Watchers of Time: An Inspector Ian Rutledge Novel

If you search Google for images of "see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil," you'll find millions. And not just the usual three monkeys. Also people. Worldwide. Laughing. Having fun. And "no evil" statues, people on a bench with statues, pictures, people with actual monkeys, even a recent former president of the United States. Sometimes a fourth figure -- for do no evil -- is there with hands placed privately. In "Watchers of Time" by Charles Todd, in the garden of a large English estate a superstitious picture is carved on a thick stone slab (bas-relief) of four similar simians -- apes, baboons, gibbons, your call -- bigger than life and ancient Egyptian. Enough to give children nightmares, and for parents to find ugly. The side-by-side figures are called "The Watchers of Time." They do not depict the "no evils" of Google images. They cannot speak, they do not judge or condemn, they merely observe "what man and the gods may do." And any man with a guilty conscience would find their relentless fourfold staring very uncomfortable. There is much in the story for them to watch. A dying man, a former coachman to the estate, wants not only his Anglican priest at his bedside but also the priest from the local Catholic church. This unusual dual request starts a chain of events that begins with the brutal murder of the Catholic priest in his rectory and soon the reopening of the disappearance years before of the young pretty, but simpleton wife of the heir of the estate. The amiable, smiling, crowd-pleasing Strong Man at the annual Catholic bazaar is quickly arrested and charged by the local police with the priest's murder. As for the young wife, did she perish with those who went down on the Titanic? Was she a runaway? Was she murdered? Why did the dead priest have an interest in her? The uneasy likely replacement for the Catholic priest doesn't want to be the next victim in the rectory and asks his Bishop to bring in Scotland Yard, to ensure that the right man has been caught. Fighting against local opinion, Inspector Ian Rutledge labors exhaustively and exhaustingly as complications arise. Todd's writing is among the very best out there. The characters are finely drawn, the descriptions riveting, the plotting intelligent and suspenseful. In the end the silent Watchers do their job magnificently.

In this mystery, we find ourselves with Scotland Yard's Inspector Rutledge, traveling way off the beaten track, in Norfolk. He has not yet healed from the wounds of his last case, nor the wounds of World War I. But duty calls. His task: to determine the reason why an ordinary parish priest has been murdered. There are so many more questions than answers. Why would Herbert Baker, a decent, elderly Church of England sexton call for a Roman Catholic priest to minister to him at his deathbed? And what, pray tell, might that have to do with the murder of Father James, shortly thereafter? Coincidence? Or are the two somehow interconnected? It is up to Inspector Ian Rutledge to investigate - and perhaps glean the truth of the matter. Inside his head, the ubiquitous presence of Hamish, Ian's dead sergeant, offers his share of observations about the town and the crime. And just who are these townspeople: the confident doctor; Walsh, the carnival strongman; Sims the callow vicar; Patricia and May, the beautiful yet mysterious women; the cautious local inspector; Lord Sedgwick the friend of the King; his two sons, who comprise the parvenu family from the manor; Monsignor Holstein the priest's concerned supervisor; Peter the poor soul who came back from the Great War with his nerves shattered; how might each of them be connected to the crime? Not to mention the quiet, closed-mouthed people of the village who have little to say to an outsider? Rutledge needs to know; we want to know. Hamish is there to help. Throughout, we see people trying to pick up the tatters of their lives as they live in the first uncertain year after the Armistice, Rutledge included. Moreover, what other mysteries does the village of Osterly hold? The tides receded into unmanageable marshland decades ago, taking prosperity with them. Now, the people live on the edge of the marsh, struggling to get by, keeping up appearances. Will Rutledge's presence in Osterly help the situation, or will he stir up old secrets best left hidden? Will Osterly help Rutledge on his road to recovery, or will he become hopelessly enmeshed in a personal and professional disaster? Are the suspicions unfounded? Was the murder just a random act of violence, or was it cold blooded malevolence? The mystery is shrouded in questions, even as the atmosphere is as greyly murky as a mist off the sea. Yet, somehow, Rutledge senses that there is more to be discovered. He questions, he explores, and he weighs the facts, even as he wrestles with his own ghosts of the past. As time watches, watches, watches.

I stumbled on to a Charles Todd book accidentally while perusing the shelves in the local library. Am not sure which of his books were the first I read but I liked it so much I checked out five of his and read them one after the other without ever tiring of the two main characters, Ian Rutledge and Hamish. The descriptions of the English and Scottish country side and little towns were almost poetic. Even though murder most foul was the subject the books had a tranquilizing affect afforded by reading of a bygone era in the aftermath of World War I. I am looking forward to his new book in early 2006.

In this fifth outing, Inspector Rutledge of Scotland Yard is once again sent out of London to help the local constabulary investigate a murder and to placate local powers that be. As he painstakenly uncovers each clue, Rutledge begins to put the puzzle of a local priest's murder together in spite of the local police declaring that they have found the killer. The conclusions he draws will shock the local people as well as the local policeman.Todd has one of the four best British procedural series going (the others being Crombie, Robinson, and James). Todd's series is special, however, because he has set it immediately after World War I and his character is flawed because of his experiences in the trenches of France.Todd's writing continues to be impressive and his plotting superb. He does not use devices that will give his detective more information than he gives his readers. He has maintained Inspector Rutledge's voice and that of his alter-ego Hamish in this outing.Todd has written a procedural - it is not machine gun paced - it's not supposed to be. If you're looking for a book that you can read in a single setting and still figure out whodunnit, don't pick up this series. But if you enjoy going along with the detective as he/she investigates a crime step-by-step, then try this series. You won't be disappointed.If you intend to read this series, start with Todd's first effort A Test of Wills so you get the sense of the character and his suffering.

In September 1919 in Osterly, Herbert Baker is near death from congestive heart failure. Instead of demanding the appearance of his Vicar, Herbert asks for Father James to talk to him in private. The kind Father visits Herbert though they are of different religions. Not long afterward, Herbert dies. Father James never seems quite the same after his deathbed visit. A few weeks later, an assailant attacks Father James killing him with a large crucifix. The culprit arranges the crime scene to look as if Father James interrupted a robbery in progress. Bishop Cunningham asks Chief Superintendent Bowles to dispatch a Scotland Yard detective to assure church officials that the police are running a proper investigation. Bowles sends Inspector Ian Rutledge, who starting with an interview with Monsignor Holstein begins to have doubts that robbery occurred. Advised and lectured by the deceased Corporal Hamish MacLeod, who occupies part of his mind, Ian begins to unravel a much greater tragedy than even the cold-blooded murder of a priest. The Rutledge historical mysteries are unique because the reader does not know whether Hamish is a ghost or Ian suffers from battle fatigue syndrome. The story line of WATCHERS OF TIME, like its precursors, bring the post World War I era in England (this time the Norfolk area) to vivid life. This enables the audience to taste a bygone period of their parents and grandparents that is quickly fading into the dust of history books. The who-done-it is cleverly devised as expected by Charles Todd, but as usual the charcaters including Hamish make the novel a sub-genre stand out.Harriet Klausner