A Bitter Truth (Bess Crawford, #3) in Special chat with Charles Todd, Alan Bradley, and Tasha Alexander

Aug 22, 2011 Ariel rated it liked it

Shelves: mystery-bess-crawford

Thank you to Book Club Girl and Harper Collins for providing me with an ARC of this book to review.

I was so excited to get in this in the mail. I was experiencing the doldrums from having finished to the Maisie Dobbs series and was only too happy to find Bess Crawford to continue my streak of reading about World War I nurses who solve mysteries in their downtime. I quickly polished off the previous two books in the series so that I could properly digest this one. While I enjoyed the first two bo Thank you to Book Club Girl and Harper Collins for providing me with an ARC of this book to review.

I was so excited to get in this in the mail. I was experiencing the doldrums from having finished to the Maisie Dobbs series and was only too happy to find Bess Crawford to continue my streak of reading about World War I nurses who solve mysteries in their downtime. I quickly polished off the previous two books in the series so that I could properly digest this one. While I enjoyed the first two books in this series I was kind of getting burnt out by Bess by the third one.

In this book, a distraught young woman shows up on the doorstep of Bess Crawford with a bruise and a sob story and Busybody Bess can't help but but in. Off she goes, completely forsaking her family, to come to the aid of a stranger. This is the second book in a row to use adultery as a major plot device. The adultery as well as the domestic violence is glossed over as Bess inserts herself into the Ellis family. Of course faithful Simon Brandon can be counted on to come along for the ride. All he needs is a cape and tights and his transformation into super hero will be complete. He protects Bess while charming the ladies, gaining the respect of the men, and embarking on secret missions for the war effort. So what is going on between him and Bess? Are you ever going to be more than "friends"? At least Bess finally gets a love interest of sorts in Sergeant Larimore who plants one on her. I wish there were more development in the personal life of Bess Crawford. If she could mind her own business for once there could be. As to rest of the characters in the book they were a rather unlikeable lot. Roger Ellis was a bully who couldn't control his temper and his wife Lydia was a whiny, impulsive scatter brain. Neither should be trusted with the care of a small child.

I would give the next book in this series a try because I think the bones of the series are good. I would like to know a little more about the Simon Brandon character's motivation in order to keep going much further however. I think I might have enjoyed this a little more if I hadn't read the last book back to back with this one. Right now I am a little tired of cheating spouses who get themselves into jams that other people are left to deal with. ...more

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Aug 20, 2011 Katie Robinson rated it liked it

I LOVE Charles Todd. I have read all the Inspector Rutledge mysteries and absolutely loved them

So, when I won this book I was ecstatic. I was also surprised about how different these books are. The inspector series seems more complex and more detailed. This book was not detailed or as complex compared to his other books.

The thing I loved about this book is you think you know who the killer is but you dont. I would read another Bess Crawford book, but if they are all like this one, im not very in ...more

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May 06, 2011 Jan C rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, 2011, wwi

I enjoyed this one as usual for Charles Todd.

I did find it possible a little inconceivable that out of all France Bess was able to find one lone child. Now she did have some assistance from people who would come to her aid station, and, in particular, one Australian soldier seemed to go out of his way for her. A future romance for her?

She comes home on leave and runs into some woman up from the country with a bruised face. Bess takes her in and soon finds herself taking the woman back home, when ...more

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Aug 16, 2011 Kathy Tracey rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Enjoyable - the characters keep growing in depth. The dialogue is sharp, the setting vivid and crisp, and the mystery keeps you guessing till the end.
Worth a quick read for a quit evening.

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