A Duty to the Dead: 1 (Bess Crawford Mysteries 1)

A spellbinding companion to Charles Todd s New York Times Notable Barry Award-winning Edgar Dilys Anthony and John Creasy Awards-nominated Ian Rutledge novels A Duty to the Dead introduces readers to an unforgettable new protagonist Bess Crawford courageous World War I nurse and determined investigator. Once again the New York Times bestselling author brilliantly evokes post-Great War Europe casting an indomitable heroine into a simmering cauldron of village secrets family intrigues and murder. A Duty to the Dead is another superb demonstration of the exceptional abilities of a master whose novel A Test of Wills was named one of the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the 20th century by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. From the brilliantly imaginative New York Times bestselling author Charles Todd comes an unforgettable new character in an exceptional new series England 1916. Independent-minded Bess Crawfords upbringing is far different from that of the usual upper-middle-class British gentlewoman. Growing up in India she learned the importance of responsibility honor and duty from her offi cer father. At the outbreak of World War I she followed in his footsteps and volunteered for the nursing corps serving from the battlefields of France to the doomed hospital ship Britannic. On one voyage Bess grows fond of the young gravely wounded Lieutenant Arthur Graham. Something rests heavily on his conscience and to give him a little peace as he dies she promises to deliver a message to his brother. It is some months before she can carry out this duty and when shes next in England she herself is recovering from a wound. When Bess arrives at the Graham house in Kent Jonathan Graham listens to his brothers last wishes with surprising indifference. Neither his mother nor his brother Timothy seems to think it has any significance. Unsettled by this Bess is about to take her leave when sudden tragedy envelops her. She quickly discovers that fu