Review: The Piper by Charles Todd

The Piper: An Inspector Ian Rutledge Story by Charles Todd
Formats available: ebook
Series: Inspector Ian Rutledge #19.5
Pages: 63
Published by Witness Impulse on January 10th 2017
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo
Goodreads

Scotland Yard inspector Ian Rutledge returns shell shocked from the trenches of World War I, tormented by the spirit of Hamish MacLeod, the young soldier he executed on the battlefield. Now, Charles Todd features Hamish himself in this compelling, stand-alone short story.
Before the Great War, Hamish is farmer in the Scottish Highlands, living in a small house on the hillside and caring for a flock of sheep he inherited from his grandmother. When one spring evening he hears a faint cry ringing across the glen, Hamish sets out in the dark to find the source. Near the edge of the loch he spots a young boy laying wounded, a piper’s bag beside him. Hamish brings the piper to his home to stay the night and tends to his head wound, but by the time Hamish wakes the boy has fled. He tracks the footsteps in pursuit of the injured lad and finds him again collapsed in the grasses—now dead.
Who was the mysterious piper, and who was seeking his death? As Hamish scours the countryside for answers, he finds that few of his neighbors are as honest as he, and that until he uncovers a motive, everyone, including Hamish, is a suspect. 

My Review:

I’m not quite sure whether to call this a prequel or a sidelight to the Ian Rutledge series, but it was certainly a lovely little story. And it doesn’t need to fit anywhere in the series timeline for the story to work. It just is. And does.

In the Ian Rutledge series, Hamish MacLeod is the voice that haunts the police Inspector. In some ways, Hamish is the voice of Rutledge’s shell shock (read as PTSD) from World War I. In other ways, Hamish is the voice of Rutledge’s conscience, or perhaps his guilt, over the deaths of so many young men that occurred under his command during the war. Certainly Hamish’ death is the one that haunts him the most.

But this gem of a story takes place before the Great War, when Hamish is still a young crofter in Scotland, Ian Rutledge is probably at the beginning of his police career at the Met, and the Great War is a looming cloud over the not-too-distant horizon.

And long before Hamish and Ian met, and before Hamish became the voice of Ian’s instincts and perseverance, Hamish solved a murder on his own. No wonder he is so good at helping Ian, even if it is from the back of Ian’s mind. Or it’s all in his head.

The case at first seems open and shut. A young man traveling the Highlands during a raging storm is set upon and wounded, discovered by Hamish, and eventually killed after he leaves Hamish’ croft. It is meant to look like he died in the storm. But he didn’t.

At first, the police try to pin the crime on Hamish. After all, he was the last person to see the boy alive. But there’s no evidence there, and someone else had plenty of reasons to kill the young lad.

He was a piper, and he regularly traveled the Highlands by himself, on his way between gigs. And on one of those lonely trips, he witnessed a murder. Unfortunately for the piper, the murderer witnessed him.

Unfortunately for the murderer, Hamish is more than willing to place himself as bait for a trap to prove that he has already figured out who the guilty party is. Justice will be done.

Escape Rating B+: This is a very short novella. Even shorter than it appears in the Goodreads listing, as the book includes an excerpt from the next Ian Rutledge book. But even though it is short, it is a complete story in itself. It also doesn’t require any knowledge of the series that follows it. Any reader who is looking for an introduction to the works of Charles Todd will find The Piper an excellent starting point.

Hamish, like most detectives, amateur and professional, finds that everyone has something to hide. Including himself. As he goes around to his neighbors, setting up a trap for the killer, he discovers that most of them have some secret, small or large, that they would rather not reveal. Likewise, Hamish doesn’t reveal that the purpose of all of his sudden socializing is to lay a trap for the killer.

His secrecy results in a comedy of errors at the final crisis, as everyone, the killer, Hamish, and his waiting helpers, all stumble around in the dark. But in the end, his dogged persistence pays off, and the killer is unmasked for all to see.

Hamish is an interesting character, whether readers are familiar with the series or not. I’ve read the first book (A Test of Wills), an actual prequel story (Cold Comfort) and only one of the later books (Hunting Shadows), and found this story enjoyable purely as a mystery. The link to the series is merely tangential. I also found Hamish MacLeod to be a more active and less exasperating Highland detective than Hamish Macbeth in the recent books of that series.

So anyone looking for a little mystery, a little introduction to Rutledge series, or a little taste of the Scottish Highlands will find The Piper to be a little treat.

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