I believe this is the lowest rating I've given to a Charles Todd book (including the Insp. Rutledge series.) While the writing is still pleasant I thought the plot was way too drawn out, and Bess certainly made a pest of herself and stuck her nose in where it didn't belong. I finally gave up about 2/3rds of the way through, skimming the last 75 pages to see what the fuss was all about. Disappointing.

This is an okay mystery set at the end of World War I. Bess Crawford, a nurse at the front of military action, is caught up in a mystery that goes back decades. When an injury sends her to Paris for recuperation, she somehow manages to find herself meeting the people she needs to solve the mystery of an unknown solder’s country. Was he a spy? I found the story a little convoluted and it doesn’t inspire me to read other books in the series.

This latest book in the Bess Crawford was not very good. Bess ends up spending an inordinate amount time end energy (and the time and energy of others who do her bidding) trying to find out what is/was going on with an injured soldier who was wearing a French uniform, but who cried out in German at one point. First, I was not convinced of the need for Bess to be investigating the situation at all, especially while she was recovering from her own injury. Second, the book dragged. Bess was supposed to be recuperating in Paris, but she was constantly going out and investigating. It seemed to take forever to get to a resolution, and the whole story seemed far-fetched to me. It was really rather tiresome.

I think I will stick with the Ian Rutledge series going forward; those are usually very good.

Very disappointed too convoluted and contrived. So much back and forth to Petite Beauvais. The threads just don't hang well together. Weak plot weak characters. Did not like.

I enjoyed this book very much. It held my interest to the end. The writing is good. The relationships are believable. I want to know what happens next. Better than most of the Bess Crawford series.

I've read and enjoyed all Todd's books but I have to say that this one is SO boring that I didn't even bother finishing it. Not sure why they wrote it, except to simply get a book out.

I have read all the Bess Crawford books, and this is not my favorite. I almost quit in the middle. It seemed very slow and tedious. I kept wondering why Bess felt she had to poke her nose into the whole business.

This one Is set mostly in Paris and its outskirts in the last year of WWI.British nurse, Bess Crawford senses a mystery when a french lieutenant is attacked by another patient at the aid station and shouts at him in German.When she is shot herself and is sent to Paris to recuperate, the mystery widens and deepens. Nothing is as it seems on the surface. She sets about unravelling the story with help from the usual sources plus an American officer ostensibly in Paris looking for deserters.The authors give a good indication along the way of the lives of parisiennes and the deprivations they endured and overcame at the time.