What do readers think of A Bitter Truth by Charles Todd? Write your own review.

I was interested to read a book in this Todd series about Bess Crawford as I had enjoyed one of his Ian Rutledge books. A Bitter Truth had good historical detail, a likeable main character in Bess and a fun romance. The mystery part was a bit contrived and I think Todd's mysteries are more for historical fiction buffs and readers who like rather tame mysteries.

This book was as grabber at the beginning, but it fizzled with too many tendrils of plot and an ending that left me scratching my head. However, that said, I love Bess and want her to have a life. The two first books about Bess were better because she was more relevant to the plot and plot line. Too many coincidences here.

This book has an intricate plot, full of twists and turns and kept me reading, even though some of the plot twists are improbable at best. Several of the characters are three-dimensional, though Bess herself is not so much, and why she, and another character interject themselves so thoroughly into the lives of strangers is a question. The book does convey a good sense of wartime Europe, with all its the tragedies and upheavals.

Bess Crawford is a British nurse in WW1; Maisie Dobbs is a British nurse in WW1. Bess Crawford has a young man help her; Maisie Dobbs has a young man help her.
Bess Crawford solves mysteries; Maisie Dobbs solves mysteries.
Maisie Dobbs came first and I think Jacqueline Winspear writes better stories.
I found the end of this book to be too contrived, but for a summer read it wasn't too bad.

I am a fan of Charles Todd's Ian Rutledge Series. I also enjoy the Masie Dobbs series by
Jacqueline Winspear. This is the third in the Bess Crawford series. I have also read the first two. I was looking forward to reading this old fashioned mystery. However, this whodunit had a predictable plot with too many coincidences. Also the solution to the
crime seems to come out of the blue.

When I signed up to review A Bitter Truth, by Charles Todd, I was looking forward to being introduced to an author I hadn’t read before. After reading the book, I was glad it was free. For a team of writers (Charles Todd is a mother-son writing duo) with 15 books to their credit, this book was surprisingly clumsy and amateurish.

This book was the third in a mystery series featuring a World War One military nurse, Bess Crawford, as the protagonist. It opened with Bess arriving home from the front for holiday leave. Her bus was delayed while police searched for a deserter. Much was made of this deserter in the first few pages so the reader was led to believe this was a significant element of the plot. It turned out to be no more than an oblique clue to the denouement which, by the way, had nothing to do with this particular deserter.

Bess then encounters a woman, Lydia Ellis, wandering around in the rain and decides she should take this stranger home and get involved in her affairs to a ridiculous degree. Despite having only a short leave, Bess is persuaded to accompany Lydia to her home and thus is conveniently on-site to become involved in the murder of another house guest who, of course, chooses to confide in Bess just before he is killed.

I did like the character of Bess. She is strong, capable, and intelligent. However, for some reason she capitulates every time selfish, manipulative Lydia or any member of the odious Ellis family ask her to do something—no matter how great the imposition. The chapters set in France, at the front, are the most believable for me, aside from Bess’ search for a French orphan which, of course, she was persuaded to undertake for the egocentric Lydia. Most of the characters in the book are actually likable. The faithful family friend Simon and the charming and eccentric Australian soldier Sergeant Larimore are strong characters. Even the brief interaction she has with her parents showed them to be engaging. It is too bad that so much of the book is centered on people who are self-important and condescending.

When I finally reached the unsportsmanlike conclusion, I was relieved that my acquaintance with the works of Charles Todd was mercifully at an end.

A dark and stormy night, a frightened, well-bred woman crouching on our heroine's London doorstep, with no money and nowhere to go. Tender-hearted Sister Bess Crawford is drawn into the spooky life of the Ellis family at Vixen Hall in the Sussex countryside. The convoluted plot, with multiple victims and possible villains, a la Agatha Christie, is saved by the back story of wartime England and France in WWI. Storyline has many similarities to Maisie Dobbs novels, though not as well written.