An Impartial Witness

An Impartial Witness by Charles Todd

Adult New Book Mystery Todd


The second in the WWI nurse Bess Crawford series. Having brought back wounded soldiers from the war in France to Hampshire in Britain, Bess was at the train station for a short leave in London. There she saw a woman sobbing and holding the arm of an officer in a Wiltshire regiment. Her distress stopped Bess because she knew her face from the photograph that one of her patient's, pilot Lieutenant Evanson, had kept by his side. When the Wiltshire officer mounted the train, the woman dashed out of the station. Bess tried to follow her, but lost her in the crowds.

Back in France Bess read in a newspaper that Mrs. Marjorie Evanson had been found dead. So begins a mystery that has several other people murdered or almost murdered, Bess crossing over to England as often as possible, a large cast of characters, including her wonderful father who had had his own regiment in India and his aide, Simon, who assists Beth.

A quicker read might have helped keep all of these characters straight, but it has a great sense of life in Britain during WWI and of the battlefields in France. Not as good as the Maisy Dobbs series, but a pleasant read nonetheless.