A Bitter Truth audiobook

Bess Crawford is on leave from the front when she stumbles over a woman outside her house. She takes pity on her and learns that the women has been struck by her husband and has fled to London. She slowly gains the woman's trust and learns that her name is Lydia and that her husband's name is Roger. Bess agrees to travel with her home to her house in the country. But this act of kindness will result in quite a lot of trouble as everyone in the household inclusive Bess will be suspected in a murder case. Once again has Charles Todd written an engrossing historical novel with where Bess en up having to find out the truth. She must try to figure out why anyone would kill a houseguest, but this time, even she is a suspect. Prior to the man's death has he asked Roger at dinner about a child that looked like Julianna, Rogers little sister that died when she was just 6 years old. But who is the child in question and could that simple question really be the reason for his death?As much as I enjoyed the book and the mystery was I also a bit puzzled why it all had to be such a hush-hush thing. When the truth finally was revealed about the child was not that overly surprised, I would have liked a more interesting and perhaps surprising mystery than that. I felt that the family mourning of Julianna was frankly a bit over-the-top sometimes that it could affect the present time that much. Yeah, it was tragical, and yeah she was a beautiful child. But sometimes the truth could perhaps save some heartache and time. Still I enjoyed finding out the truth even though it was a little let down that it wasn't that complex.But the murders is all whole other story, I failed to realize who the murder was. It wasn't until Bess and Simon Brandon realized who it was and then everything made sense.One thing that really pleased me (and confused me) was that Sergeant Lassiter Larimore has finally made his first entrance in this book series. I am a bit confused about the name of him since I read about him A Pattern of Lies where he was Sergeant Lassiter, but here is he called Sergeant Larimore. Could there really be two different Aussie Sergeants with the same trademark Kookaburra laughter?I just have to read on to figure it out...4.5 stars

Charles Todd’s A Bitter Truth interweaves the vices of war with the failings of families into a psychologically and historically compelling mystery set in England in 1917. Bess Crawford, an intelligent and fearless nurse working on the front lines in France, comes home on leave to discover a frightened young woman with a bruised face hiding on the doorstep of her London flat. Unable by nature to leave the mysterious stranger out in the cold winter night, Bess convinces her to take shelter inside. Little does Bess know what a great deal of trouble she has brought into her life. Charles Todd—who is actually a mother-son partnership made up of Caroline and Charles Todd—excels at keeping the war and its manifold repercussions and tragedies front and center even while much of the action takes place in England. Todd also portrays an extended family already traumatized before the war and now disintegrating under the war’s pressures. Bess finds herself unwillingly bound to this family through her initial concern for Lydia, the young woman on her doorstep and the possibility she needs to be protected from a violent marriage. That turns out to be only the first level of secrets and crimes that will be unveiled throughout.You’re never sure whether those crimes and secrets arise from the war or whether they are connected to the private history of this one family. The interplay shows how, even far from the actual fighting, the war has torn apart even a small country town and its denizens. This is one of the most sophisticated critiques of the effects of war I’ve read—so subtle you won’t notice it while you’re enjoying the mystery, but its resonances will stay with you long after you finish reading. This is the third of the Bess Crawford mysteries, preceded by A Duty to the Dead and An Impartial Witness. A fourth book in the series, An Unmarked Grave, is now available.

