Procure A Question Of Honor: A Bess Crawford Mystery Translated By Charles Todd Presented As File
have read every entry in this series and I do love them all but this one took a little more time for me to get through it.
In this novel an incident from the past resurfaces and leads to a mystery Bess is determined to solve, As some other reviewers correctly pointed out, this novel perhaps relies a bit too much on coincidences to propel the story along.
For instance Bess is in the middle of a battle in France and yet she keeps running into people integral to the story.
A certain person in fact who managed to elude the entire English army in India but not our heroine, While we are on the topic of things I would like to fix, I would also like to see Bess develop a love interest, in particular Simon Brandon.
A war is going on, It is not believable that they would not have hooked up by now, unless he is gay, If he is please just say so and I will move on, People are dying all around them, it is not realistic that people are not hooking up in the face of death.
To illustrate my point I offer up two other series that remind me of this one, Maggie Hope and Maisie Dobbs.
Both women are just as smart and sleuth minded as Bess Crawford but their authors develop their personal sides as well as provide an intriguing mystery.
Maise in particular has changed so much from the first novel, I don't always like her choices but at least she's making them, I can't really say what Bess is like personally outside of being nosy and a good nurse, It may seem like I am being highly critical but it's just because I really do like the series so much.
It's very well written and the stories the authors put forth are intriguing, I am not ready to give up yet but the series would benefit from some personal progression in the next book.
In A Question of Honor, we start the story in India,, where Bess as a child learns that Lieutenant Wade, a man in her father's regime has killed both his parents in India and three people in England, but he disappears before they catch him.
And, he is presumed dead after a while when no traces of him are found, A decade later Bess learns from a dying man in France that Lieutenant Wade could be still alive, . .
The previous book, An Unmarked Grave, was the first book in this series that I didn't find as excellent as the rest so I was hopeful that the next one would be better.
And it was. The story in this book is more interesting and I found it hard to put the book down,
The book is really intriguing to read, Bess is trying to find out if Lieutenant Wade still alive, and if he is what is he doing fighting in the front and was he really guilty of the crimes in India and England Bess and Simon Brandon he works for her father are working together trying to find out the truth without involving Bess father, Colonel Crawford because the killing is still a stain on the Colonels regiment's reputation and Bess doesn't want to involve her father if it turns out that Wade isn't alive.
So, she travels to the village where the killing of a family took place and tries to find out more about the murdered family and the connection to Lieutenant Wade.
But, that's not that easy, some people there are even quite hostile towards her, But, Bess won't give up,
What I love about this book is that it's like a puzzle, you have to be patient, piece after piece is revealed during the progress of the story until the truth is revealed in the end.
I also loved that my favorite Aussie, Sergeant Larimore made a cameo, although I wish he had a bigger part in the book.
But still I love every mention of him in the books, like this one where she met him in France as she tends to wounded soldiers:
I was always happy to see this cheeky Australian.
He had helped me once when I needed help desperately and I was fond of him, Dangerous to care about anyone in wartime, but still
Looks like Bess is quite fond of Larimore as well! I must admit that I hope they will end up together.
I just love every scene with them together,
I recommend this series to anyone that likes to read historical mysteries, especially books that take place during WW.
I enjoy these books very much and every book can be read as a standalone,
Read this review and others on sitelinkA Bookaholic Swede Some interesting characters and one intriguing piece of backstory, but the plot is a train wreck.
Shall we count the coincidences In chronological orderspoilers ahead:
The mystery surrounds the murder of a family in Hampshire.
On the day in question, Lt, Wade, stationed in India, a former foster child of the family, just happens to be in England, near enough to the family to come to confront them about their abuse of him as a child.
He arrives at the precise moment that another of the family's foster children is leaving the house, having just murdered the family the real murderer is given the slimmest of motives and none at all for the murder to have occurred on this particular day.
Naturally suspicion falls on Wade,
When the Wade returns to India, he just happens to stay with his parents the same night that an entirely unrelated person decides to kill them.
Naturally, suspicion falls on Wade,
After having escaped arrest and been on the run for years, Wade enlists in the British army under a phony name to serve in World War I.
The brother of the man who actually killed Wade's parents is serving in WWI as well and:
a sees Wade and recognizes him,years later
b is able to communicate his discovery to our heroine, Bess an army nurse, who:
i.
speaks his native language of Hindi
ii, is the daughter of Wade's Colonel, and therefore is in a unique situation to confirm the sighting,
At leastseparate times through the last year of the war, Bess manages to see Wade, and eventually talk to him, despite the roughlymillion British soldiers who served in.
Uncounted number of coincidences as Bess manages to investigate the murderyears later, just using her perfectly timed leaves from the army.
Bess begins to realize that she needs to investigate the other foster children of the murdered family,
She just happens to runs into one of them at a battlefield hospital again, among themillion British troops there.
Another of the foster children is a man she already knew, her regular ambulance driver
Another foster child the murdereris a sort of handmaid to Princess Mary, who just happens to visit the hospital in England where Bess has sent Wade under his assumed name, allowing Bess to confront the murderer, using Wade as bait.
I probably missed a few, I first became acquainted with the motherson 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 fromwhen 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,
.