An Impartial Witness by Charles Todd

An Impartial Witness by Charles Todd


My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is the second book in the Bess Crawford series by Charles Todd, which I read directly on the heels of the first.

***Plot Summary***

Once again, Bess Crawford finds herself at the center of a mystery when she sees the wife of a burn patient, whom she recognizes from the photograph that her patient carries with him always, saying farewell to a man at a train station as she boards her train to return to the war front. She can see that the goodbye is emotionally draining for the woman, and that she appears fraught and upset, while the man is cold and uncaring. It isn't long after her return to the front that she receives a newspaper that contains news of the woman's murder on that same day, obviously shortly after Bess has seen her at the station.

When Bess learns that her patient has committed suicide after learning of his wife's murder, she takes it upon herself to try to find out who has committed the murder, and why.

***Review***

Once again, this book successfully immersed me in the life of WWI England. Bess Crawford is a warmly likeable character, a nurse, who moves between civilian life and military life in a way that seems very natural. I am a bit skeptical that movement between the war front and England was quite so easy as these books make it out to be, given that all of the characters seem to flit back and forth between London and the French front with about as much as difficulty as I have driving my car to my local grocery store for a gallon of milk. This is a small thing, though, and is a necessary plot device given that most of the primary characters are, in some way, associated with the war effort.

I am enjoying the ongoing character development of Bess, Simon, and her parents. I don't know if we are moving in the direction of a romance developing between Bess and Simon, but that is definitely one possible narrative arc for the books.

As for the mystery in this case, it was rather easily solved when it came right down to it. With any mystery novel, though, the investigation is more of the point than the solution, and the authors did a good job of moving the story along and maintaining interest. Bess is, perhaps, not as quick as some of the amateur sleuths, as she seems, sometimes, to fail to make connections that seem fairly obvious to the reader.

One of the things that I really liked about this book, though, is the focus on the war wives, and how difficult it was to serve your country by keeping the homefires burning. Often, the focus is on the hardships suffered by the soldiers, and make no mistake about it - their hardships were the greater. However, I think that acknowledging that it isn't easy to be the one left behind made for an interesting story in this novel.

Once again, I enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to historical mystery readers. It's well-written and well-edited and a solid, if slightly uninspired, example of the genre.

A Duty to the Dead by Charles Todd

A Duty To The Dead by Charles Todd


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is my first Charles Todd mystery and I would rate it somewhere between 3 and 4 stars.

***Plot Summary***

Elizabeth (Bess) Crawford is a WWI nurse who is on leave because the hospital ship upon which she served, the Brittanic, hit a mine and was sunk. She was injured in the explosion, and returns to England to recover her health before being sent back to the front. While back in England, she is compelled to fulfill a promise she made to a patient prior to his death, to deliver a message to his family. Upon arrival in Kent, at the home of the Grahams, she delivers the message, and is ultimately drawn into the family's affairs as she becomes concerned that a grave injustice has occurred and that a man has been committed to an insane asylum for a murder he did not commit.

***Review***

A Duty to the Dead started out rather slowly, but picked up pace at approximately the fifty percent mark (I read it on a kindle). I really enjoyed the writing, and thought that the main character, Bess Crawford, was well-drawn and likeable. I have read Maisie Dobbs, and enjoyed those as well, and though there are similarities between the two main characters, they are very different women.

One of the things that drew me to this book was the setting. I am a sucker for a good historical mystery, and WWI England is a setting that was a bit different from the series that I have read in the past. The descriptions and other historical background about the setting was convincing.

This book focuses very closely on Bess Crawford, and did not introduce a lot of supporting characters who are likely to reappear from book to book. Her father was an interesting character, and I expect to see him again. There is absolutely no romance in this particular installment, so readers who are looking for an ongoing romantic arc may be disappointed with this book. It is possible that one will be introduced later in the series - I am hopeful that the authors will reveal a romantic interest for Bess. Finally, the ultimate resolution of the mystery made sense, but was a bit predictable. In addition, there were characters who bore responsibility for the events that occurred who emerged largely unscathed. Some remorse for their part in the events would have been nice.

The writing is solid and grammatically correct, and I did not notice typographical errors. I enjoyed this book enough that I will read additional books in the series. Duty to the Dead was an above average read - a high-three-star or low-four-star read.