This is the third outing for Bess Crawford, the plucky British WWI battlefield nurse who ends up solving mysteries on the home front. Because it's a crowded field: Bess is the one who survived the sinking of the Britannic in the eastern Med, not the one who got caught up in a cult or the one who typed for Winston Churchill. Hope that helps.Bess as a character is pretty good company; given that she's also the narrator, that helps a great deal. She's generally sensible, not overly squeamish, a capable nurse, and resourceful when called on to be. She belongs to an intact nuclear family and (so far) has no horrible tragedies in her background to bring her recurring trauma at inopportune moments. Her main quirk is an overgenerous heart that gets her into enough trouble to be worth writing about. All this makes her a reasonably normal person, not a bad thing when she's surrounded by villains and nutters.The story? Bess does a good deed, which leads her to a blighted country house haunted by a large, unhappy family touched by the tragedy and madness of war and lugging an oversupply of secrets. A murder happens, everybody (including Bess) is a suspect, and Bess has to solve the crime to bring order to the universe.That's a curiously unspecific description, isn't it? I have a reason: that's also the plot of the series opener, A Duty to the Dead . I don't mean that it's like the plot of the earlier book; I mean, it's essentially the same story set in a (marginally) different place with new names. Like the first book, Bess's prime suspect in A Bitter Truth is a handsome, brooding man who may be a brute or may simply be misunderstood. As before, Simon -- Bess's father's retainer from the Raj -- drops by conveniently to unload inside information that Bess would otherwise never have been able to suss out for herself; in other words, a plot cheat. Like the first book, the climax is a nighttime car chase across the moors in pursuit of a multiple murderer, right down to Bess having to illuminate the scene of the ultimate takedown with her car's headlights. And unfortunately, this one also has a perp who comes out of left field. To be fair, this one has a subplot involving the maybe-love child of one of the major characters (no, not Bess), which leads Bess on a tour of the ruins of northern France.The recycled plot had me feeling around three stars about the proceedings. But then, the writing is smooth and quick to read (I finished the entire thing in an afternoon). The descriptions paint the settings and characters effectively without burning barrels of ink in the doing. The field hospital scenes get the gore and heartbreak across without descending into splatter porn. Had I read A Bitter Truth first, I would've been able to enjoy the story more as it would have been fresh to me. These saving graces bumped me up to 3.5 stars, which after some debate, I rounded up to four. So here we are. A Bitter Truth is a competently written, traditional-ish murder mystery led by an engaging heroine. Its recycled plot and annoying tics knocked a star and a half off its rating. Then again, reusing plots is a staple of series writing, and plot shortcuts may be the price of getting the story done before the contract deadline, so these cavils may not be deal-breakers for you. If you like this one, there are thirteen more where this came from. For now, I'll move on to other series of the same ilk (why? it's homework) in search of different stories.

I have read the Ian Rutledge and Bess Crawford series by Charles Todd mother and son writers, so I was expecting a great read and I was not disappointed with A Bitter Truth. The main character is Bess Crawford who is a nurse in France during the war. On her way up the stairs to her apartment in London, she sees a woman huddled under the stairs. The weather is bitter cold and Bess can see the woman has on a thin coat and is shivering uncontrollably. She invites the woman in and gives her hot tea and offers her a bed for the night. The woman reveals that a quarrel with her husband had erupted into violence, yet she wants to go home--if Bess will come with her to Sussex. What Bess finds at Vixen Hill is a house filled with mourning. The family had gathered for a memorial service for the eldest son who has died of war wounds. The husband of the woman he had quarreled with is tormented by jealousy and his own guilty conscience. When a houseguest is found dead. Bess herself becomes suspect in the case. This is the inciting factor that leads her to a dangerous quest in war-torn France. Lydia, the wife who had been assaulted by her husband has longed for a child and when Bess discovers the child in an orphanage in France, the plot thickens. Did her husband have an affair with a woman in France? The novel is well written and has the reader turning pages until the mysteries are solved.

It took me a long time to decide to read A Bitter Truth. Truth be told, I still have a bone to pick with the so called climax of the last chapters. It bordered on the nonsensical. I still am not sure of the motive of the murderer, which is a big issue, but I can only shrug this off. I also don't know how I would have rated A Bitter Truth in the past...probably less than I just did. This book forced me to read carefully. The first chapter was the best, with every word being a silent and flashy cog in the grand scheme of things. The best thing about this book is the unforced, natural and plain telling of Sophie. A Bitter Truth is one of those historical fiction settings that, due to the maturity of the authors, doesn't feel like a thriller in disguise. A most welcome distraction from the ordinary quick fixes I've alas chosen for myself.

I really enjoy the mix of mystery along with WWI history and Bess being a nurse makes it even more interesting. Amazing the way the author can weave it all together to make a captivating read. This is the third book in the series and I really love the heroine. Bess has so much depth. She's compassionate and intelligent and always willing to reach out to help when those close to her would prefer she turn away. But that just isn't Bess and they know it and love her for it anyway. In A Bitter Truth, there are really two mysteries that intertwine. A murder (with Bess as one of the possible suspects!) and missing person who Bess inexplicably finds herself on the hunt for. Love the light the author shines on issues of the day involving women. So many layers to this not-quite-cozy mystery.

