The Shattered Tree: A Bess Crawford Mystery
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)
World War I battlefield nurse Bess Crawford goes to dangerous lengths to investigate a wounded soldier's background—and uncover his true loyalties—in this thrilling and atmospheric entry in the bestselling "vivid period mystery series" (New York Times Book Review).
At the foot of a tree shattered by shelling and gunfire, stretcher-bearers find an exhausted officer, shivering with cold and a loss of blood from several wounds. The soldier is brought to battlefield nurse Bess Crawford's aid station, where she stabilizes him and treats his injuries before he is sent to a rear hospital. The odd thing is, the officer isn't British—he's French. But in a moment of anger and stress, he shouts at Bess in German.
When Bess reports the incident to Matron, her superior offers a ready explanation. The soldier is from Alsace-Lorraine, a province in the west where the tenuous border between France and Germany has continually shifted through history, most recently in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, won by the Germans. But is the wounded man Alsatian? And if he is, on which side of the war do his sympathies really lie?
Of course, Matron could be right, but Bess remains uneasy—and unconvinced. If he was a French soldier, what was he doing so far from his own lines . . . and so close to where the Germans are putting up a fierce, last-ditch fight?
When the French officer disappears in Paris, it's up to Bess—a soldier's daughter as well as a nurse—to find out why, even at the risk of her own life.
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Charles Todd. (2016). The Shattered Tree: A Bess Crawford Mystery. HarperCollins.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Charles Todd. 2016. The Shattered Tree: A Bess Crawford Mystery. HarperCollins.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Charles Todd, The Shattered Tree: A Bess Crawford Mystery. HarperCollins, 2016.
MLA Citation (style guide)Charles Todd. The Shattered Tree: A Bess Crawford Mystery. HarperCollins, 2016.
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Charles Todd is the New York Times bestselling author of the Inspector Ian Rutledge mysteries, the Bess Crawford mysteries, and two stand-alone novels. A mother-and-son writing team, Caroline passed away in August 2021 and Charles lives in Florida.
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World War I battlefield nurse Bess Crawford goes to dangerous lengths to investigate a wounded soldier's background—and uncover his true loyalties—in this thrilling and atmospheric entry in the bestselling "vivid period mystery series" (New York Times Book Review).
At the foot of a tree shattered by shelling and gunfire, stretcher-bearers find an exhausted officer, shivering with cold and a loss of blood from several wounds. The soldier is brought to battlefield nurse Bess Crawford's aid station, where she stabilizes him and treats his injuries before he is sent to a rear hospital. The odd thing is, the officer isn't British—he's French. But in a moment of anger and stress, he shouts at Bess in German.
When Bess reports the incident to Matron, her superior offers a ready explanation. The soldier is from Alsace-Lorraine, a province in the west where the tenuous border between France and Germany has continually shifted through history, most recently in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, won by the Germans. But is the wounded man Alsatian? And if he is, on which side of the war do his sympathies really lie?
Of course, Matron could be right, but Bess remains uneasy—and unconvinced. If he was a French soldier, what was he doing so far from his own lines . . . and so close to where the Germans are putting up a fierce, last-ditch fight?
