Abstract
Modern detective fiction on World War One enables the reader to both remember and come to terms with some of the most tragic and horrific events and consequences of the War. The genre operates as a site of mourning and remembrance that relies on acknowledgement, i.e., a form of active knowledge, expressed in public as the recognition, re-thinking and re-stating aloud of claims that other human beings have on us. Charles Todd’s sixteen novels in the Detective Ian Rutledge series invite the reader to take part in investigating crimes that were either committed during the War or that are directly related to events that took place during the War. The stories never fail us because Rutledge does everything he is expected to do: solve the mystery, restore order and reinforce the value and power of moral integrity. The novels tell us important things about how war affects the individual, how it can never be forgotten but – for the right person, how its lessons can also be harnessed in the service of good.
Highlights
Among the major combatants in World War One every family was in mourning for a husband, son, brother, friend, colleague or companion
The genre operates as a site of mourning and remembrance that relies on acknowledgement, i.e., a form of active knowledge, expressed in public as the recognition, re-thinking and re-stating aloud of claims that other human beings have on us
Charles Todd’s sixteen novels in the Detective Ian Rutledge series invite the reader to take part in investigating crimes that were either committed during the War or that are directly related to events that took place during the War
Summary
Among the major combatants in World War One every family was in mourning for a husband, son, brother, friend, colleague or companion. Knowledge is based on experience; it is active and produced in response to the acknowledgement on the part of oneself or others of the need for explanation It has a firm moral basis in detective fiction because the story does not terminate but has a proper closure, one of the primary pre-requisites for historical fiction to be perceived as “real” (Note 2). The three Ian Rutledge novels discussed here, A Test of Wills This is the first Ian Rutledge novel), Watchers of Time (2001) and A False Mirror (2007) can be seen as acts of mourning and remembrance that both acknowledge and answer the need for explanation as to why individuals acted as they did in the 1500 days of war and with what consequences for themselves and their environment at the time and later (Note 3). The narrator poses the questions, “what can we learn from the War?” and “how, as readers, can we relate this knowledge and experience to our daily lives?”
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