Life is about to change for battlefield nurse, Bess Crawford on a dark and blustery night in London. When the police are searching for a deserter, Bess heads home to her flat alone. Yet on the stoop of her doorway is a woman, hiding and wearing a thin coat, trying to find temporary shelter from the storm. When Bess offers her a cup of tea and a respite from the weather for a few minutes, she sees that the woman's face bears a battered and bruise hand print along with endless tears down her face.Fearing the worst but don't wanting to frighten the poor woman, she learns that she is running from her husband, Roger Ellis. Not prone to violence against his wife, Bess learns that the woman's name is Lydia and offers her a place to stay. Lydia fears the worst could happen the longer she stays away and asks Bess to accompany her home to Vixen Hill.There Bess will meet the Ellis family of three generations of widows and meet the spirit of Julianna, who died a young girl and one whom the family can't seem to forget. Bess is talked into staying a few days to help care for Lydia and help her deal with issues involving her husband's jealousy. During her stay, the family is planning a memorial service to lay the headstone of one of the sons that was killed in the war. Only on the eve of the memorial service, one of the house guests George Hughes confides a deep family secret to Bess when neither of them can sleep. When the house awakens in the morning, George is soon discovered murdered and someone in the house is the prime suspect.I received the novel A Bitter Truth by Charles Todd compliments of Harper Collins Publishers for my honest review. It feels like a historical version of the game, Clue, as Bess Crawford attempts to solve the mystery surrounding the Ellis family secret and the murder of George Hughes. Set in London during the middle of World War 1, the mystery continues to grow as more and more people turn up missing or murdered as well. I rate this book a 4.5 out of 5 stars and is perfect for you crime solving sleuth fans!

"A Bitter Truth" is an engrossing depiction of the life of a battlefield nurse in WWI and an upper class family in rural England. We observe the interactions of this family as they attempt to deal with a particularly embarrassing situation.Bess Crawford is a nurse who returns to England on leave from her duties in the battlefields of France. She is surprised to find a well dressed woman huddled in her doorway. When Bess sees that the woman, Lucy Ellis, has a bruise on her face, Bess's compassionate nature takes over. She invites Lucy to her flat and learns that it was Lucy's husband, Roger, who struck her. Lucy is aftaid of returning home and Bess offers to accompany her.At the Ellis home, Bess meets Roger and understands about the argument. Roger is about to return to his unit and go to the front. Lucy wants to attempt to concieve a child so that if anything happened to Roger, she would have part of him to remember and love.Bess is a steady character who is a delight. As a nurse, she deals with the wounded and faces the horrors of war so she doesn't put up with petty bureaucrats at home. She is also a problem solver and has the ability to analyze a situation and provide logical alternatives.Charles Todd describes the relationship between family members and the responsibility toward maintaining the family reputation at all costs. There are a number of murders and we enjoy Bess analyzing the situation to attempt to find the killer.There is a well placed plot twist that adds to the reader's interest and places the novel in the top realm of creative story telling.This is a story where the plot and the character were made for each other and combine for a wonderful reading experience.

Excellent, simply excellent. Fast-paced from the beginning, and it really kept you going. Recommend!

Enjoyed this book.

A stranger on your doorstep with bruises, a stranger you let into your home, and a stranger who became your friend and brought trouble when you arrived at your new friend's home. Could you make friends that quickly and feel comfortable enough to go to their home?Bess thought it was possible, and when she arrived at Lydia's home she immediately knew there was something strange about Lydia and her entire family. This became even more apparent when a family member was murdered and Bess became one of the suspects in the investigation. How did a well-bred girl get herself into such a mess....being nice definitely didn't pay off in this case.The case involved Mr. Hughes who drank too much that evening and blurted out a family secret in front of unknowing family and a few town guests. Could that have been the reason Mr. Hughes was murdered. Who would revert to murder to keep something quiet? Everyone in the household was questioned, and being the last one to speak to Mr. Hughes before his death, was incriminating for Bess.When the police thought they found the murderer, everyone was free to leave. Bess left but not without having to promise Lydia she would find someone for her. Bess hesitated but knew the person in question may be the root of the reason for the murder so she promised to look in France. Bess's nursing career kept her busy, but she managed to "try" to search. This search was the key to many secrets.The story took place in the early 1900's with scenes from makeshift hospitals in France and the house where the family lived...Vixen Hill. The home, the town, and the family life of that era were well described...the lack of phone communication was frightening...also the "motorcar" that had to be cranked to get it started.The book was slow at first, but once the murder took place, the interest picked up. The murder and some of the story's characters were somewhat bizarre, but interesting.I can honestly say the book wasn't bad but it did get too much with the patient care and such. I have never read a Bess Crawford mystery by Charles Todd, but have read the Inspector Rutledge ones. It won’t disappoint you, but finding out who committed the crime will surprise you and how the police operated in the 1900's will keep your attention.4/5

