An Irish hostage

Charles Todd

Book - 2021

"In the uneasy peace following World War I, nurse Bess Crawford runs into trouble and treachery in Ireland--in this twelfth book in the New York Times bestselling mystery series. The Great War is over--but in Ireland, in the wake of the bloody 1916 Easter Rising, anyone who served in France is now considered a traitor, including nurse Eileen Flynn and former soldier Michael Sullivan, who only want to be married in the small, isolated village where she grew up. Even her grandmother is against it, and Eileen's only protection is her cousin Terrence who was a hero of the Rising and is still being hunted by the British. Bess Crawford had promised to be there for the wedding. And in spite of the danger to her, she keeps that promise--o...nly to be met with the shocking news that the groom has vanished. Eileen begs for her help, but how can Bess hope to find him when she doesn't know the country, the people, or where to put her trust? Time is running out, for Michael and for Bess herself, and soon her own life is on the line. With only an Irish outlaw and a prisoner about to be hanged for murder on her side, how can she possibly save herself, much less stop a killer?"--

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Subjects
Genres
Detective and mystery fiction
Historical fiction
Mystery fiction
Published
New York, NY : William Morrow [2021]
Language
English
Main Author
Charles Todd (author)
Edition
First edition
Item Description
Sequel to: A cruel deception.
Physical Description
318 pages ; 24 cm
ISBN
9780062859853
9780062859877
Contents unavailable.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Set in 1919, this subpar 12th Bess Crawford mystery (after Mary Higgins Clark Award--winner Todd's 2019's A Cruel Deception) takes Bess, who served as a British army nurse during WWI, to Ireland to attend the wedding of Eileen Flynn, a nurse whose life she saved at the war's start. Upon arriving in Eileen's village, Bess discovers that her friend's fiancé, Michael Sullivan, an Irishman who fought for England during the war, has disappeared, but it's not clear who might have abducted him, or if he's even still alive. Bess gets a mixed reception from the locals, many of whom are openly hostile to her as an Englishwoman and regard Michael's choice to aid Britain as traitorous. The capable nurse ends up with a murder to solve as well. Todd (the pen name of mother-son team Caroline and Charles Todd) normally has a steady hand at creating solid characters, but doesn't do so with the Irish who are seeking independence, and the whodunit is less gripping than usual. In addition, Bess acting as an amateur sleuth in peacetime makes it harder to suspend disbelief. Todd is capable of better. Agent: Lisa Gallagher, DeFiore and Co. (July)

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Review by Library Journal Review

World War I has ended, but after the 1916 Easter Rising tensions are still high in Ireland, where nurse Bess Crawford has traveled to be part of a friend's wedding party. She arrives to find the groom missing, and when the sea surrenders a dead body, partisan issues explode. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

In 1919, a trip to a friend's wedding reminds Bess Crawford once again that hatred doesn't come to an end when war does. On leave from Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service, Bess is free to travel to Ireland to serve as a bridesmaid for Eileen Flynn, another nurse whose leg she helped save from amputation. It's clear that venturing across the Irish Sea will be anything but routine. Instead of taking trains and motorcars subject to hijacking by nationalist fanatics, Bess asks American pilot Capt. Arthur Jackson to fly her to tiny Killeighbeg, where all is in readiness except for the groom, Michael Sullivan, who's presumably been abducted by members of the Rising in retaliation for his wartime service to the Crown. But Bess doesn't need to venture outside Eileen's home to find furious conflicts raging. Granny Flynn seems to hate Eileen, whose mother is Anglo-Irish, as much as she hates Bess, and Eileen's cousin Terrence Flynn, a Rising star, suggests that the bride made her own bed when she chose an Englishwoman for her bridesmaid and her intended chose an English officer, Maj. Ellis Dawson, as his best man. Days after local painter Fergus Kennedy turns up coshed to death, Eileen decides to forge ahead with her preparations for the ceremony in case the groom happens to show up, and a half-dead Michael appears in a superb theatrical stroke that confounds plausibility and logic. No sooner has Bess packed him off to bed than Ellis Dawson disappears. It's enough to make you wonder who the title refers to: Michael, Ellis, or Bess herself. The mystery is peripheral to this worm's-eye view of the struggles that tore the Emerald Isle in two. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.