A Test of Wills - Hardcover

Charles Todd

3.88

18,900 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0747219877 ISBN 13: 9780747219873

Publisher: Headline, 1997

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It is 1919, and the War to End All Wars has been won. But for Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge, recently returned from the battlefields of France, there is no peace. Suffering from shell shock, he plunges into his work to save his sanity. But his first assignment is a case certain to spell both personal and professional disaster.

A popular colonel has been murdered in Warwickshire, and the main suspect is a decorated war hero. No matter what the outcome, Rutledge may not escape with his career intact. And, win or lose, the cost could be even higher: The one witness who could break the case is himself a shell-shock victim. In this war-ravaged man, Rutledge sees his own possible future, should he fail.

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Review:

Having just returned from France after World War I with a medal of honor and serious shell shock, Inspector Ian Rutledge struggles to settle back into his duties at Scotland Yard. When, despite his tenuous condition, an envious supervisor assigns him to a traumatic case involving the murder of an army colonel and a young captain as the prime suspect, Rutledge must gather all of his strength to not only solve the case, but fight the town people's prejudice against military personnel. To make matters worse, the prime witness is another veteran--on the brink of insanity--scorned by the villagers for what they perceive to have been less than honorable conduct during his tour of duty.

From the Publisher:

A New York Times Book Review Notable Book.

"A harrowing psychological drama...Superb."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Remarkable."
--Chicago Tribune

"Todd has written a first novel that speaks out, urgently and compassionately, for a long-dead generation and a world he never knew....A meticulously wrought puzzle."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Remarkable...Todd, an American, seems to have perfect pitch in his ability to capture the tenor and nuances of English country life."
--The Kansas City Star

"Unusual...finely crafted...psychologically sophisticated, tautly written and craftily plotted."
--San Jose Mercury News

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