A Shipwreck in Fiji by Nilima Rao

 

First Lines: The Fiji Times, Saturday, May 1, 1915. Patriotic Cricket Old v Young Players. A cricket match on quite a novel scale will be held tomorrow afternoon-- weather conditions permitting-- at Albert Park...

Fiji, 1915. When rumors spread about Germans being sighted, Sergeant Akal Singh is sent to the neighboring island of Ovalau to investigate. His commanding officer believes he's sending the sergeant off on a wild goose chase-- why on earth would World War I come to such a remote place in the Pacific? To add insult to injury, Singh is also tasked with chaperoning two European ladies on a sightseeing tour. When Singh arrives on Ovalau, he realizes that he will also have to mentor the island's only police officer, an eighteen-year-old constable with a penchant for hysterics.

Accompanying Singh is his friend and fellow officer, Taviti, who is visiting his uncle, the local chief. The two men quickly find themselves involved in the investigation surrounding the death of an unpopular local and the imprisonment of a group of Norwegian sailors who have run afoul of Taviti's uncle. If that weren't enough, Singh discovers that Katherine, the young European lady journalist, has an agenda of her own. Singh is going to have his hands full trying to keep everyone out of trouble.

~

A Shipwreck in Fiji is the second entry in Nilima Rao's historical mystery series featuring Sergeant Akal Singh (following A Disappearance in Fiji). I am enjoying learning about the culture and history of this area at the turn of the twentieth century. 

Most readers would assume that the islands of Fiji were much too remote to be affected by World War I, but that's not true. There was a definite shortage of men on the islands, since most of them were off fighting in Europe. That's why Sergeant Akal Singh finds himself mentoring a young and extremely nervous constable when he and Taviti arrive on Ovalau.

Taviti was a welcome addition to this book, as he introduced both Singh and readers to tribal traditions, and the breaking of some of them had serious repercussions. Another aspect of Fijian life at the time was the practice of bringing indentured Indians to the islands to work for a period of five years. (Don't miss the Author's Note about this.)

The mysteries concerning the death of the local, the Norwegian sailors, and the European women's real reasons for being on the island were intriguing and certainly kept my interest; however, if one thing made me roll my eyes, it was Akal Singh's propensity to be enthralled by every pretty face he comes in contact with. This is what got him sent to Fiji in disgrace, and-- if he doesn't mend his ways soon-- it's going to get him in even hotter water in Fiji. We'll have to see what happens in the next book.

A Shipwreck in Fiji by Nilima Rao

eISBN: 9781641295482

Soho Press © 2025

eBook, 272 pages

Historical Mystery, #2 Sergeant Akal Singh mystery

Rating: B+

Source: Net Galley

The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear

 

First Lines: Kent, England. 1947. Every morning as Rose Mackie leaned over the bars of the wooden cot and picked up her three-year-old daughter, she gave thanks for the cottage.

 

Life in her grace-and-favor cottage in the rural English countryside is just what Elinor White has longed for. Although her fellow villagers know that her cottage was provided by the Crown for services rendered during the recent war, they have no idea that her service actually began during World War I... or how dangerous it was.

 

Elinor is happy keeping herself to herself until young farmworker Jim Mackie, his wife Rose, and their tiny daughter Susie are threatened. Jim, too, has worked hard to escape his past. He wants no part of his family's life of organized crime, but his brothers track him down and insist that he comes back for a big job they're planning-- or else.

 

Things are looking rather dire until the Mackies learn that they have Elinor White on their side. You see, Elinor White has worked almost her entire life to ensure that predators never catch their prey. Not on her watch.

 

~

 

Having been a fan of Jacqueline Winspear's long-running Maisie Dobbs series, I looked forward to seeing how her new heroine, Elinor White, would measure up. I'm happy to say that, in The White Lady, Elinor measures up quite nicely although I didn't grow to care for her as I did Maisie.

Readers see Elinor both in 1947 and as a teenager in Belgium during World War I. Her backstory illuminates Elinor's character and makes us wonder just how many other women were forced to do the same things Elinor did in order to survive. One of the most poignant scenes in The White Lady occurs when the young Elinor is attending class once her family has escaped to England. The teacher tells the girls that almost all the young men they could have been expected to marry have been slaughtered in the trenches of World War I, and that means that these girls will have to do well in school and learn how to take care of themselves; there will be no husbands to provide for them, no children to take care of them in their old age.

Elinor carries a lot of guilt for the things she had to do during both wars, and she believes that saving the Mackies from being dragged back into the criminal ways of their family is her chance for redemption. How she goes about saving them uncovers corruption in surprising places.

The White Lady is a strong story with much to say about survival, guilt, and redemption, and Elinor White is a character I wanted to embrace wholeheartedly. However, I always felt as though she never opened the door of her cottage to me, and it was that lack of emotional resonance that spoiled my reading a bit. Your mileage could definitely vary.

 

The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear

eISBN: 9780062868008

HarperCollins © 2023

eBook, 336 pages

 

Historical Mystery, Standalone

Rating: B 

Source: Net Galley

The War Librarian by Addison Armstrong

 

First Line: November 1918. The familiar light-headedness overtook me.

 

1918. Emmaline Balakin has worked in the Dead Letter Office for a few years now, content to live her life through the books she reads. Then a letter finds its way to her desk that reminds her of someone in her past. Determined to start really living, she volunteers for the Library War Service and is sent to France, but a secret book club she forms may send her home in disgrace.

 

1976. Kathleen Carre is a member of the first coed class at the U.S. Naval Academy, and she's eager to prove to her beloved grandmother-- and everyone else-- that she deserves the honor. However, not everyone wants women in the Academy. When tragedy strikes Kathleen, someone uses this to make her a target, putting her entire naval career in jeopardy. 

