The Great War is winding down in 1918 when Bess, a nurse stationed near the front in France, is assigned to accompany a wounded soldier who is being presented a medal by the king at Buckingham Palace. That night Sergeant Wilkins asks Bess to give him some time alone with friends, then slips away in the night. Not only does he become a deserter, but Scotland Yard soon suspects him of murder.
Bess finds herself an unwilling accomplice to these crimes. To restore her good name, she sets out to try to track down Wilkins herself. She is accompanied most of the way by Simon Brandon, an officer attached to her father and a regular in this series of novels. He gets more to do than usual this time, allowing the relationship between the pair to develop a bit, but any reader hoping for romance to develop will be disappointed yet again.
The hunt for Wilkins becomes tedious because Bess and Simon seem to go around in circles, then back and forth a lot. There's a wounded man called the Major who may or may not be Wilkins. Then there's a couple of women who may or may not be hiding a wounded soldier in their home. Lacking official standing in the case — although as an officer in wartime it would seem Simon should have more clout than he displays — the pair stumble around a lot trying to discover what's really going on, instead of simply asking direct questions. It's also hard to understand how, with the war still going on in France, both Bess and Simon have so much free time to track down a killer in England.
The ending rewards the patient reader, however, making this, if not one of the best Bess Crawford mysteries, at least a worthy addition.
No comments:
Post a Comment