The Shattered Tree: A Bess Crawford Mystery by Charles Todd

                For an entire year I have awaited the release of this book.  Ever since I finished the last one, A Pattern of Lies, I could not wait for this book to come out.  I had to find out what happened between Simon Brandon and Bess!  Would they finally get together?  Would the war finally end?  None of those things I knew, which is why I looked for months to see when the newest book in the Bess Crawford Mystery series was going to come out.  Once I got the book, it only took me a few days to read.  It would have probably taken even less time if it weren’t for the U.S. Open.  Without that event to watch, I probably would have gotten through this book the first or second day it was in my possession.  That is how much I love this series.  I can never wait until the next book comes out.  Then once I have it, I’m not able to put it down.           

                World War I nurse, Bess Crawford, is stunned when she hears one of her patients speaking fluent German.  As Bess usually works with English soldiers, hearing German is unusual in the first place.  Add in the fact that this soldier is wearing a French uniform, and Bess believes his speaking German is a cause for concern.  Knowing she has to do something, Bess tells the Matron what she heard.  The Matron listens to Bess’s concern, but tells her to put it out of her mind.  In the Matron’s mind it is most likely that the soldier is from a part of France that has been ruled by the Germans for many years.  Not fully satisfied with the answer, Bess accepts the Matron’s explanation and does her best to let the matter go.

                Then Bess herself becomes a patient.  She is wounded by a sniper and is sent to the same hospital as the German speaking soldier.  Even though the soldier has now left the hospital, Bess starts to think more about him.  Is the Matron’s explanation really the correct one, or is there something more going on?  Without being allowed to return to the front lines until her wound is fully healed, Bess decides she will use her time to uncover who this soldier really is, and figure out if he is a danger to those around him.

                This investigation isn’t easy to do while still in the hospital, but eventually Bess is sent to a house in Paris to recover.  As soon as Bess steps off the train, she runs into an old friend, an American, Captain Barkley.  Despite being in Paris on a mission of his own, Captain Barkley reluctantly agrees to help Bess with her investigation.  They go to the French countryside to see if they can find anyone who knows the soldier in question.  What they find is a lot of resistance.  No one wants to admit they know this man, but nearly all of them react when they hear his name or see his picture.  Determined more than ever to figure out what is going on, Bess continues to ask questions from everyone she thinks may be hiding something.  The problem is, with each question that is asked, the situation gets more confusing.  It also gets more dangerous, as all of Bess’s inquiries lead to attempts on people’s lives.

                I already told you that I had a hard time putting this book down (as I have had with every book in the series), and that’s because the mystery was so good.  I wanted to know who this soldier was and what he had to do with the other events Bess discovered.  It was pretty clear things were not going to be as they were on the surface, as they rarely are in mysteries, but I was not sure which way the story was going to twist.  Was the soldier going to be completely innocent, or was he going to be guilty of something else altogether? 

             While a read along with Bess to figure out the truth, I eagerly awaited the appearance of Sergeant-Major Simon Brandon. I’m very disappointed to say, Simon’s hardly in the book! My favorite character and he got very few pages. I don’t know how that happened. The relationship between him and Bess is so great to read. For a long time I have waited for it turn romantic, as they would make a great couple, but it still has not happened. I’ve also been waiting for the war to end. That hasn’t happened either. Maybe in the next book. I’ll probably have to wait another year for that one, but that’s okay. I’ll eagerly await its arrival, no matter how long it takes.