~

Both timelines, both stories, in Addison Armstrong's The War Librarian kept me reading. For one thing, I'd had no idea that there was such a thing as the Library War Service in World War I. Furthermore, I hadn't read anything related to the first coed class at the Naval Academy. Those two points alone guaranteed my interest, and I appreciated the author's notes at the end of the book telling of her research.

Both Emmaline and Kathleen are united by more than just their experiences, which becomes clearer as the story progresses. Emmaline comes face-to-face with racism and censorship, while Kathleen has more than her share of gender bias and ignorance. When reading the part where Kathleen and the other women attend a mandatory class in which the male instructor tells them that "The hymen... is often broken during childbirth," I choked as I was swallowing a mouthful of iced tea. Superficially funny, the incidents those women in that first coed class had to face became maddening (and not much different from what women are facing today). 

The War Librarian shows us the power of friendship, of family, of women. There's nothing particularly earth-shattering in its pages, but readers don't always need to be shaken to bits when they pick up a book. What they will find when they start reading The War Librarian is a solid, engrossing read that's a good way to spend an afternoon.

The War Librarian by Addison Armstrong

eISBN: 9780593328071

G.P. Putnam's Sons © 2022

eBook, 384 pages

 

Historical Fiction, Standalone

Rating: B

Source: Net Galley

A Cruel Deception by Charles Todd

 

First Line: England, Late March, 1919. I was changing the surgical dressing on a patient in Ward 3 when Matron sent for me.

 

Representatives from the Allied governments have gathered in Paris to put the final touches on the Peace Treaty that will officially end World War I, but bitter disagreements have already broken out. Bess Crawford is sent to Paris on a personal mission for the Matron of the London headquarters of the Queen Alexandra's, of which Bess is a part. Bess would much rather stay and work with the severely wounded in England, but she can't refuse Matron.

 

She has been asked to find Matron's son, Lawrence Minton, who has gone missing from his duties at the peace talks. Contrary to what she expected, Bess finds that Minton is a very disturbed man who is well on the way to becoming addicted to opiates. He doesn't care if he lives or dies. Bess is convinced that something haunts him, and that he must somehow be brought to face that event before it destroys him completely.

 

~

 

Many readers may have expected Charles Todd's Bess Crawford series to end when World War I ended, but this writing team has continued Bess's adventures in order to create a portrait that illuminates the cost of war on human lives—the lingering pain and horror that no armistice or peace treaty can assuage. Bess has continued her nursing, working with severely wounded soldiers, but in A Cruel Deception, she finds herself thinking about what else she might want to do with her life. She also finds herself thinking about Simon Brandon who seems to be on holiday in Scotland-- and a mysterious woman might be involved. I imagine that I'm not the only fan of this series who's wanted Bess to start thinking more seriously about Simon. Who knows? We may be getting our wish.

 

Another thing that Charles Todd deals with so well in this series is how Bess has gotten used to living her own life and making her own decisions without deferring to her family. This is something many women in this time period found themselves doing for the first time, and they liked it.

 

This series often deals with various issues wounded soldiers had to face, and in A Cruel Deception, it's the anguish of mental trauma, that most difficult affliction for most people to understand or to even begin to deal with. Here, what we now call PTSD is treated with sensitivity and understanding as Bess tries to find out why someone is attacking both Minton and herself, as well as learning what happened to Minton that makes him want to destroy himself. It's another tale well told, and I'm looking forward to the next time I meet Bess.  

 

A Cruel Deception by Charles Todd

eISBN: 9780062859860

William Morrow © 2019

eBook, 336 pages

Historical Mystery, #11 Bess Crawford mystery

Rating: B+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

Women in the Great War by Stephen Wynn & Tanya Wynn

First Line: The First World War, or the Great War as it was initially referred to, was undoubtedly responsible for a big change in the lives of British women, but it was not the sole reason behind their eventual emancipation.

Even though one can be well-versed in a subject, one can always learn more, which is why I'm glad I read Women in the Great War. This little book reads quickly and packs more of a punch than you might initially think-- and the illustrations add icing to the cake.

Although it does concentrate on British women, the book does cover the incredible accomplishments of women in other countries, and I'd never heard of these women before so I really appreciated their inclusion. Outlining how women's lives in Britain were before World War I, Women in the Great War then moves on to each organization that played an important role in the war effort. Toward the end, the book turns into a roll call of those women who lost their lives in service to their country. Some might consider this roll call boring, but I found it touching. It's probably the first time most of these women's names (and what they did) have ever been mentioned.

My favorite parts in this book occurred whenever the British government finally began to learn that women could do more than cook, clean, and give birth. More than one women's organization asked for the British government to sanction their work and they were turned down. Countries like France and Belgium had no such silly scruples and welcomed the women to do their part-- and they all made a huge difference. The British government finally began to learn a lesson, and it's one that they would unfortunately have to remember in just twenty years' time.

Women in the Great War by Stephen Wynn & Tanya Wynn

eISBN: 9781473865419

Pen & Sword Books © 2017

eBook, 189 pages

 

Non-Fiction, Standalone

Rating: B+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

A Casualty of War by Charles Todd

First Line: Lieutenant Morrison died as dawn broke on that Friday morning, a casualty of war.

Although World War I is nearing its end, Bess Crawford would never guess it by the pounding of the guns and the steady stream of the wounded to the forward aid station where she is a nurse. She meets Captain Alan Travis while waiting for transportation to her new post, and when he's brought into her aid station with a head wound, she's alarmed that Travis believes he was shot by his English cousin. When Travis is brought back with a more severe wound, once again he denounces his cousin. When it becomes apparent that his cousin could not be the person trying to kill him, Travis's sanity is in question-- and Bess wonders how such an experienced officer could be so wrong.

