While Duty to the Dead did introduce me to a plucky and resourceful new heroine in Bess Crawford, I can't say that my highest of expectations were met when I was through. I am a sucker for a history-drenched mystery and I absolutely love when I am truly shocked by the various surprises that pop up during these sorts of novels. With all the advanced praise I read about the son and mother duo comprising Charles Todd, I went into the reading and listening (I switched back and forth between the Kindle eBook and Audible audiobook versions) of A Duty to the Dead with high expectations and very high hopes. She quickly discovers that fulfilling this duty to the dead has thrust her into a maelstrom of intrigue and murder that will endanger her own life and test her courage as not even war has. Unsettled by this, Bess is about to take her leave when sudden tragedy envelops her.

Neither his mother nor his brother Timothy seems to think it has any significance. When Bess arrives at the Graham house in Kent, Jonathan Graham listens to his brother's last wishes with surprising indifference. It is some months before she can carry out this duty, and when she's next in England, she herself is recovering from a wound. 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. On one voyage, Bess grows fond of the young, gravely wounded Lieutenant Arthur Graham. 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. Growing up in India, she learned the importance of responsibility, honor, and duty from her officer father.

Independent-minded Bess Crawford's upbringing is far different from that of the usual upper-middle-class British gentlewoman. 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.Įngland, 1916. 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. Publication Date: August 25th, 2009 (eBook) / September 2nd, 2009 (Audible Audio)Ī Duty to the Dead introduces readers to an unforgettable new protagonist Bess Crawford, courageous World War I nurse and determined investigator.

Charles todd a duty to the dead