An Impartial Witness: A Bess Crawford Mystery
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Set in the summer of 1917, Todd's excellent second mystery
featuring British nurse Bess Crawford (after 2009's A Duty to the Dead)
smoothly blends realistic characters with an intricate plot. When Bess
accompanies Lt. Meriwether Evanson, a severe burn victim, from the Continent
to England, she's surprised to spot the pilot's supposedly devoted wife,
Marjorie, crying on another man's shoulder at a train station. After returning
to saving lives under German fire in France, Bess is stunned to read in a
newspaper that Marjorie has been stabbed to death in London. Soon after, the
depressed lieutenant commits suicide by cutting his own throat. Unable to
resist involving herself in the murder investigation, Bess seeks to identify
Marjorie's unknown companion, the possible killer. In addition to supplying a
challenging puzzle, Todd (a mother-son writing team) does a superb job of
capturing the feel of the battlefield and the emotional toll taken on those
waiting back home for a loved one's return.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All
rights reserved.
From
In the second Bess Crawford novel (after A Duty to the Dead, 2009), the World
War I battlefield nurse is escorting several injured soldiers back to England.
Job done, Bess prepares to take a two-day leave, but, at the train station,
she’s startled to see the wife of one of her patients in a rather emotional
situation with another man. Later, after Bess learns that Scotland Yard is
very interested in locating the woman, she finds herself on the trail of a
killer. Todd—the pen name of a mother-and-son writing team—turns in another
winning performance with a smartly plotted, well-told mystery. The Crawford
novels are a nice change of pace from the heavier Inspector Rutledge books,
and fans of mysteries featuring strong, appealing heroines will certainly
embrace this one. Highly recommendable, especially (but not exclusively) to
fans of the author’s previous books. --David Pitt