On leave in England, Bess visits Travis in a hospital for soldiers suffering from a variety of brain injuries. Finding him strapped to a bed in a room with no windows, she is horrified at his condition and, along with Sergeant Major Brandon, she travels to Travis's cousin's ancestral home in Suffolk to learn more about the relationship between these two men. As a result, Bess and Brandon are going to find themselves right in the middle of danger.

I have a longheld fascination for all things World War I, and after reading Lyn MacDonald's excellent The Roses of No Man's Land, I've found myself reading both fiction and nonfiction about the women who went to France and Belgium to nurse the wounded. Charles Todd's mysteries about Bess Crawford are very good, and A Casualty of War is no exception, although I would imagine that Bess's parents are sick of her solving mysteries instead of spending time with them on her infrequent leaves home in England.

The chaos of trench warfare is a fertile ground for mysteries, and the mystery in A Casualty of War is intriguing indeed. How and why would Captain Travis's cousin want to kill him... if indeed it was him in the first place? Why are the people of the village of Sinclair so hostile to Bess? There are many questions to answer, and it's fun to attempt to find answers for them all before Bess does.

Another reason why this series is so strong is that the writing team of Charles Todd does an excellent job of giving readers a real feel for the time, the attitudes of people from all walks of life, and what it was like to be a nurse at the front lines. When the end of the war is announced, Bess, the other nurses, the doctors, the soldiers all experience a feeling of relief, but also a sort of disbelief. They've been fighting for so long, and when Bess goes to England, it's plain to see that everyone will have many adjustments to make. Things aren't going to go back to normal. At least, no time soon.

I like the character of Bess. I like seeing how she feels about people and the lengths to which she'll go to do what's right for them. There's also the added fillip of possible romance when Bess and Brandon spend a great deal of time in each other's company.

If you like reading books with a strong female main character who solves intriguing mysteries set in a well-researched time period, I recommend Charles Todd's Bess Crawford series. They. Are. Good.

A Casualty of War by Charles Todd

eISBN: 9780062678805

William Morrow © 2018

eBook, 385 pages

Historical Mystery, #9 Bess Crawford mystery

Rating: B+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

A House of Ghosts by W.C. Ryan

First Line: The sea was black as ink and the small fishing boat, travelling under a loose sail, moved slowly across its glass-flat calm.

It's the winter of 1917, and so many people who have lost loved ones in the brutal fighting of World War I are finding it difficult to let go. Spiritualism and séances abound. Armaments industrialist Lord Highmount has invited a group of people to Blackwater Abbey, his country house on an island off the coast of Devon. The purpose of the gathering is an attempt to contact his two sons, both of whom died at the front.

Two of the guests have been sent by the British intelligence service. One, Kate Cartwright, is a friend of the family who lost her brother at the Somme and who has her own special gift in terms of the spiritual. The other is Captain Donovan, who recently returned from Europe. Top secret plans for weapons developed by Highmount's company have turned up in Berlin, and British intelligence believes that enemy spies will be in attendance at Blackwater Abbey. 

As the guests arrive, it is clear that they all have things they'd rather keep hidden. When a storm descends, they are all trapped on the island, and then someone dies...

As a teenager, I loved reading Gothic suspense novels. I couldn't get enough of the creepy old houses, atmospheric settings, and (often) searches for treasure. W.C. Ryan's A House of Ghosts fits into the Gothic suspense genre beautifully. Blackwater Abbey is hundreds of years old, the site of an ancient monastery, and it is absolutely filled with secret doors, rooms, and passageways. I wish the place were real so I could wander around it myself. The atmosphere was tense, and when the storm descended, it added to the frayed nerves of the people in the house: "It seemed as though the house and the wind were having a conversation" (and it wasn't a good one).

The two main characters, Kate Cartwright and Captain Donovan, were strong, intelligent people who were quick thinkers in dangerous situations-- even when sparks flew between them. Kate, like many of the women in her family, could see ghosts. Just see them, not talk with them, and she also had the FitzAubrey glass, an ancient mirror that women in her family could use to glimpse the future.

One of the elements of A House of Ghosts that really ratcheted up the suspense was the presence of ghosts. Around the pier on the island, the spirits of the drowned collected. In Blackwater Abbey, home of a man who made his fortune in munitions, dead soldiers kept gathering-- and the house already contained the spirits of many of its former residents. Yes, the ghosts were a strong force in the book, and they led me to believe that the ending was going to be explosive... but it wasn't. They were used and then discarded, almost as though the author didn't want his novel dismissed as a mere lightweight ghost story.

However, even though I found the ending to be a slight letdown, I still really enjoyed A House of Ghosts. Ryan left a suggestion at the end that may mean there will be at least one more book featuring Cartwright and Donovan, and I hope there is.

A House of Ghosts by W.C. Ryan

eISBN: 9781948924726

Arcade Crimewise © 2019

eBook, 384 pages

Gothic Suspense, Standalone

Rating: A

Source: Purchased from Amazon.


 

Unmentionables by Laurie Loewenstein

First Line: The breezes of Macomb County usually journeyed from the west, blowing past and moving quickly onward, for the county was just en route, not a final destination.

When Mrs. Marian Elloit Adams swept into the Chautauqua tent in the small town in Illinois on a sweltering August evening in 1917, little did she know that her life was about to change. Yes, her talk about the restrictive nature of women's undergarments scandalized many in the audience, but her mind was already on her next stop on the circuit. Then she fell off the stage and badly sprained her ankle. Like it or not, she was stuck in that backwater town for a week.

During that week, she would meet Jeannette Bellman, a young girl dying of tuberculosis; Deuce Garland, the local newspaperman; his daughter Helen, who's itching to move to Chicago; and Tula, a woman who's been in love with Deuce for years. And thus her life begins to change.

