to bear having a primary character (especially of the upper class variety)be guilty of murder so who does he pick? Right, the secondary, less socially elevated character. The reviewers who compared Todd to Christie and Sayers who wrote in the WWI aftermath era were right on the mark. He, and so many other modern mystery writers, just don't seem capable of writing a mystery. Christie and Sayers were adept at sprinkling in clues that led to the ultimate unveiling of the killer(s). The reader could then berate himself/herself for not being astute enough to spot these clues or congratulate themselves if they did. Todd doesn't seem to have heard of clues. I feel certain that if I read another of his books that I'll just have to pick the most obvious of the secondary characters and I'll be sure to have the killer. Todd's actual writing style is good...I'm sorry that his stories don't measure up. I've been looking for real mystery writers...they seem to be a dying breed. Rex Stout was a master...the fat Wolfe sitting in his brownstone weaving all the threads that the smart-aleck Archie brought to him until he had the whole tapestry done and the killer exposed. Many times I've thumbed back in a Nero Wolfe book to find what I'd missed after Wolfe solved the case. No need to do that with Todd's books (at least the 2 I've read). I'll keep looking. Read Todd if you don't want to have to solve a mystery..if you are just looking for easy entertainment.
Rating: 
Summary: excellent mystery
Review: I bought this book because it was listed to be one of the top 100 mysteries of the 20th century. I can often figure out "whodunit" when I read mysteries, and I appreciate a book where I am unable to do so, as happened here. Yet when the truth was revealed, I realized that I had been given all of the clues. I thought the character of Inspector Ian Rutledge was very well drawn; I was really able to sympathize with his struggle with shell shock, self-doubt and lost love. Although his shell shock contributed a lot to how he dealt with the murder case, it didn't distract from the mystery. His shell shock manifests as the voice of Hamish, a soldier under his command, who Rutledge had shot for desertion on the front in France. Some of Hamish's comments were obscure, but I didn't think he got in the way. The story held me in a pretty good grip, accelerating to the end. It was hard to put down in the last several chapters. All in all, very well done, and I think deserving of a spot on the top 100 mysteries.
Rating:
Summary: excellent mystery
Review: I bought this book because it was listed to be one of the top 100 mysteries of the 20th century. I can often figure out "whodunit" when I read mysteries, and I appreciate a book where I am unable to do so, as happened here. Yet when the truth was revealed, I realized that I had been given all of the clues. I thought the character of Inspector Ian Rutledge was very well drawn; I was really able to sympathize with his struggle with shell shock, self-doubt and lost love. Although his shell shock contributed a lot to how he dealt with the murder case, it didn't distract from the mystery. His shell shock manifests as the voice of Hamish, a soldier under his command, who Rutledge had shot for desertion on the front in France. Some of Hamish's comments were obscure, but I didn't think he got in the way. The story held me in a pretty good grip, accelerating to the end. It was hard to put down in the last several chapters. All in all, very well done, and I think deserving of a spot on the top 100 mysteries.
Rating:
Summary: excellent mystery
Review: I bought this book because it was listed to be one of the top 100 mysteries of the 20th century. I can often figure out "whodunit" when I read mysteries, and I appreciate a book where I am unable to do so, as happened here. Yet when the truth was revealed, I realized that I had been given all of the clues. I thought the character of Inspector Ian Rutledge was very well drawn; I was really able to sympathize with his struggle with shell shock, self-doubt and lost love. Although his shell shock contributed a lot to how he dealt with the murder case, it didn't distract from the mystery. His shell shock manifests as the voice of Hamish, a soldier under his command, who Rutledge had shot for desertion on the front in France. Some of Hamish's comments were obscure, but I didn't think he got in the way. The story held me in a pretty good grip, accelerating to the end. It was hard to put down in the last several chapters. All in all, very well done, and I think deserving of a spot on the top 100 mysteries.
Rating:
Summary: Dull and Lifeless
Review: I can't believe anyone would dare to compare this with the WWI books by Pat Barker. This had absolutely none of the emotional charge those books have. Nor did the people in it seem to have been affected by the war. I never felt anything for any of the characters, including the main character Ian Rutledge. The pace of the book was glacial. The women characters were interchangeable and straight out of a romance novel. I finished the book just to see "who dunnit," and that was certainly a disappointment. I plan to skip any sequels.
Rating:
Summary: been waiting for a good book for a long time
Review: I just finished A Test of Wills and was so pleased to find a book that meets my standards... intricate plot and strong characterization. Mr Todd shows perceptive insight with his characters and I will look forward to his sequels, or new works. He falls into the same genre as Elizabeth George, another favorite of mine. I hope he reads these reviews and is encouraged to continue his "jolly good" work.
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