A Cruel Deception
(Libby/OverDrive eAudiobook)

In the eleventh Bess Crawford mystery, it's 1919. The Great War has ended, but a peace accord has yet to be signed. It's an uncomfortable, waiting-for-the-other-shoe-to-drop moment in history. Battlefield nurse Bess Crawford has been tending to the wounded in England and spending a great deal of time pondering what she will do with her life now that the world is no longer at war. But personal concerns are put aside when, once again, Bess finds herself involved in a bewildering mystery: Why is a former soldier, who now works at the Paris Peace Conference, in fear for his life? Could it be that someone is actually trying to kill him? As usual, Todd mixes historical verisimilitude with exemplary character design and sharp plotting. Another fine entry in this popular series.--David Pitt Copyright 2019 Booklist

Set in 1919, bestseller Todd's sluggish 11th whodunit featuring British nurse Bess Crawford (after 2018's A Forgotten Place) finds Bess trying to figure out what direction her postwar career should take while serving in a Wiltshire surgical clinic. She's summoned to London to meet with the chief of nursing, Mrs. Minton, whose son, Lawrence, is in Paris as part of the British delegation attending the peace conference. A friend has informed Mrs. Minton that, despite Lawrence's contrary assurances, he hasn't been attending meetings. Bess agrees to travel to France and look into Lawrence's circumstances. When she finally tracks down Lawrence in a small village, she discovers he's addicted to laudanum and plagued by somnambulism. During one encounter while he was sleepwalking, Lawrence cries out not to be judged, because he "tried." The source of his guilt is disclosed only toward the end, making it anticlimactic and giving Bess less time to do actual sleuthing. This is a subpar entry in a generally superior series. Agent: Lisa Gallagher, DeFiore and Co. (Oct.)

By 1919, the army hospitals are closing in England, and Sister Bess Crawford expects a reassignment when she's called to the nursing headquarters. Instead, the matron asks her to take on a personal case. Matron's son, Lawrence, was to participate in the peace talks in Paris, but he hasn't been in meetings. Worried about Lawrence, who was wounded in the war and, like so many other soldiers, and might now have a drug dependency, she asks Bess to go to Paris to track down her son. Bess's father, who is involved in the peace talks, is too busy to help her as she travels from Paris to St. Ives, searching for Lawrence. It becomes a dangerous job for Bess, as she finds a man haunted by his past and threatened by an unknown enemy who even follows Bess to Paris and tries to kill her. VERDICT The 11th "Bess Crawford" historical mystery, following A Forgotten Place, will appeal to readers of the series and possibly fans of Jacqueline Winspear's "Maisie Dobbs" books. However, most readers will find it slow going and plodding with little mystery. [See Prepub Alert, 2/25/19.]--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

Five months after the Armistice, nursing sister Bess Crawford (A Forgotten Place, 2018, etc.) gets yet another painful reminder that for all too many, the Great War has never ended.Plucked from her clinic in Wiltshire, Bess is volunteered by Matron Helena Minton for a very personal errand: to travel to Paris and ascertain why the Matron's son, Lt. Lawrence Minton, hasn't appeared for weeks at the peace talks to which he's been assigned as a minor attach. Is he still suffering the aftereffects of the wound he got last October? Has he become dependent on the drugs given him to fight the effects of his injury? Matron wants to find out quietly without pursuing the official inquiries that could end her son's army career with the regiment of Bess' father, Col. Richard Crawford. Arriving in France, Bess follows Lawrence's trail to the village of St. Ives, where he's living with schoolteacher Marina Lascelles, a family friend whose father's life he once saved. Bess immediately sees the signs of his addiction to laudanum, a debilitating appetite that's clearly incapacitated him for diplomatic service. She's even more concerned when she realizes that the reason he started taking the drug was to escape his crippling sense of guilt over yet another of the wartime traumas in which Todd specializes. After many episodes of conflict, self-torment, and uncontrollable behavior, Dr. Michel Moreau, Bess' nominal host in Paris while she secretly takes up residence in St. Ives, suggests the radical step of hypnotizing Lawrence to recover the searing memories he's suppressed. Lawrence proves a ready subject, but several sessions only gradually reveal the story of "the angel" that's been tormenting him, and even once he's revealed the story, the truth behind it remains to be disclosed.Sensitive, beautifully written, disconcertingly familiar in all but the circumstantial details of the underlying horror, and much too long. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

In the eleventh Bess Crawford mystery, it's 1919. The Great War has ended, but a peace accord has yet to be signed. It's an uncomfortable, waiting-for-the-other-shoe-to-drop moment in history. Battlefield nurse Bess Crawford has been tending to the wounded in England and spending a great deal of time pondering what she will do with her life now that the world is no longer at war. But personal concerns are put aside when, once again, Bess finds herself involved in a bewildering mystery: Why is a former soldier, who now works at the Paris Peace Conference, in fear for his life? Could it be that someone is actually trying to kill him? As usual, Todd mixes historical verisimilitude with exemplary character design and sharp plotting. Another fine entry in this popular series. Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews.

Even as the World War I armistice is being drawn up, Bess Crawford is tasked with finding an officer in Paris who has abandoned his duties at the Peace Conference. When he turns up, much the worse for a laudanum addiction and utterly indifferent to whether he lives or dies, Bess must uncover the reason for his anguish. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

By 1919, the army hospitals are closing in England, and Sister Bess Crawford expects a reassignment when she's called to the nursing headquarters. Instead, the matron asks her to take on a personal case. Matron's son, Lawrence, was to participate in the peace talks in Paris, but he hasn't been in meetings. Worried about Lawrence, who was wounded in the war and, like so many other soldiers, and might now have a drug dependency, she asks Bess to go to Paris to track down her son. Bess's father, who is involved in the peace talks, is too busy to help her as she travels from Paris to St. Ives, searching for Lawrence. It becomes a dangerous job for Bess, as she finds a man haunted by his past and threatened by an unknown enemy who even follows Bess to Paris and tries to kill her. VERDICT The 11th "Bess Crawford" historical mystery, following A Forgotten Place, will appeal to readers of the series and possibly fans of Jacqueline Winspear's "Maisie Dobbs" books. However, most readers will find it slow going and plodding with little mystery. [See Prepub Alert, 2/25/19.]—Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

Set in 1919, bestseller Todd's sluggish 11th whodunit featuring British nurse Bess Crawford (after 2018's A Forgotten Place) finds Bess trying to figure out what direction her postwar career should take while serving in a Wiltshire surgical clinic. She's summoned to London to meet with the chief of nursing, Mrs. Minton, whose son, Lawrence, is in Paris as part of the British delegation attending the peace conference. A friend has informed Mrs. Minton that, despite Lawrence's contrary assurances, he hasn't been attending meetings. Bess agrees to travel to France and look into Lawrence's circumstances. When she finally tracks down Lawrence in a small village, she discovers he's addicted to laudanum and plagued by somnambulism. During one encounter while he was sleepwalking, Lawrence cries out not to be judged, because he "tried." The source of his guilt is disclosed only toward the end, making it anticlimactic and giving Bess less time to do actual sleuthing. This is a subpar entry in a generally superior series. Agent: Lisa Gallagher, DeFiore and Co. (Oct.)