Loewenstein does a marvelous job of drawing readers right into the time period and the setting. It's 1917, America has entered World War I, women are struggling for equal rights, and the small town seems to be the backbone of the country. In Unmentionables, small towns are more like the last bastion of traditions and ideas that need to change: the place of women in the world, war, racism to name a few. What I liked is the fact that these topics were woven seamlessly into the narrative. There wasn't any preaching.

I picked up this book because I'd really enjoyed Loewenstein's Dust Bowl era mystery, Death of a Rainmaker. At the outset, I was lulled into thinking Unmentionables was going to be a light, enjoyable read of little consequence. I was very wrong. Each character has his or her own unmentionable secrets and desires, and each character is allowed to develop more fully than readers initially expect. Loewenstein's descriptive powers are wonderful: for example, I've tucked away the description of Mrs. Sieve to savor over and over again.

If you're in the mood for well-written historical fiction that gives you a vivid setting and characters whose interwoven lives make you think about life and love and hate and all sorts of things, I recommend you find a copy of Laurie Loewenstein's Unmentionables. It's a winner.

Unmentionables by Laurie Loewenstein

eISBN: 9781617751998

Akashic Books © 2013

eBook, 320 pages

Historical Fiction, Standalone

Rating: A

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

The Victory Garden by Rhys Bowen

First Line: To Miss Clarissa Hamilton, Field Hospital 17, British Forces, France.

Smothered by her overbearing parents, 21-year-old Emily Bryce has to fight for her independence in the summer of 1918. Falling in love with a completely unsuitable Australian flyer, Emily leaves home, joins the Women's Land Army, and finds herself working with a group of young women on farms in Devon, England.

When her Australian flyer dies a hero, leaving her pregnant and alone, Emily masquerades as a war widow and returns to a large Devonshire estate she'd worked on previously. She finds the journals of a woman who devoted her life to the herb gardens around the cottage in which Emily lives, and those long-forgotten words inspire Emily to learn about the healing properties of the plants. There may indeed be healing in those plants, but there is also danger-- danger that could bring disaster to Emily and her unborn child.

Rhys Bowen has written a lovely standalone piece of historical fiction set during the last months of World War I. I spent a wonderful afternoon immersed in her story and living with her characters. My favorite wasn't Emily, as might be expected, but the octogenarian Lady Charlton, who is a mass of contradictions and more than capable of surprising all those around her. However, there are enough characters in the book for readers to each have their favorite.

Over many years of reading, I have found that I don't care much for static characters and complete predictability in my series fiction, but I don't mind it at all when I read a standalone novel. There's really nothing new under the sun in The Victory Garden. I knew what was going to happen before it did, and there was only one bit of shocking news. But I didn't care. It is very enjoyable to read a story in which good things eventually happen to good people who have faced great adversity. Sometimes your heart needs to be fed more than your mind, and The Victory Garden is a satisfying main course.

The Victory Garden by Rhys Bowen

ASIN: B07FDDPFPN

Lake Union Publishing © 2019

eBook, 347 pages

Historical Fiction, Standalone

Rating: A

Source: NetGalley


 

The Shattered Tree by Charles Todd

First Line: He crawled as far as the shattered tree and lay there, faint from the effort.


Rumors are flying that the war is about to end, but the Germans are putting up a vicious, last-ditch fight. At an aid station on the front lines, stretcher bearers bring nurse Bess Crawford an exhausted officer, shivering from cold and blood loss. She stabilizes him and treats his injuries before he's sent to a hospital behind the lines. This particular officer stands out. He's not British, he's French and far away from his own lines-- and in a moment of stress, he shouts at Bess in German.

Although his knowledge of German is explained as his being a native of Alsace-Lorraine, a territory hotly contested by France and Germany, Bess can't get him out of her mind. Too many things just don't add up. When in Paris, she learns that this officer has disappeared, and Bess-- soldier's daughter and nurse that she is-- is determined to find him.

This eighth book in Charles Todd's Bess Crawford series puts her in some new situations, which aids her in her investigation into the mysterious German-speaking French officer. We also learn that wartime shortages affected everyone in every walk of life in France and England, and some of the shortages can be surprising. The disputed Alsace-Lorraine area plays a large role in the plot, with its old murders, old border disputes, new wars, new demands, and new spies.

For me, The Shattered Tree is not one of the best books in this series that I enjoy so much, mainly because the pace is really bogged down by an extremely convoluted plot. But as the war draws closer and closer to an end, I'm looking forward to learning what's in store for my favorite battlefield nurse.

The Shattered Tree by Charles Todd

eISBN: 9780062386298

HarperCollins © 2016

eBook, 296 pages

Historical Mystery, #8 Bess Crawford mystery

Rating: B-

Source: Purchased from Amazon.


 

A High Mortality of Doves by Kate Ellis

First Line: Stanley was dead.

It's 1919, and the Derbyshire village of Wenfield is still reeling from four long, terrible years of war. Villagers have yet to come to terms with the loss of so many of their young men, and now a young girl has been brutally murdered, her mouth slit and a dead dove stuffed inside.

When two more women are found murdered in identical circumstances, Inspector Albert Lincoln is sent from London to investigate. Lincoln is fighting his own private battles: his war injuries, the death of his young son, and a wife grown cold and distant. The area is thrown into a panic with a killer on the loose, and Inspector Lincoln has his hands full with suspects whom he finds to have hidden lives and secrets.

In A High Mortality of Doves, author Kate Ellis has given us a marvelous evocation of time and place. Readers can see and feel how World War I affected Inspector Lincoln, his family, and all the villagers in Wenfield. 

The story is told by two people: Flora Winsmore, the local doctor's daughter, who yearns for freedom from her oppressive life, and Albert Lincoln, the Scotland Yard inspector who's filled with his own demons. There is much sympathy to be had for both characters as the story unfolds.

