Charles Todd – Two authors, two series


Those who have access to the Greensboro News & Record can find my review of Charles Todd’s latest Inspector Rutledge mystery, A Lonely Death there today. And they also can read my interview with Charles Todd.

Fans of Charles Todd will know that Charles Todd is the pen name for two people, a mother and son writing team. When they first started writing the critically acclaimed series about a British detective who is struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder after World War I, they let people think Charles Todd was one person. After a few books, the news that Charles Todd was a team emerged.

In two phone calls about a week apart, I was privileged to be able to have a lengthy conversation with both halves of the team. Neither of them is named Todd: They have pen names within pen names, with the son using the original Charles Todd as his pen name, and the mother going with Caroline. Caroline lives in Wilmington, Del., with her husband but has deep family roots in North Carolina and graduated from what was then Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina. Charles, a graduate of what is now UNC Greensboro, lives in North Carolina and visits his parents in Delaware frequently.

The book I reviewed for the Greensboro paper is Charles Todd’s latest. I am taking the occasion of the publication of this review and the interview to catch up on their most recent book in a newer series, the one about Bess Crawford, a British Army nurse in World War I. That book came out last summer just about the time the Winston-Salem Journal dropped the locally written book page I had edited for 25 years, so I never got around to reviewing it.

Caroline Todd+Charles Todd=Charles Todd, author

By Linda C. Brinson

AN IMPARTIAL WITNESS. By Charles Todd. William Morrow. 344 pages. $24.99.

Bess Crawford, who made her first appearance in A Duty to the Dead (2009), is back in An Impartial Witness.

This series is similar to the Rutledge series in many important respects. The books are literate and beautifully written. Obviously well researched, they portray their place and time evocatively and naturally. They are intriguing mysteries, but they are much more. They are written with a deep understanding of war and its aftermath, particularly, in this case, the way Great War wrought profound changes in British life. And they also aptly convey the devastating effects that crime – murder – in civilian life has on those who live as well as those who die.

But this new series is different in important ways also. The setting is during World War I, rather than the years just after its end. As a nurse, Bess frequently moves back and forth between the front and England, often accompanying the wounded on their way home. And Bess is a gently reared, upper-class girl determined to be brave rather than a seasoned detective struggling with the ghosts of what he had to do during the war.

There are readers who recognize the quality of the Rutledge books but find them dark and even depressing. These readers should give the Bess Crawford books a try. They are written in the first person, in the voice of an idealistic young woman. The daughter of an Army officer, Bess knows that if she were a son, she would be expected to serve, so she is determined to do what she can to help the cause as a nurse. She is not entirely naïve; having spent much of her girlhood in India, she has seen human suffering and understands the gap between the haves and the have-nots.

Accompanying a badly burned pilot home, Bess notices that he clings to a photo of his wife. Later, in London for a brief rest before heading back to the front, Bess witnesses a woman involved in a emotional farewell at a train station. To her shock, she recognizes the woman as the wife in the photo the pilot had so treasured.

After she returns to the front, Bess reads in a newspaper that the wife, Marjorie Evanson, had been stabbed to death in London, and the authorities are seeking witnesses. Soon, she learns that the burned pilot has committed suicide while in the hospital.

Bess, ever one to feel the call of duty, feels that she must report what she saw. She also feels compelled to try to figure out who the man was she saw bidding Marjorie farewell, and to learn more about Marjorie, her pilot husband, and their lives.

The investigation gets complicated and even dangerous. Todd does an excellent job of showing what Bess deals with on the battlefields of France, and juxtaposing those struggles with what she encounters as she tries to sort things out when she’s back in England.

This is a fine, entertaining, thought-provoking book. Bess is a delightful heroine, and it’s heartening to see her grow in courage, resourcefulness and self-confidence. Maybe not all the changes wrought in British society by the Great War were bad.


4 responses to “Charles Todd – Two authors, two series”

  1. Linda, that was so nicely put, two author-two series. And it’s a lovely review of AN IMPARTIAL WITNESS. You captured Bess so well. We often refer to the two series as our Summer and Winter books, even though we write Rutledge in the summer and Bess in the winter! Bess has a brighter future, a loving family, and a heart-breaking job. She’s a great summer read. Rutledge, who walks alone, carries the burden of his past and wants his future to be vastly different. And winter suits him. But both must deal with the tragedy and the aftermath of murder, and they approach it in different ways. What we love about both characters is their understanding and their compassion. And we love watching them grow with each book. Thanks so much, Linda, for everything! Caroline & Charles

  2. I don’t know why, but I have been interested, no, I should say, caught in the maelstrom that was the Great War. I grew up just after World War II, but I was always more drawn to that previous War and its time.

    It seems that most people’s attention has been taken by WW II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the recent Middle East wars. But the mother of all these wars must have been the 14-18 War.

    Your novels have captured a vital essence of the times that made that war possible. It’s a shame that they have come too late for those who had fought in it. Yet perhaps not too late. Why should I, born in 1946, feel so deeply connected to that time? Perhaps it’s that someone has to care, to feel, the terrible thing that happened to our grandparents and great-grandparents.

    They should not be forgotten. I will not forget them, God help me.

  3. I am sixty eight years old and I am reading your books and enjoying them very much. I love reading about England and that period of time. The plots are filled with such twists and turns and really keep me hanging in there. I plan on reading every book even Bess Crawfords books too. I just started reading ” A Lonely Death” and I read your dedication to Fluffy and Sima and I really was moved to tears because I have a Fluffy too. She’s the lite of my life. Thank you for giving me many hours of enjoyable reading. Angela

  4. I have to say that the hardest part of reading these series is the “withdrawal”. I have read them all and then have purchased the audio versions to listen to while I work. I have hunted for similar series but alas none have come close and I find myself in despair. It was so nice to look forward of winding down my day with either Bess or Ian.

    Thank you so much for the many hours of vicarious living.
    Linda

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