South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Todd’s ‘Game of Fear’ stirs up ghosts, ‘A Thousand Steps’ dives into ’60s
Eye-witness testimony is notoriously unreliable. Witnesses may be positive about what they saw when, in reality, they often are mistaken. Charles Todd skillfully uses this idea in the superior “A Game of Fear,” the 24th novel about Scotland Yard inspector and WWI veteran Ian Rutledge.
Beginning with “A Test of Wills” in 1994, mother and son Caroline and Charles Todd have published under the name Charles Todd. Last August, Caroline Todd died suddenly. Before her death, the writing team had completed the manuscript for “A Game of Fear” as well as their next novel about WWI nurse Bess Crawford, scheduled to be published this summer.
Todd’s Ian Rutledge series has long delivered outstanding, insightful looks at how war affects veterans and life in post WWI England. Set in 1921, “A Game of Fear” takes
Ian to the small village of Walmer in the Essex area to investigate what might have been a murder, but with no body nor killer.
The situation may be his supervisor’s way of getting him out of the office. Being in the field is often preferable to Ian, who still suffers from claustrophobia brought on by the war. Working in the field also allows Ian to be anonymous — he’s generally always called “the man from London.”
In Walmer, Lady Felicia Benton claims that she witnessed from her bedroom window a murder occurring on the grounds of her estate. No crime scene exists, but Lady Benton is sure she knows the killer is Captain Roger Nelson, even though he was killed in a car accident during the war. Nelson had been stationed at the airfield that had been built on her property and the two were close friends. It’s never been clear if his death was an accident or suicide.
Ian knows quite a bit about war-time ghosts that haunt the living. But the detective also wanders if Lady Benton is being targeted because of the value of her land and the items in the house. He refuses to believe that, as the local doctor says, “women living alone in big houses” can lose their minds.
Todd continues to delve into Ian’s psyche and his ongoing struggle with PTSD. Being shell shocked, as it was called in the early part of the 20th century, was considered cowardice and Ian must keep this a secret. “A Game of Fear” also extends Todd’s look at how The Great War affected British life and culture. The coastal village had once thrived because of its salt flats. “The business of supplying salt had once been king,” but that industry was no longer quite as profitable “so Walmer had faded into a quiet backwater.”
“A Game of Fear” continues the high standards readers have come to expect from Todd. It is a testament to both authors’ considerable talents, and a wonderful tribute to the late Caroline Todd.
Meet the author
Charles Todd will discuss “A Game of Fear” at 7 p.m. Feb. 3 in person with live Zoom streaming at Murder on the Beach bookstore, 104 W. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach, murderonthebeach.com. Todd will sign books for both the Zoom and in person audience. Face masks are required. Reservations are required for both Zoom and in person. Call 561-2797790 or email murdermb@ gate.net.
Culture clashes
Edgar Award winner T. Jefferson Parker detours from his usual superior private detective fiction in a rousing standalone novel that is as much a comingof-age tale as it is a mystery. Set during 1968 in Laguna Beach, Calif., “A Thousand Steps” traces the maturation of a 16-year-old as well as the community and culture clash between the hippie movement, the police and the regular residents.
Parker’s affinity for solid plotting takes “A Thousand Steps” into various crevices of society showing the protests, drug use and emphasis on youth that were becoming prevalent. Parker’s meticulous research of the era shows how the late 1960s influences today.
Teenager Matt Anthony is basically raising himself — holding down a job delivering newspapers, keeping up his grades and looking after his mother, who spends most of the time in her room indulging her addiction to hash and opium. His father left years ago; his mother’s low-paying waitress job barely pays the rent; his brother Kyle is finishing up his tour of Vietnam. But then Matt’s 18-year-old sister Jasmine, with whom he has a good relationship, vanishes. She was last seen at the beach.
Matt especially is worried as Jasmine’s disappearance coincides with the death of another teenager whose body was found on the same beach. Matt’s determination to find Jasmine turns into a parttime job as he scours local party houses and centers that focus on mysticism, eastern religion and drugs. Matt sees situations that no 16-year-old should witness.
The mystery drives the plot, as Parker weaves in the dark sides of the late 1960s such as drug and sex trafficking. But the core of “A Thousand Steps” is how Matt maneuvers the counterculture that is growing and his conflicted ideas.
He doesn’t hate the police, even when they don’t take his sister’s disappearance seriously. The police maintain that Jasmine is just another rebellious runaway. He tries to understand the hippies, especially the art being showcased at the centers and the peace and enlightenment ideals, but he despises the drug use.
Parker also shows Matt as a complete person. He is a good artist and loves to sketch, he’s dating his first girlfriend and he makes mistakes — a lot of mistakes as a teenager would.
“A Thousand Steps” shows a different side of the award-winning Parker’s multiple talents.
Oline H. Cogdill can be reached at olinecog@aol. com.