Charles and Caroline Todd, mother and son writing together as Charles Todd, have created the Inspector Ian Rutledge series (the latest of which are A Matter of Justice, now in a Harper trade paperback, and the new hardcover The Red Door, to be published by Morrow on December 29), novels of murder and suspense seen through the eyes of a Scotland Yard inspector who has survived World War I. They've also launched a new series with a female protagonist, Bess Crawford (A Duty to the Dead, Morrow), who in the midst of that same war finds that murder doesn't wait for peacetime. They've written one stand-alone book, The Murder Stone, and many short stories appearing in anthologies and Strand magazine. They live in North Carolina and Delaware, respectively.
On your nightstand now:
Charles: Look Again by Lisa Scottoline.
Caroline: I usually have two book or three books on the nightstand--one by an established author, the other by a new writer I want to try. And the third is often an old favorite. The established author just now is Yrsa Sigurdardottir, who wrote Last Rituals. I've been interested in Iceland since I read the Icelandic Sagas many years ago, and Yrsa not only brings modern Iceland to vivid life, she incorporates the rich vein of Icelandic lore into her murders. Fascinating reading. Matt Hilton is a former British policeman, and his first novel, Dead Man's Dust, is more noir, fast-paced and different. The third book just now is an old friend, Lee Child's latest Reacher.
Favorite book when you were a child:
Charles: Thirty Seconds over Tokyo by Ted Lawson.
Caroline: One rainy summer holiday, my father read us Stevenson's Treasure Island and Poe's The Goldbug. We were on Nag's Head, N.C., where pirate treasure could be buried, and the atmosphere and the possibilities captured my imagination. Pirates, codes and buried treasure--what could be more exciting? And I have to admit that Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles ran a close third--what's more eerie than a haunted moor and a ghostly dog? I think that's why we write psychological suspense, Charles and I--because I read the same stories to my own children.
Your top five authors:
Charles: C.S. Forrester, Robert Lewis Stevenson, Jack Higgins, Fredrick Forsyth, Tom Clancy. That is so hard to keep to five. Lee Child, S.J. Rozan and Michael Connelly are some of the outstanding authors writing today. Ask me for 50 names and I would ask for more space.
Caroline: This list changes constantly. At the moment, it's Lee Child, Dorothy Dunnett, Stuart Kaminsky, Michael Connolly and David McCullough. I've always admired Winston Churchill's use of the English language, and Katherine Neville's Eight got high marks for clever storytelling.
Book you've faked reading:
Charles: Das Kapital by Karl Marx. I eventually finished the book by hitting the snooze button on an alarm clock. Read for nine minutes, wake up and repeat.
Caroline: The Brothers Karamazov. Everyone said it was a must read. I like to choose my own books, and the more friends raved, the more I resisted. That was my short-lived existential period in college, and in the end, I said I'd read it to escape the pressure. I also said I thought it was overrated.
Book you're an evangelist for:
Charles: A Prayer for The Dying by Jack Higgins. His look at decision making makes this more than a mere thriller. With more than 60 titles to his credit, Higgins always has the ability to make you reevaluate your own life experience.
Caroline: Geoffrey Household's Rogue Male. There are only two characters in it, and the suspense is wonderfully balanced between the man who is sent to kill and the man who is determined to survive, even if he must resort to primitive methods. It taught me a great deal about writing. A more recent enthusiasm is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I've never liked books using letters to create the story, but this is the resounding exception. I always look for exceptions to my hang-ups. Even Dostoevsky.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Charles: Nothing Lasts Forever by Sidney Sheldon. What can I say?
Caroline: Robin Hathaway's Scarecrow. It was an evocative jacket, and the book lived up to it. Sometimes you make great discoveries that way.
Book that changed your life:
Charles: The Bible and so many more. The moral compass that circumscribes and keeps us in due bounds.
Caroline: Frederick Forsyth's The Day of the Jackal. The plotting of that novel was impressive, and taught me more about plot vs. plotting than 10 years of experience. To bring such a story to life, even when you know De Gaulle wasn't assassinated, showed the hand of a master.
Favorite line from a book:
Charles: "In the middle of the road of my life I awoke in the dark wood where the true way was wholly lost."--Dante Alighieri in The Inferno. I see that as a parallel to Frost's "The Road not Taken." Choices made and choices in the future.
Caroline: Easy choice--the opening lines from Rafael Sabatini's Scaramouche: "He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad. And that was his only patrimony." How many people can so brilliantly define their protagonist in just two lines?
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Charles: The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie. The first mystery with one of my favorite detectives. And yes, he was before Miss Marple! Christie could capture a male and female protagonist with equal finesse.
Caroline: My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier. It has the most ambiguous ending of any mystery I can think of, and I'd like to relish the shock of it again. But now as I read, I'm looking for clues to define that ending.
What other literary interest describes you as a person?
Caroline: My love of poetry. The sounds of words that belong together and that resonate long after the book is closed. Language is a part of our writing as Charles Todd, and this rich background in all the great and not so famous poets taught me at an early age to value the right word. One of our characters in the Rutledge series was a poet, and she has been a favorite of ours ever since because she touched something deep within us, beyond the writer.