Grade A #BookReview: A Christmas Witness by Charles Todd

A Christmas Witness (Inspector Ian Rutledge #24.5) by Charles Todd
Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via Edelweiss, supplied by publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: hardcover, ebook, audiobook
Genres: historical mystery, holiday mystery, mystery
Series: Inspector Ian Rutledge #24.5
Pages: 216
Published by Mysterious Press on October 21, 2025
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads

Inspector Ian Rutledge investigates a possible attempted murder in this seasonal mystery novella from New York Times bestseller Charles Todd.

December 1921: Being single and a new Chief, Inspector Rutledge gets the short straw and is called upon by Chief Superintendent Markum to go to the Kentish home of a lord who is recovering from an attempt on his life. In bed with a concussion, the man is convinced someone is trying to kill him after he claims he was struck by the hoof of a running horse whose rider never stopped to check on him.

When he gets there, Rutledge learns that he and the lord were both young cavalry officers and graduated from Sandhurst together. As Rutledge’s investigation gets underway, he uncovers even more similarities between his life and that of the man he’s sent to protect, all of which grows eerily poignant as the Christmas holiday approaches…

My Review:

I picked this up because of the author and series. The Inspector Ian Rutledge series has been on my ‘comfort murder’ read list for a while now, but it’s 20-something books in and I know I want to read them all. And I will, as soon as the ’round tuit’ circles its way.

But it meant that I couldn’t resist this holiday novella, as it fit in perfectly with the theme of my Holiday Readathon reads this year – as they do seem to be mostly murders. I was kind of expecting one or more bodies to drop in this story as well, as, well, murder is most of which Chief Inspector Ian Rutledge investigates.

However, this story is all the better for NOT being centered on a recent murder. Whether or not there are murders involved at all depends on one’s perspective about the horrific costs in life, limb and sanity of World War I. As Rutledge looks around the little village of Hartsham, Kent, where he has been assigned to spend Christmas investigating what might – or might not – be an attempt on the life of a retired member of the British High Command – he can see all too clearly some of that cost in the number of businesses that are shuttered and the paucity of men of his own generation on the streets or in the village.

Not that he doesn’t have first hand experience. His service on the Western, his near death at the Battle of the Somme, the voice he carries in his head of one of his own men that he was duty bound to execute for dereliction of duty, are all part of his not always appreciated survival.

He’s not the only person carrying resentment for the butcher’s bill from the late war. The Colonel is certain that one of the men he is certain he did his best by has attempted his murder. Looking at what little evidence there is, Rutledge is forced to wonder whether the attack happened at all, or whether the Colonel’s insistence is the result of a deranged or muddled mind.

But in the investigation – and in Rutledge’s investment in the town, the people who live there and the local police who treat him as one of their own – albeit a respected senior officer and better than his colleagues at Scotland Yard often do – Rutledge experiences for himself the true meaning of the holiday – and the Colonel finally finds it for himself.

Escape Rating A: This is the holiday book I was hoping for as part of my 2025 Holiday Readathon reads – I just didn’t know it. I came into this one expecting it to be good, because I adore the author’s Bess Crawford series and have enjoyed every single time I’ve dipped my toe into this one. (I’ve been saving this series until Bess’s series is done, which it felt like it was about to be at the end of The Cliff’s Edge – a metaphor if I’ve ever read one.)

I came into this one expecting something excellent, because I needed it after Tuesday’s book. Not that Wednesday’s book wasn’t excellent but the vagaries of scheduling meant that I finished it a bit ago and have been holding onto the review until this week.

But this one, A Christmas Witness, wasn’t just good because the author and the series are both good. It was also good for a holiday read because it encompassed, built on, was a pastiche of and a homage to, one of my favorite holiday stories EVER. I’ve loved Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol forever, in all of its many, many versions, since I saw Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol as a child. I can STILL hear some of the songs in my head, and it’s been decades. (My other favorite versions are The Muppet Christmas Carol and the audiobook of Patrick Stewart’s one-man reading/acting version.)

I wasn’t expecting THAT beloved story to be part of this one. And for much of the length of this story, it doesn’t seem as if it’s headed in that direction, even if it is referenced – and then set aside – very early on.

It’s not until the end, when the shell-shock (now known as PTSD) that both both Lord Braxton, (AKA Colonel Braxton) and Chief Inspector Ian Rutledge live with after their rather different service in ‘The Great War’, combine with the perfectly ordinary but utterly discombobulating blow to the head suffered by the Colonel, his querulous but commanding and abrasive personality, and a long cold night nearly freezing to death in an old church bring the Colonel to a very similar revelation as old Ebenezer Scrooge. And fill him with the same resolve to be a better man for the rest of his days.

That combination, the mundane police investigation into the Colonel’s original, somewhat muddle-headed, complaint, Rutledge’s perspective on his position as the youngest, newest and least trusted Chief Inspector at Scotland Yard that has led to this cold, potentially lonely holiday assignment and his joy at the season and the people he comes to know and respect doing his duty, and his concern about the old Colonel that he is doing his damndest to keep from resenting for his present but especially for his wartime experiences would make a charming holiday story on their own.

Combined with the homage to Dickens’ classic tale, this story isn’t tinsel, it’s gold.

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