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It's October, 1918, and Bess Crawford assists in treating a patient who appears to be a French solider at her British aid station. As he is being readied for transport back to a rear hospital, he becomes involved in an altercation with another patient; Bess distinctly hears him speaking fluent German. She mentions this to her superiors and they don't seem as concerned as she is. Then Bess suffers a relatively minor wound, which does become infected. She is sent to Paris to recuperate.
She decides to pursue the matter while she is recovering. Bess knows a lot of people with a lot of connections and doesn't hesitate to use them when she thinks it is important enough. Readers of previous Crawford novels will recognize some familiar faces. What she learns does little to reassure her that this man, Philippe Moreau, is not a spy. Nothing definitive either way, which Bess finds frustrating. The more she learns about him, the more she wants to know. This becomes even more true when she learns about the murder connected to his family, a murder that has never truly been resolved.
Todd writes about the freedoms and constraints of this time period very well. Bess can do a lot more than she could before the war; still, it's not a run-of-the-mill sight to see a woman driving a car, so Bess has to rely on the men she knows to drive her about, even though she is perfectly capable of doing it on her own. (I found it amazing that gas was so readily available for the things that Bess wanted to do.) Todd also conveys the fluidity that war gives to people; what one did before the war may have nothing in common at all with what one does during the war. Social station still matters, as does keeping up appearances, but not as strictly as before the war. All of this is relevant to the story. Again, Todd writes about the damage done to families and individuals by secrets kept and grudges nursed; for Todd, this is a familiar theme and timeless.
§ I have been reading and reviewing mystery fiction for over a quarter of a century and read broadly within just about all genres and sub-genres. I have been a preliminary judge for the Malice Domestic/St. Martin's Press Best First Traditional Mystery Novel Contest for at least 25 years. I live in Northern lower Michigan with my spousal unit, one large cat, and 2 fairly small dogs. My Sherlockian (BSI) nom-de-plume is VR; my license plate is BSI VR
Reviewed by PJ Coldren, September 2016
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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