The mystery hinges on brilliant misdirection which will not please some readers, and although I wasn't completely satisfied with the outcome, I didn't find it off-putting. What did bother me was the fact that the book had "too much middle," and the pace bogged down significantly. Some judicious editing would have tightened up the story and made reaching that shocking reveal much less like work.

A High Mortality of Doves by Kate Ellis

ISBN: 9780349413082

Piatkus Books © 2017

Hardcover, 400 pages

Historical Mystery, Standalone

Rating: B

Source: Purchased at The Poisoned Pen.

An Unwilling Accomplice by Charles Todd

First Line: I'd just brought a convoy of wounded back to England, and as I walked into Mrs, Hennessey's house in the cool of early morning, I thought what a haven of tranquillity it was.

It's the autumn of 1918, and Nurse Bess Crawford has returned to London with some wounded soldiers who needed her care. She's barely had time to go to her flat when she's told that her assistance is required on another matter. A wounded soldier confined to a wheelchair will be going to Buckingham Palace to be decorated by the King, and the soldier has asked for Bess's help. 

Although Bess doesn't remember the soldier, she thinks nothing of it and accepts the assignment, in great part because it will extend her leave by a day or two. The award ceremony goes without a hitch, but when Bess goes to the man's hotel room the next morning to see that he's ready to go back to the convalescent hospital, she finds that he's vanished. Both the Army and the nursing service hold Bess responsible for the missing soldier, and to make matters worse, the man is spotted in Shropshire where he's been accused of killing a man. Knowing that a patient in her charge has committed murder becomes even more important to Bess than her reputation, and she won't rest until she solves this puzzle. Even if it means her life. 

I've long been a fan of Charles Todd's Bess Crawford series, and this book has a truly intriguing mystery. First of all, how did a man confined to a wheelchair manage to vanish without a trace? Secondly, how could he have committed murder? And why? This plot really had my deductive juices flowing.

Unfortunately An Unwilling Accomplice is probably the weakest book in the series, and it has everything to do with its too-large cast and its very uneven pacing. The story is good for showing readers just how determined (or stubborn) Bess Crawford is and how seriously she takes her profession. She becomes obsessed with finding out what happened and risks getting into even more trouble with the Army and the nursing service.

But the pacing of this book is almost its undoing. For much of the time the story drags out interminably, adding many secondary characters who are easy to confuse. Just when I would wonder if anything significant were ever going to happen-- BAM!-- the pace would click into breakneck speed for a bit before slowing back down to a crawl. It's a shame because-- as I've already said-- the mystery is a good one.

I'm still far from tiring of Bess Crawford, and it's the autumn of 1918. What is she going to do once World War I is at an end? I look forward to what Charles Todd may have in store for us.
   

An Unwilling Accomplice by Charles Todd

eISBN: 9780062237217

William Morrow © 2014

eBook, 357 pages

Historical Mystery, #6 Bess Crawford mystery

Rating: B-

Source: Purchased from Amazon. 

The Care and Management of Lies by Jacqueline Winspear

First Line: The country was in the early weeks of a summer that would become memorable for its warmth, and despite worries farther afield, there was a sense of being cocooned in Englishness.

By July 1914, Kezia Marchant is looking forward to her marriage to farmer Tom Brissenden. The only thing she cannot understand is why her marriage to her best friend Thea's brother seems to be putting additional strain on their friendship. Thea's gift to Kezia, a book on household management, is a sly dig at her decision to settle down to life as a farmer's wife instead of living in London to be a teacher and to fight for women's suffrage as Thea has done. Then World War I takes over all their lives. Tom enlists in the army, Thea becomes an ambulance driver, and Kezia is left behind to take over the running of the farm. Each will be forced to find ways to cope with the world as it shatters around them.

When I first learned that this was not the latest book in Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series, I did feel a moment of disappointment. I've grown to love Maisie, and I look forward to seeing how her life changes; however, this book-- written to coincide with the centenary of World War I-- is about one of my favorite time periods, and I wasn't about to ignore it. I'm glad I didn't.

This elegiac and slow-moving narrative was inspired by a book Winspear found in a London book stall. The battered book on household management was inscribed to a bride on the occasion of her wedding in July 1914, and Winspear couldn't help but wonder about the changes that young woman's life underwent in the succeeding years. In The Care and Management of Lies, we see the hardworking, honorable and compassionate Tom enlisting after several of his farm workers do. (The war was going to be over by Christmas after all.) Kezia, a vicar's daughter totally unused to the workings of a prosperous farm, is left to carry on with the help of a couple of the old and disabled and a variety of workers brought in to make do. Thea reluctantly finds herself learning how to repair ambulances and driving them back and forth to the front lines. Each, in his or her own way, depends on letters and care packages from the others to help them cope with the seemingly overwhelming difficulties and horrors of what they must do.

Kezia, the only one of the three left behind, finds herself the primary caregiver to the other two. Her letters to Tom become eagerly awaited items by Tom's entire outfit. In them, she describes in detail the meals she has lovingly prepared for her husband, and while Tom reads them aloud to his mates, each one is comforted by the memories these words from home evoke. Kezia sends care packages containing food and small items that Tom and Thea need, and her words bring love and respite. None of the three tell the truth of what they are facing. All three want to shield the others with loving lies and omissions.

As I said at the beginning, this book is slow moving, and it's not about Maisie, but there's gold to be found in the pages. If you love food, you're going to love Kezia's descriptions of the meals she prepares-- they can make your mouth water. There's quite a bit about those meals, but I didn't find it repetitive.  Kezia uses those descriptions to care for those she loves in the only way she can, and as you read about her life on the farm, it's easy to see that, in the writing of them, she's taking herself away from reality for a while, too.

