Rating: 
Summary: Read some history, please, Mr Todd
Review: This first novel's premise is promising - WWI veteran returns to solving crimes, carrying a heavy burden (shellshock) but possibly capable of new insights, too. This character, Ian Rutledge, is relatively well-realized and interesting.But overall, Todd's attempt at a 'classic' murder mystery is deeply deficient. First, there's an initially nagging, and eventually laughable, lack of historicity. Todd has no feel whatever for dialog predating the first screenings of The Oprah Winfrey Show. His characters, mainly conservative upper-class Englishmen and women circa 1918, expound upon their intimate emotional lives at great length. They openly analyze their sexual affairs. They explain their actions in terms of feelings, not duty or morality or social decency/respectability. They use a vocabulary straight out of 'I'm okay; you're okay'. In other words, they sound like participants in a middle-class California focus group. I don't know who Todd is, or where he's from, but he's got a lot of reading and research to do before he achieves even half-assed historical plausibility. Second, although the male characters in A Test of Wills are at least distinguishable, his female leads are utterly interchangeable. Here's all the description you need of all three or four major female characters: "Graceful in her carriage, green eyes flashing and burnished hair lying free on her shoulders, Emma radiated an aura of spirited but playful intelligence." Hey! That's better than anything you'll find in this novel --- maybe I should write these things myself! Anyway, thirdly, the plot is a matter best left to bulldozers and other heavy earth-moving machinery, because there's no way to ride it lightly. It's slow, pedestrian, and has a stupid (and also pop-psychologized) ending. I also guessed one huge plot twist within twenty lines of the key character being introduced, so Todd isn't exactly subtle. If this is one of the 100 best mysteries of the 20th century (see one of the reviews below) then I'm glad we're working on a fresh one.
Rating: 
Summary: Impressive debut
Review: This historical mystery is the first in the Ian Rutledge series. Historical fiction is not my favorite genre, but Todd mixes just the right amount of history, psychology, and mystery. I did, however, find myself wishing that the character of Hammish had been introduced differently, perhaps in more of a "stream-of-consciousness" style. Ultimately, this is why I did not give the novel 5 stars: Todd writes great mystery prose, but is no James.
Rating:
Summary: an excellent series begins
Review: This is the first in a series that just keeps getting better. It has been easy to forget the impact World War One had on British society. Rutledge (and Hamish) make that impact very real. The fact that so many of the characters in the book are dead does nothing to keep them from being very vivid. I like my police proceduals to have depth and this one does not fail.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Just a Mystery - Its Literature
Review: This novel is one of the most beautifully written mysteries I've ever read! I found the first page captivating. Furthermore, every word of the prologue appears to have been carefully selected to provide clues about the nature of the crime and direct us to the murderer. The main character is believable, interesting, and sympathetic. The reader is drawn into post-WWI England in a powerful way, pointing again to the soul destroying effects of war, and the deeper resentments of the human soul. The characters are relentlessly believable - even the one's who aren't really there!
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated historical mystery
Review: This was a much hyped first mystery that has become quite a collectible. A shell-shocked WWI veteran returns to Scotland Yard after the war to investigate the death of a decorated war hero. The author succeeds creating an eerie psychological atmosphere. However, I found his writing to be stilted and struggled to finish the book. The characters did not interest me. This is only Todd's first book and I think he has talent. I look forward to his future efforts.
Rating:
Summary: Historically interesting, mystery needs work...
Review: 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
Rating:
Summary: Get rid of Hamish
Review: Todd does some nice writing, the narration, the descriptive work, etc, is quite good. But Please, someone, advise the author to get rid of Hamish. The ever present voice in the silence gets to be too too too much.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting Concept But Much Too Slow-Moving
Review: Unlike the book itself, I will make a long story short and advise you that while the plot is interesting, the long drawn out solution is not worth the effort.
Rating:
Summary: WONDERFUL
Review: What a difference! WWI--we don't know much about it, but we learn by bits & pieces. Inspector Rutlege is someone we care about and want to know what happened. I thoroughly enjoyed this. Also, read Rennie Airth and Peter Robinson. I will read more Charles Todd.
Rating:
Summary: fine first effort
Review: When Colonel Charles Harris is shotgunned to death while out riding on his English estate in the Spring of 1919 and the leading suspect turns out to be a Victoria Cross decorated war hero and friend of the King and the chief witness is a shell-shocked vet, a malicious Scotland Yard supervisor sees the perfect opportunity to get rid of a nettlesome subordinate. So Inspector Ian Rutledge is plopped down into the middle of a politically charged murder investigation. Compounding his difficulties is the fact that Rutledge himself suffered an emotional collapse after being buried in a trench during the War. Now, unknown to all, he is continually accompanied by an internal voice, named Hamish, that belittles him and exacerbates his war guilt. Rutledge makes for an interesting and sympathetic detective and it is unusual to find a period mystery that actually acknowledges the War, let alone probes so deeply into the psychic damage left in its wake. And Rutledge was profoundly effected: 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 too be slaughtered even when he had known beyond doubt that they would die and that the order to advance was madness. Rutledge's empathy for suspects and victims alike is appealing and his running battle with Hamish adds a real tension to the story. But the pacing of the story is a little stately and the key plot twist is a tad obvious. Still, it's a good first effort and I'm willing to read the next in the series to see if Todd improves. GRADE: C+
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