A Casualty of War: A Bess Crawford Mystery by Charles Todd

              Seriously?  Bess and Simon still aren’t together by the end of this book?  Sigh.  Maybe the next one.

                The war is almost over, but wounded men are still coming into the field hospitals.  One in particular remains on World War I nurse Bess Crawford’s mind.  His name is Captain Alan Travis and he has been cared for by Bess more than once.  Two of those times Captain Travis came in because he had been shot.  Both times he claimed the shootings were done intentionally, and by his distant cousin, Lieutenant James Travis.  The problem is, Lt. Travis has been dead for more than a year.  It is a fact that is known by many.  With Cpt. Travis insisting his cousin was the one who shot him, the only solution those caring for him can see is to diagnose the Captain with mental health problems.  

                Bess does not agree with this diagnosis, though.  While it would have been impossible for the Lieutenant to have shot the captain, Bess is having a hard time doubting the Captain’s assertion that someone intentionally tried to kill him.  The only way Bess can see to settle the matter is to go to Lt. Travis’s hometown.  Maybe something there will help her figure out what could possibly be going on.

                When Bess arrives in Lt. Travis’s hometown, things definitely do not go as expected.  At first people are friendly to Bess and life-long friend Sergeant-Major Simon Brandon.  Very quickly, though, the townspeople start to see Bess and Simon as dangerous and try to run them out of town.  With all their questions about the Lieutenant (a much-loved man), the townspeople think Bess and Simon are in town to make a false claim on the Lieutenant’s estate.  His mother, Mrs. Travis practically runs the town, as well as the estate that was left to her son.  With the Lieutenant dead and not leaving any direct descendants, it is unclear who will inherit.  However, there is one person Mrs. Travis is determined will never inherit, no matter what her son’s will says.  That person is the Lieutenant’s distant cousin, Captain Alan Travis.  Because of a long-ago feud, Mrs. Travis will do anything to keep the Captain from inheriting, even if it means having him falsely committed for life.            

                Unfortunately, Captain Travis may not need Mrs. Travis’s help in getting that to happened.  He stages an escape from the clinic where he is being treated and is nowhere to be found.  Worried he may have killed himself, Bess is relieved, but concerned, when the Captain shows up in the Lieutenant’s hometown.  After being trapped in the clinic and going on such an arduous journey, Captain Travis is not in good shape.  Then a murder and attempted murders happen in the town.  With Captain Travis’s mental health in question, and being a stranger in town, the police find it easiest to blame him for the crimes that are going on.  As the police believe they already have the culprit in their hands, they refuse to listen to any other theories, leaving it up to Bess and those she trusts to prove his innocence.        

                I must say, that even though I really like Simon, I was a little disappointed with him in this book.  Usually he’s very supportive of Bess and what she does to help people, but this time he spent a lot of time doubting her and what she was doing.  He still helped, as he was not going to have her investigate alone, but he spent a lot of time questioning her along the way.  I had to wonder, though, if many of these questions came from jealousy rather than a lack of understanding as to why Bess was doing what she was doing.  A lot of people, including Simon, asked Bess if she was taking all this effort to help Captain Travis because she had feelings for him.  No matter who asked, Bess honestly said no, but I wonder if Simon worried that despite Bess’s claims his concerns may still be true.           

                Someone who always supported Bess was her father, the Colonel Sahib (Colonel Crawford to everyone else).  Since the Colonel came to Lt. Travis’s hometown to help Bess, he was in this book far more than he has been in the others, and I loved every moment.  It was great fun to see all the pompous men who had been giving Bess a hard time snap-to when they were forced to deal with the Colonel.  Simon on his own makes people listen pretty well, but the Colonel does it even better.

                As I said in the beginning, Bess and Simon still aren’t together by the end of this book.  There may be some progress though.  When asked if she had feelings for Simon, it seemed as though Bess protested a bit too much.  The problem is, Bess was asked this question because she was turning down someone’s marriage proposal.  If people are starting to ask Bess to marry them, something is going to have to happen between Bess and Simon soon, or it may end up being too late.