Winspear brings the reality of war in the trenches and living with men from all levels of society to life in all its smells, pettiness, filth, horror, and heroism. The relationships between Tom and the other soldiers show so much of the human condition. By book's end I realized that I had just read about the trial by fire of a generation who would go on to "keep calm and carry on" twenty years down the road. This is a lyrical and sobering book indeed.

The Care and Management of Lies by Jacqueline Winspear

ISBN:  9780062220509

HarperCollins © 2014

Hardcover, 336 pages

Historical Fiction, Standalone

Rating: B+

Source: Amazon Vine 

The Walnut Tree by Charles Todd

First Line: I was in Paris the day the French Army was mobilized.

It's 1914, and the Germans have overrun Belgium. In Paris visiting her friend Madeleine, Lady Elspeth Douglas accepts Madeleine's brother when he proposes marriage before leaving to join his regiment. Elspeth tries to return to England and finds herself caught in the shelling along the French coast. Handsome Captain Peter Gilchrist comes to her rescue, and Elspeth returns to London and safety. She soon finds that she cannot forget the horrors she saw during the fighting-- and she can't forget Gilchrist.  Abandoning her title and the life of ease she has known all her life, Elspeth trains as a nurse and returns to France. She is going to have to choose between duty to the man she promised to marry and the man who captured her heart... unless the war makes her decision for her.

This is a light and very enjoyable read from the mother and son writing team responsible for two excellent historical mystery series featuring Inspector Ian Rutledge and nurse Bess Crawford. In The Walnut Tree, Charles Todd takes one of the nurses Bess Crawford rooms with in London, gives her a privileged background, breathes life into her, and then sets her on her own adventure. Yes, Lady Elspeth Douglas has ties to the Bess Crawford mysteries, but this book is not part of the series-- although the authors couldn't resist adding a very light (and fun) subplot involving art theft into the narrative.

One of the things I liked the most about the character of Elspeth was her Scots heritage. She speaks the Gaelic and on more than one occasion is able to help soldiers in the Scots regiments in ways that highlight the power of clan ties and obligations. She is strong and intelligent, capable and loyal, and I was caught in her dilemma as she struggled to do what was right without hurting either of the men she loved.

This book is called a holiday tale, but it is not set solely during the Christmas season. However, it does underscore several holiday themes-- love, faith, peace, service, and even tiny bits of magic and miracles, too. If you like a lot of romance in your love stories, you might find this one a little too light for your taste. For those like myself who are not fans of the romance genre, the love story should be just about perfect. If you are a fan of Downton Abbey, or if you enjoy the Maisie Dobbs and Bess Crawford mysteries, I think you'll enjoy reading The Walnut Tree.

The Walnut Tree by Charles Todd

ISBN: 9780062236876

William Morrow & Company © 2013

Paperback, 248 pages

Historical Fiction, Standalone

Rating: B+

Source: Purchased at The Poisoned Pen 

A Question of Honor by Charles Todd

First Line: The letter came for Lieutenant and Mrs. Standish on an afternoon when the heat was at its height, and we had already retired indoors to rest until the evening.

In this fifth book in the series featuring World War I nurse Bess Crawford, the past comes back to haunt her and her family, and we get a glimpse of the Crawfords' lives in India. In 1908 the honor and reputation of Colonel Crawford's regiment was badly tarnished when a murderer was discovered in the ranks. When Lieutenant Wade gets a headstart on the military police who are chasing him, he heads for the incredibly dangerous Afghan border where it's later determined that he died.

Ten years later Bess is working day and night tending to the endless lines of wounded soldiers at the front lines in France when a dying Indian sergeant insists that Wade is alive and serving at the front. If the man is alive, why on earth did he kill three people in a small English village, then return to India to kill his parents before returning to his regiment? Bess uses her infrequent leaves and snatched days here and there when transporting wounded soldiers to England to try to find answers. Not just to satisfy her own curiosity, but also for her father, his pride in his men, and for the regiment. It's a question of honor that Bess will continue to pursue even though someone is willing to kill as many people as it takes to hide the truth.

I first became acquainted with the mother-son writing team known as Charles Todd through their series featuring World War I veteran (and victim of shell shock), Inspector Ian Rutledge. Although that series is excellent, after awhile Rutledge's depression and angst became wearing. In the Bess Crawford series we get to see the horrors of World War I through the eyes of a nurse at the front lines-- someone risking her own life daily in an attempt to save men like Ian Rutledge. This series has continued to get better with each book, and A Question of Honor is the best one yet.

In previous books we've learned bits and pieces about Bess's childhood in India where her father was stationed. Now we get to learn even more with this unsolved murder case from 1908 when she was a teenager. I'm fairly well versed in the topic of nurses at the front during World War I (one book I can't recommend highly enough is Lyn Macdonald's The Roses of No Man's Land), and sometimes I have to forcibly keep my disbelief under tight wraps when reading about this character's travels during war time. I don't think any other nurse throughout the history of mankind could rack up more frequent flier miles than Bess. She always seems to be getting leave or hopping aboard a hospital ship to transport the wounded across the Channel to various hospitals in England. All the other nurses must be green with envy!

That said and out of my system, the mystery in A Question of Honor is the best yet-- and there's the added bonus of Bess's mother having a role in solving it. This series is populated with several secondary characters that I'd love to learn more about. Since Mrs. Crawford steps up to the plate in this book, I'm hoping this paves the way in future books for more to be divulged about Colonel Crawford and Simon.

The plot is a complicated one that must unfold slowly, due in part to so many people denying knowledge of certain events and places because of their traumatic childhoods. In Jacqueline Winspear's Leaving Everything Most Loved, the reader learns about Indian nannies and governesses who were taken to England and then abandoned when the children they were caring for grew up and went to school. In A Question of Honor, we learn what could happen to children whose parents, stationed in India, sent them to England for schooling and to shield them from tropical diseases. Once again, secrets prove deadly, and this latest Bess Crawford mystery proves to be an engrossing read.