When the French officer disappears in Paris, it's up to Bess—a soldier's daughter as well as a nurse—to find out why, even at the risk of her own life.- seriesId
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Praise for The Shattered Tree: "The Shattered Tree is an enjoyable and quick read-well worth the time." — New York Journal of Books
"A fast, engrossing, and entertaining read....The mystery has excellent pacing, giving readers just enough clues to keep us absorbed in the story while withholding sufficient information to keep us from solving it before reaching the end." — All About Romance
"[A] riveting mystery... It is almost as if the Great War has become a secondary character." — MilitaryPress.com
"Todd's meticulous research... illustrates the toll the war has taken on the battle-weary military as well as the nurses and doctors, the sacrifices of the residents, [and] the citizens' valiant struggle to maintain a sense of normalcy.... A vivid and personal look at WWI." — SouthFlorida.com
"The Shattered Tree is a true spellbinder. From spies to the brutal facts of war to Bess's unwavering determination to uncover the truth, author Charles Todd has penned yet another fantastic thriller." — Suspense Magazine
"Admirable, courageous and occasionally reckless, Bess ranks among the best of fictional amateur sleuths. [Todd] again creates a thought-provoking novel that evokes the terrors and suspicions of war." — Richmond Times-Dispatch
Another Charles Todd book is always a luscious treat, and I devoured The Shattered Tree in one sitting... Highly recommended. — Historical Novel Society
Praise for A Question of Honor: "A gripping whodunit haunted by the brutal realities of war and graced with the selfless determination of Bess to uncover the truth." — Richmond Times-Dispatch on A QUESTION OF HONOR
Praise for An Unwilling Accomplice: "Bess is a character with depth and complexity, an army nurse during that awful war, so, like that series, not only intricate mysteries but engrossing historical fiction." — SCDemocrat.com on AN UNWILLING ACCOMPLICE
Praise for A Pattern of Lies: "A richly realistic depiction of both the era and people who lived through it." — Margaret Maron, Edgar Award-winning author
"[Charles Todd's] books are like Sherlock Holmes detecting a crime in Downton Abbey, with more gravitas." — Nancy Thayer, author of THE ISLAND HOUSE
"As always in this immensely satisfying series, Todd heightens the mystery by setting it within a war-shattered world of battered villages, barren farms and broken people." — Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review on THE SHATTERED TREE
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June 13, 2016
Not even a life-threatening bullet wound can stop Bess Crawford in bestseller Todd’s compelling eighth whodunit featuring the dogged English nurse (after 2015’s A Pattern of Lies). At an aid station in France in October 1918, Bess encounters an injured, unidentified French lieutenant, who yells in fluent German after being attacked by a fellow patient, a Scotsman. Though Bess’s matron suggests that the Frenchman is from German-speaking Alsace-Lorraine, Bess isn’t so sure. Two weeks later, Bess is in the trenches when a German sniper shoots her in the side. Sent to Paris to recuperate, Bess pursues the matter of the French officer’s identity at her peril. She finds an ally in old acquaintance Captain Barkley, an American who’s ostensibly in the city searching for deserters. Bess keeps pushing her luck, but Todd (the mother-son writing team of Caroline and Charles Todd) makes her persistence plausible and delivers an interesting answer to the mystery. Agent: Jane Chelius, Jane Chelius Literary Agency.
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August 1, 2016
In her eighth outing (after A Pattern of Lies), World War I nurse Bess Crawford spots on the streets of Paris a former French Army patient now wearing an American uniform. She had previously witnessed this wounded soldier speaking German. Driven to investigate, Bess sets out, putting her life in danger.
Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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August 1, 2016
Bess Crawford's eighth adventure again highlights the battlefield nurse's dangerous curiosity and implacable fortitude under the extreme conditions of WWI. Wounded in a trench while assessing a patient, Bess is shipped off to Paris to convalesce, giving her time to investigate an injured French officer who might not be all he seems. Despite her own injury, Bess tracks her quarry while also taking in Paris nightlife with her father's military aide. The trail of clues leads Bess into a morass of family relationships and a horrendous murder committed by a child 10 years earlier. As always, Todd's characters come to life, no matter how small their role in the story, and the surprising denouement arrives all too soon. Todd vividly describes wartime horrors and the heroic medical personnel who risk their lives to save the wounded. Fans of Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series will enjoy quick-witted Bess Crawford, and readers who liked Mackenzie Ford's Gifts of War (2009) will appreciate the balance of emotion and historical detail in this quick read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)
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At the foot of a tree shattered by shelling and gunfire, stretcher-bearers find an exhausted officer, shivering with cold and a loss of blood from several wounds. The soldier is brought to battlefield nurse Bess Crawford's aid station, where she stabilizes him and treats his injuries before he is sent to a rear hospital. The odd thing is, the officer isn't British—he's French. But in a moment of anger and stress, he shouts at Bess in German.
When Bess reports the incident to Matron, her superior offers a ready explanation. The soldier is from Alsace-Lorraine, a province in the west where the tenuous border between France and Germany has continually shifted through history, most recently...
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