An Unmarked Grave by Charles Todd

It’s such a pleasure to await the arrival of a new book and know without doubt that you’re going to enjoy it.  For this reader that’s the case with the Bess Crawford series penned by Charles Todd (a mother and son writing team).  After Duty to the Dead, An Impartial Witness and Bitter Truth the fourth in this series, An Unmarked Grave, follows the adventures of Bess Crawford, a strong, courageous World War I battlefield nurse who has a penchant for becoming involved in heinous crimes and eventually solving them. 

    This time out Bess faces her greatest challenge, actually challenges as it is the spring of 1918 on the French front where the Spanish Flu epidemic is killing all in its wake plus there is a consistent disheartening number of wounded  soldiers who need attention.  Working nearly to sheer exhaustion little does Bess know that a psychopath will soon be threatening not only her life but the life of one very dear to her.

    Bone tired and feeling a bit dizzy as there was no time for supper Bess is asked by Private Wilson, head of the burial detail, to accompany him to the shed where the corpses are kept.  He has found a body with no wounds save for a broken neck and does not know what to do.  Bess immediately recognizes the deceased as Major Vincent Carson, a former member of her father’s regiment.  Carson was so highly regarded that it was thought he might take her father’s place when the time came.  Could Carson have been murdered and his body placed among those of the dead soldiers in order to cover up a killing?  But before she can confide in her father Bess is stricken with influenza, an attack so severe that she becomes comatose.  She’s shipped back to Dorset to recover.   

    Following her recovery she returns to France along with a wounded Yank soldier, Capt. Thomas Barclay, to try to find out who might have wanted Carson dead.  Yet, the case is not as clear-cut as it might seem because other deaths occur, including that of Private Wilson and Bess soon finds herself fighting for her very breath.

    An Unmarked Grave is not only laden with suspenseful twists and turns that keep a reader guessing but historical fiction par excellence.

    Enjoy!