Free Verse
The Murder of
Colonel Harris
Found Poetry
from page 1 of A Test Of Wills by Charles Todd
in this
quiet part of Warwickshire……
death came frequently…..
no stranger…..
and murder was not unheard of…..
one fine
June morning
as early mist rose lazily…..
like wraiths
in no hurry to be gone
Colonel Harris was killed
in a meadow fringed with
buttercups and cowslips
his last coherent thought ――
ANGER
savage,
wild, black fury….
in one stark instant
of realization
before oblivion
swept it all away
He died
hard,
unwilling,
railing at God….
his ragged
cry raised echoes
in the quiet woods
sent the rooks flying
even as the gun
ROARED
A TEST OF
WILLS is a first novel in a series that combines a
unique kind of psychological suspense with vivid atmosphere and
a tantalizing mystery (Charles
Todd).
Praise for
A Test
of Wills
“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.”
—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.”
—Kansas City Star
“Most ‘Golden Age’ detective novelists wrote as if the First
World War hadn’t happened. In A Test of Wills Charles Todd gives
us a Golden Age crime story in its proper historical setting.
This is an intelligent, controlled, and well-organized first
novel, rich with promise of a bright future. I look forward to
the next.”
—Reginald Hill, author of Death Comes for the Fat Man