A Question of Honor by Charles Todd

ISBN: 9780062237156

William Morrow and Company © 2013

Hardcover, 320 pages

Historical Mystery, #5 Bess Crawford mystery

Rating: A

Source: Amazon Vine 

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

First Line: On the day of the miracle, Isabel was kneeling at the cliff's edge, tending the small, newly made driftwood cross.

Tom Sherbourne has done something that hundreds of thousands of other young men didn't: survive four years on the Western Front. When this World War I veteran returns home to Australia, all he wants to do is to forget, to find a job where he can be of use, and to be left to himself. He takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly a half day's journey from the coast of Western Australia. It is a life of isolation. The supply boat comes four times a year, and shore leave might be granted every other year at best.

To this life, Tom brings a young, vivacious, and loving wife, but years pass, and after two miscarriages and a stillbirth, Tom sees that the wife he loves more than life itself is wasting away before his eyes. One morning while tending those tiny graves, Isabel hears a baby's cry on the wind. It is not her imagination. A boat has washed ashore. Aboard are a dead man and a tiny living baby girl. 

No one has taken better care of the Janus Rock Lighthouse than Tom Sherbourne. Everything gleams; every bit of machinery runs smoothly; and his records are meticulous. Tom is an intensely moral man, and he wants to report the man and infant immediately, but Isabel has taken the baby and clings to her like a drowning woman to a life raft. Against his better judgment, the incident is not reported, and Tom and Isabel claim the baby as their own and name her Lucy. For Isabel, life is idyllic for two years. Then leave is granted, and the family of three return to shore where they are reminded that there are other people in the world, and their decision has ruined the life of one of them.

You would never dream that The Light Between Oceans is a debut novel. The isolated setting of Janus Rock is indelibly drawn: the wind, the birds wheeling in the air, the crashing of the waves, the steady brilliance of the light at night. The sights, the scents, the sounds-- they all live in the mind as do the streets and the inhabitants of the small town of Partageuse where Isobel's parents live, and where Tom, Isabel and Lucy spend their infrequent leave.

It's impossible to read this book and not become totally drawn in by the characters: the withdrawn and haunted Tom, the bold and laughing Isabel, and all the people who call Partageuse home. It was also impossible for me to read this book and not to choose sides. One of the major images of the book is this meeting of opposites. Janus Rock stands where the warm Indian and cold Antarctic Oceans meet. It's where the taciturn Tom and the ebullient Isabel live. It's where a brilliant light flashes continuously throughout the dark nights. It's where a bad decision is made for all the right reasons. The town of Partageuse continues the image.

I was completely caught up in Stedman's story. I was staunchly in Tom's camp, and I wanted to shake sense into Isabel, but these are not one-dimensional characters, and as the story progressed, I finally put away my outraged sense of right and wrong and let wave after wave of consequences toss me onto the rocks. All I could do was watch... and feel my heart break for these people.

You won't find any easy answers in The Light Between Oceans, but you will find a beautifully written and sensitively told story about people who make mistakes and learn to live with the aftermath. I highly recommend this book.

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

Scribner  ©2012

ISBN: 9781451681734

Hardcover, 352 pages

Genre: Historical Fiction

Rating: A+

Source: Amazon Vine

An Unmarked Grave by Charles Todd

First Line: I stopped just outside the ward and leaned my head against the cool wood of the doorframe.

It's the spring of 1918. Not only are Bess Crawford and all the other nurses and doctors having to contend with an unending stream of wounded men from the front lines in France, they have to battle another killer: the Spanish Influenza.

A trusted orderly takes Bess to the area in which the dead are kept before they taken out for burial, and he shows her that there is one more dead soldier than there should be. After checking the records and looking at the man's body, it becomes clear to Bess that this man (a friend of the family) has been murdered, but before she can tell the commanding officer of her suspicions, she falls victim to the flu and is taken to England to recuperate.

When she is strong enough to return to duty, she keeps her promise to the orderly and informs her father, the "Colonel Sahib," of what happened, but there's not much that can be done. The soldier's body has been buried, and the only other person who saw the body-- the orderly-- has hanged himself.

Bess knows that something's just not right, that someone believed "one unmarked grave more or less wouldn't be noticed," so she begins to piece together what little information and evidence she can. But when another nurse dies, and someone very nearly succeeds in killing Bess herself, she knows that she somehow has to stay safe from this very determined killer so justice can be done.

This series continues to get stronger-- especially when the books (like this one) have so many scenes in the war zone in France. Battle not only shows Bess at work, it heightens the feeling of danger. The writing duo of Caroline and Charles Todd ratchet up the danger and suspense even further with the killer who seems to see all, know all, and be everywhere at once. Bess isn't safe, and neither is anyone who tries to help her.

I came nowhere close to deducing the killer's identity, and I actually breathed a sigh of relief when the capture was signed, sealed and delivered. The series is also hinting rather strongly at possible romance in Bess's future. Possible, that is, if Bess ever realizes what's right under her nose!

If you have yet to read any of these Bess Crawford mysteries, give this one a try. It stands very well on its own, but don't be surprised if you want to go back and read the others once you've finished An Unmarked Grave. I also highly recommend this series for any readers who are fans of Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series or Suzanne Arruda's Jade del Cameron books.

An Unmarked Grave by Charles Todd

ISBN: 9780062015723

William Morrow and Company   ©2012

Hardcover, 272 pages

Genre: Historical Mystery, #4 Bess Crawford mystery

Rating: A

Source: Amazon Vine

A Bitter Truth by Charles Todd

Title: A Bitter Truth
Author: Charles Todd
ISBN: 9780062015709
Publisher: William Morrow, 2011
Hardcover, 352 pages
Genre: Historical Mystery, #3 Bess Crawford mystery
Rating: A
Source: Amazon Vine

First Line: A cold rain had followed me from France to England, and an even colder wind greeted me as we pulled into the railway station in London.

