I have to admit that I was interested in reading this novel both because of its plot, which seemed intriguing, but even more because I loved the cover, which shows The Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab, India. The Golden Temple doesn't really figure in the story, however.
Charles Todd is a mother-son writing team and they write historical fiction mysteries. They write two series, the Bess Crawford series and the Ian Rutledge series. I had already read the Ian Rutledge novel A Fine Summer's Day. (I can hardly believe it, but this novel is the 17th in the series, and there's a new Ian Rutledge novel out now, No Shred of Evidence.)
Bess Crawford is a nurse serving in the First World War. She grew up in India, where her father was a regimental colonel. The early part of the novel recounts events from her childhood in India and I found that part very interesting and enjoyable.
As an adult, she is serving at a field hospital when a stuck truck is pushed out of the mud one night by a group of men, one of whom she thinks she recognizes as a man who served under her father and who disappeared the same day police came to arrest him for murders in both England and India, forever conferring an air of scandal on the regiment Bess's father commands.
The back story of the murders in England, as Bess uncovers the mystery, is fascinating. I found myself feeling dissatisfied with the motive for the murder and wondered if other readers would feel disappointed as well.
Charles Todd is a mother-son writing team and they write historical fiction mysteries. They write two series, the Bess Crawford series and the Ian Rutledge series. I had already read the Ian Rutledge novel A Fine Summer's Day. (I can hardly believe it, but this novel is the 17th in the series, and there's a new Ian Rutledge novel out now, No Shred of Evidence.)
Bess Crawford is a nurse serving in the First World War. She grew up in India, where her father was a regimental colonel. The early part of the novel recounts events from her childhood in India and I found that part very interesting and enjoyable.
As an adult, she is serving at a field hospital when a stuck truck is pushed out of the mud one night by a group of men, one of whom she thinks she recognizes as a man who served under her father and who disappeared the same day police came to arrest him for murders in both England and India, forever conferring an air of scandal on the regiment Bess's father commands.
The back story of the murders in England, as Bess uncovers the mystery, is fascinating. I found myself feeling dissatisfied with the motive for the murder and wondered if other readers would feel disappointed as well.
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