Charles Todd – the pseudonym used by the mother and son writing team of Caroline and Charles Todd – continues the adventures of Bess Crawford in the Aug. 30, 2011 release, A Bitter Truth (Morrow). This third book in the Bess Crawford mystery series finds the courageous World War I nurse on leave in London, preparing for a Christmas visit to her family.
Bess’s well laid plans go astray when she finds a young woman huddled in her doorway, seeking shelter from the cold rain. Lydia Ellis has travelled to London after a quarrel with her husband led to his striking her. Fearing that the young woman may have a concussion, Bess invites Lydia to spend the night at her apartment.
Lydia gradually tells Bess more about her life. She lives at Vixen Hill in Sussex with her husband, Roger, who is an army officer, and Roger’s mother and grandmother. Two of Roger’s siblings have died – his brother Alan recently from wounds suffered in the war and his sister Juliana, in childhood.
When Lydia decides to return to Vixen Hill, Bess agrees to accompany her, fearing possible complications from Lydia’s injuries. Upon their arrival Bess finds the Ellis family involved in planning a memorial service for Alan. She also discovers a portrait of the long-dead Juliana, whom the family still mourns.
Attending Alan’s memorial service is George Hughes, a family friend, who tells Roger that he has seen a young child in France who looks identical to Juliana. He suggests that Roger is the child’s father, but Roger denies this.
The next day George is found dead. When Davis Merrit, a blind friend of Lydia, goes missing, the police at first suspect that he is George’s murderer. Later, though, they find that Davis, too, has been killed, and they widen their search to the members of the Ellis family.
A Bitter Truth continues Charles Todd’s pattern of clearly demonstrating the problems that World War I raised for the British, both at home and on the battlefield. This work is also especially good in its convincing rendering of the oppressive atmosphere of the countryside surrounding Vixen Hall. Despite these positive features, though, A Bitter Truth remains the least effective of the novels in Todd’s series.
Part of the problem lies in the change in the characterization of the series protagonist. Bess Crawford, previously shown as a woman in well in charge of her own actions, now appears more as a tool of the manipulative Lydia.
Although Bess is often motivated by disinterested kindness, the degree to which she puts Lydia’s wishes ahead of her own concerns is excessive. She continually postpones her visit to her parents at Lydia’s request. She even agrees to Lydia's demand that she continue to search for the child George Hughes mentioned when she returns to France.
Bess’s consequent search for that child occupies her so thoroughly that she has little to do with solving the murders that have occurred, as she did in the previous novels in this series. In fact, the identification of the killer of George Hughes and Davis Merrit illustrates an even greater weakness in A Bitter Truth.
The determinaton of "whodunit" does provide the novel with a suprise ending, but it is one which is inadequately supported in the book's plot. Readers of this series must hope that its authors will get back on track in the next installment.
FTC disclosure: A review copy of this book was provided by its publisher.
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