Bess Crawford has been given Christmas leave, and she's looking forward to time away from nursing the wounded and dying on the front lines in France. All she has to do is spend one night in her London flat before going home to her parents. Unfortunately she doesn't even get the front door to her flat open. A woman has taken shelter from the wind and rain in the doorway. Not only is she wet and cold, her face shows signs of a fist, and she's scared to death. Against her better judgement, Bess takes her in. Not only does she give the woman a place to stay, she lets the frightened stranger talk her into going home with her because she doesn't know how her husband (the man who hit her) is going to react.

Lydia lives out in Ashdown Forest, in a grand house called Vixen Hill. The landscape reminds Bess of the blighted land of France where war has destroyed every bit of grass and trees, and Lydia admits that it's so grim in winter that the place sucks the life out of a person. When they arrive, Bess finds a family gathered for a memorial service, and even though these people are grieving, there's still something in their behavior that makes Bess uneasy. When one of their number is found dead, Bess finds herself mired in the middle of murder.

The Ellis family of Vixen Hill is an interesting one. Many secrets and emotions are tied into the untimely death of a daughter many years ago. Just what those secrets are, and just what each family member's motivations are is what Bess has to find out in order to celebrate Christmas with her family.

This is the strongest book in this series so far. I think this is due, in part, to the fact that we finally see Bess as a nurse in France. In the other two books, she was on leave in England, but this time we see her performing her job, interacting with medical staff, doctors, soldiers, and officers, and moving from place to place in a war torn country. This makes her a more fully realized character, and I appreciated seeing this side of her.

Although this is the third book in the series, it stands alone well, so you don't have to worry about starting with the first book to keep your bearings. If you enjoy the Maisie Dobbs series written by Jacqueline Winspear, you should give Bess Crawford a try. Chances are, you'll like Bess, too.

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An Impartial Witness by Charles Todd

Title: An Impartial Witness
Author: Charles Todd
ISBN:  9780061791789
Publisher: William Morrow, 2010
Hardcover, 352 pages
Genre: Historical Mystery, #2 Bess Crawford series
Rating: B+
Source: Amazon Vine

First Line: As my train pulled into London, I looked out at the early summer rain and was glad to see the dreary day had followed me from Hampshire.

It is the early summer of 1917 and nurse Bess Crawford has returned to England from France with a convoy of gravely wounded soldiers. One of the men is a badly burned young pilot who wears a photo of his wife pinned to his tunic. He clings to life solely because of his love for her.

In a London train station Bess happens to witness the extremely emotional farewell between a woman and an officer. When the woman turns her head, Bess recognizes her. She is the wife of the young, burned pilot, which means that the officer is most definitely not her husband.

Back in France, Bess happens to see a newspaper article in which Scotland Yard is asking for any information about the woman in the sketch. The sketch is of the pilot's wife, the woman at the train station. Bess feels that she must become involved in the case because of the young pilot's love for his wife and because of the fact that she seems to be the last person to see the woman alive. It won't be long at all before Bess realizes just how dangerous her quest for the truth really is.

For me, the enjoyment in reading the books in this series comes not from deducing the murderer, but from immersing myself in the time period and in the character of Bess herself. Living in an era (as I do) in which it seems no one wants to claim responsibility for anything, Bess's sense of duty and responsibility is quite refreshing. She may have a stubborn and slightly reckless streak, but she's got an excellent safety net in her family-- and she knows how to use her common sense.

The mother-son writing duo known as Charles Todd has a long-running series set in the same era which centers around Ian Rutledge, a shell-shocked veteran who returns to his job at Scotland Yard. That series is also very good, but after a while, I tired of Rutledge being haunted by the ill-tempered spirit of a soldier shot for desertion.

Bess has no such haunts, for which I am grateful, and it seems that, if she finally becomes aware of someone right underneath her nose, she may have a relationship to help keep her grounded in future books. I like Bess, and I look forward to reading more books in the series to see if I'm right about her prospects.

If you've read Todd's Ian Rutledge series or Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series about a former World War I nurse as private investigator in 1930's London, you should enjoy this series about Bess Crawford.

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War Horse by Michael Morpurgo

Title: War Horse
Author: Michael Morpurgo
ISBN: 9780545057981, Scholastic, 2008
Genre: Young Adult Historical Fiction
Rating: A

First Line: My earliest memories are a confusion of hilly fields and dark, damp stables and rats that scampered along the beams above my head.

Joey was born and raised on an English farm and trained by a young boy named Albert. When World War I begins, Albert's father needs money and sells Joey to the Army as a cavalry horse. Although too young to join up, Albert vows to be reunited with his horse.

Fortunately for Joey, his Army captain is an honorable man who loves horses and takes good care of him, teaching Joey things that will keep him alive in the days ahead. Joey also makes friends with another cavalry horse named Topthorn. One day in battle, both horses' riders are killed, and the horses are captured by the Germans to pull heavy munitions. Through it all, Joey never forgets Albert and wonders if they will ever be reunited.

This is a wonderful story-- on par with Black Beauty-- about the effects of war on both animals and people. Morpurgo proves adept at describing the horrors of war without being graphic. As Joey moves from the British side to the German, the people he must deal with show that, no matter the language or the uniform, we are all the same.

Knowing how military strategists on both sides tended to think of the men (and animals) under their command as so much cannon fodder, Joey's fate is not all that certain. Morpurgo makes the reader care about the young horse and what happens to it and the people with whom it comes in contact. I would recommend this book to both young and old.