A Duty to the Dead: Bess Crawford Mystery Series, Book 1 [Kindle Edition]

My first experience with the mother and son co-writing team known as Charles Todd came about when the Amazon Vine Program gave me the opportunity to read A Matter of Justice: An Inspector Rutledge Mystery back in December of 2008. I was well and truly hooked and have been buying and reading Inspector Rutledge mysteries ever since. When I saw that this book began a series with a new lead character I simply had to read it.

Bess Crawford is a British nurse aboard the hospital transport ship Britannic in 1916 when the ship hits a mine and sinks. Thankfully the ship was not carrying wounded on this portion of their journey or the loss of life would have been much higher. Bess sustains a broken arm made much more serious by assisting in the rescue of one of her fellow nurses. That, plus having to wait for some time to receive good medical treatment, made the break much more serious and therefore very slow to heal. Because she cannot return to duty quickly Bess decides that she can't put off any longer making good on the promise she had made on a previous voyage to Arthur Graham before he died. Arthur had requested that Bess personally deliver a message to one of his brothers at his home in the small village of Owlhurst in Kent. What follows is the story of Bess meeting Arthur's family and discovering that his half-brother has been locked away in an asylum because of a grisly murder he committed when he was 14 years old. The more people Bess meets the more unsure she becomes about exactly what Arthur Grahams message meant and whether his brother Jonathan intends to do anything about Arthur's request.

I told a friend today that I absolutely devoured this book and that is the best way for me to describe it. The descriptions of the settings aboard ship, during the rescue, and then in both London and Kent are first rate, making it very obvious that these authors spent time in both of those locations absorbing the atmosphere. The characters are all very well developed, from Bess right down to her landlady. The plotting and pacing of the book move along at a very steady, sure speed so that I was completely involved in the story almost before I realized it. And I sincerely resented anything which came between me and reading this book. Bess Crawford is well portrayed as a woman of 1916, a woman willing to take her place in society to do her very best to help along the war effort. She was a very enjoyable character for me to read about, using her intellect to reason her way through the problems she was facing, trying to make sense of events which had happened so many years before but which still effected so many lives. Bess is a very strong character but the authors have resisted the temptation to turn her into a "modern" woman. I can see that there are all sorts of possible stories in this character's future and I'm ready to be right there with her. A very well written, exciting book.

A Duty to the Dead," by New York Times bestselling author Charles Todd, presumably begins a new historical mystery series, starring Bess Crawford. So this will join Todd's popular, highly-thought of Inspector Ian Rutledge series, now at eleven books. (There is also one stand-alone.) Charles Todd sets "his" mysteries in Britain; "he" is, however, actually an American mother-son writing team. She lives in Delaware; he, in North Carolina.

It's 1916; independently minded Bess has been a nurse aboard the floating World War I hospital ship Britannic, sister ship to the famed Titanic of the watery North Atlantic end. She has agreed to verbally transmit a message from the dying, charming, Lieutenant Arthur Graham, for whom she feels more than she should, back to his upper-crust family back home in the U.K. The book is told in first person, from Bess's point of view, an interesting departure from the Rutledge books.

Unfortunately, this time out, the team's writing, while it does cover the appropriate ground, is flat, and they are unable to make their material come alive. They choose to open with a set piece, much as the infinitely greater British mystery author John LeCarre generally does: the well-known sinking of Britannic in Greek waters. However, LeCarre's set pieces can blow the socks off a reader, see Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy; whereas the Todd team just can't make Britannic's sinking particularly vivid, and that's quite a failing. Perhaps actual World War I combat is a bit much for the Todd duo to handle. The book also, oddly enough, in several regards, strongly echoes a better historical mystery by Anne Perry, (The Face of a Stranger (William Monk)).

The North Carolina-based son that's half of Charles Todd has twice spoken at Wilmington, NC, Library Mystery Weekends, and I've managed to catch him. He was intelligent, charming, entertaining, and quite presentable: I wish him better luck next outing.

First Sentence: At sea...the morning sun is lovely and warm.

Bess Crawford is an independent, upper-middle-call British gentlewoman who takes after her father. She became a nurse and travelled to the battlefields of France. On her way back to England aboard the Britannic, the ship strikes a mine and sinks. Bess suffers a badly broken arm but becomes fond of Lt. Arthur Graham who, right before dying, extracts a promise from her to deliver a message to his brother in England. Keeping that promise embroils her in a family surrounded by tragedy and secrets.

It is always interesting when an author you love begins a new series. Sometimes it works; sometimes not. In this case, it definitely worked.

Bess is a great new character. She is representative of many woman of her class; smart, independent; strong and with a belief that woman can be as capable as men. She has seen the results of war and knows the impact it has on the men who fight. It is also typical of the time that Bess is constantly asked whether she was in love with each young many of her acquaintance as people can't otherwise understand the courses of action she takes.

Todd provides a very strong sense of time and place with just a hint of a gothic feel. At the same time they make strong statements about the impact of war and the lack of understanding of those who stay at home. Their writing is very effective and can go straight to the emotions and the heart.

There were a couple small false steps. The story was a little slow getting started and Bess' reaction to the sinking of the ship seemed a bit too detached. There were a few portent--a writing element I really dislike--and a characters who had been locked in an asylum since being a young boy was much to intelligent and street-smart to be quite believable.

I very much enjoyed Bess and hope to see ore of both her and her father, whom I very much liked. I look forward to more books in this series.

A DUTY TO THE DEAD (Hist Mys-Elizabeth (Bess) Crawford -England-WWI/1916)- G+
Todd, Charles - 1st in series
William Morrow, 2009, US Hardcover - ISBN: 9780061933844