It turns out that this is the 23rd volume in the Inspector Ian Rutledge Mysteries. I only discovered this after finishing the book — it does not give its own history away. It also turns out that author “Charles Todd” is actually two people, Charles Todd and his mother Caroline Todd. While the Rutledge series is set in England, the Todds are Americans. In addition to the 23 books in the Rutledge series, they also have 14 books in another mystery series based on the “Bess Crawford” character, also set in Europe. Then there are two standalone novels. All this accomplished since 1994. 

From the start, with the first novel in the Rutledge series, A Test of Wills, there’s been a constant quirk to the main character. Rutledge served in the First World War, and suffers from trauma. The form his trauma takes is to almost constantly have an imaginary companion talking to him. This companion is someone he knew in real life, in the war. They were friends. He is called Hamish, and he is Scottish. This is unfortunate, because it brings the novel into a semi-comical double-act of the inspector and his imaginary friend with a heavy Scottish accent. Certainly, as a depiction of the effects of trauma, it is rather silly. Fortunately, the audiobook is performed by Simon Vance, one of the best performers around. Vance saves the day by giving the plot device some gravitas. 

The plot of this novel is about a dead man, a missing child, and life in a small village. It gets quite complicated, and lasts over 10 hours, or 350 pages in the hardcopy. There is some adventure. But none of the characters is charismatic enough for the reader to care much about who did it, but the depiction of life in England and Wales soon after the Great War does have some appeal. We do get some impression of a country recovering after a terrible national experience.  

The most remarkable thing about Rutledge is how sometimes, during his investigations, he will not tell the person he meets that he is with the police. He pretends he is looking for a friend, for example, and asks questions. This gets people to open up more and give him more information. Rutledge is good at reading people and using them, sympathetically. 

Christian Perring is editor of Metapsychology Online

Categories: Fiction