by Charles Todd
First published 2009
Bess Crawford grew up in India as the daughter of a British officer. When World War I breaks out, she volunteers as a nurse and serves on battlefields in France and aboard hospital ships. During one voyage, she tends to Lieutenant Arthur Graham, a young soldier dying from his wounds. Something troubles his conscience deeply, and he asks Bess to carry a message to his brother Jonathan. She promises to fulfill this final request. Months later, while recovering from her own war injury, Bess travels to the Graham family home in Kent. She delivers Arthur's last words to Jonathan, but his reaction surprises her. He shows complete indifference to his dead brother's message. His mother and brother Timothy also dismiss it as meaningless. Bess feels unsettled by their cold response and prepares to leave. Then tragedy strikes the Graham household. Bess realizes that her simple act of keeping a promise to a dying man has pulled her into something dangerous. Village secrets and family lies surround her. She must use all her courage and determination to survive what she has unknowingly set in motion.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, war, mystery
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: France, India, Kent
Period: World War I
336 pages · Hardcover · William Morrow
Content warnings: death, medical-trauma, war