This is book 3 of the Bess Crawford mystery series featuring a fearless British nursing sister during The Great War. The title of Sister is no longer official but is still used by many patients. I don’t know if it is used of the male nurses.

Anyway, Bess is home on leave, discovers a woman in need while in London, and ends up traveling to the country where the woman lives. Nevermind that it is the opposite direction from Bess’s own home. The woman–Lydia–is in need of help, most of which does not involve nursing. But since Bess can’t pass up a mystery, she stays her full leave to help Lydia.

In many ways, the story is a typical British wealthy family who-done-it, but Todd always delivers a good story.

I have had the book on my to-read list for a couple of years but was saving it for a time when I needed a light mystery. However, on the 1 to 10 light/heavy mystery scale, this one is about a 4. If you like to keep score by figuring out who committed the murders early in the book, you might get a low score on this read.

A solid read.

Mike Lawrence