The setting for this story is during World War I in London, England. The heroine is Bess Crawford, a battlefield nurse. During one of the coldest winters London has seen in a very long time, Bess encounters an emotional lady with a black eye on her doorstep. By nature, Bess cannot turn her away. But , litttle does Bess know about the trouble she was inviting into her life. By befriending this lady, Bess' life became very complicated. This one good deed takes Bess to a remote, spooky town where she gets tangled up in several murders. Lydia, the lady that Bess had helped has a wealthy husband named Roger. Lydia and Roger live in a huge house with his family. It turns out that the black eye Lydia has, came from her wealthy husband and the reason she was on Bess' door step is because she was running from him. Lydia convinces Bess to go back home with her because she thinks if she tells Roger that she was with a friend, that maybe Roger will not be as angry as if she had just ran away from him. So, Bess ends up with this complicated family in a spooky town, in a scary house. It becomes even more scary when a family friend is murdered near the house and Bess and Roger's Mother finds the dead man. The family is already trying to get over the loss of two family members, so this death adds to their grief. When it seems they are beginning to accept the death of the family friend, there is another death. This time it is the family Doctor and he is found on their property. Bess is caught up in this families problems and even becomes a suspect in the murders. To clear herself and find the murderer, Bess has to go to France. All of this is happening at the same time that the War is raging. In France, a beautiful orphan child is rescued from a fire by one of Bess' patients. This child becomes a very important part of the murder mystery.This is a wonerful mystery that will keep you guessing until the very end. I had no idea who the bad guy was until the end, which is the way a good mystery shoud be.visit my review at http://booktalkswithcharla.blogspot.com

-In this next installment of the Bess Crawford mystery series, Bess is in London on a bus. The bus is stopped by the police who are looking for a deserter, as it’s still 1917 and The Great War is not yet over. When she gets off the bus a little later, she sees a figure in the shadows near her door, and she thinks it’s the deserter, but it turns out to be a woman, about her own age, and shivering in the cold.-The woman seems lost and Bess helps her. She discovers that the woman has run away from her husband because he had hit her. The woman herself is obviously someone who is more refined and Bess ends up agreeing to accompany her back to her home in Sussex.-The woman, who at first was reluctant to reveal her name, is Lydia Ellis. Her husband’s family has an estate in Sussex, called Vixen Hills, near the town of Clarkfield. Roger Ellis, her husband of about 3 years, has spent most of their marriage in the war and had only recently returned home on leave. It was during a heated argument about the subject of having children that Roger struck his wife, for which he was very sorry afterward.-The home is occupied by several generations. Roger’s grandmother is the matron of the estate; Roger’s mother is there as well; and now Roger and Lydia. Other family members had now assembled in the home in order to attend the funeral of Roger’s brother, Alan, who was fighting in the war, but had fallen in the cold waters of the channel and had gotten sick. He succumbed to his illness just a few days before. Though the family was wealthy, tragic death was a frequent visitor. Besides Roger’s brother passing away at an early age, Roger also had a sister, Julian, that became ill as a child and passed away, and a painting of the young girl hung in a prominent position in the drawing room. That death destroyed the family to the point that Roger’s father ended up committing suicide shortly after. -Bess had allowed herself to accompany Lydia in order to give her moral support when confronting her husband, Roger, who Lydia felt had no feeling towards her. Bess noticed that when she came to the house with Lydia, Roger had seemed very cold to his wife, and Lydia felt that their marriage was over. Lydia wanted Bess to stay with her to give her courage until she left and filed for divorce, but Bess soon realized that the situation was a lot more complicated. And because of Bess’ intrusion into the family, and her siding with Lydia, Roger wanted nothing more than for Bess to be on her way. But Bess also felt there was something about Roger that wasn’t right.-A friend of the family, George Hughes, had also come to pay respects. He was a neighbor of the Ellis family in his early days and had stayed close, especially with Roger. He hadn’t been feeling well himself, and one evening, when the family were all together, George made a reference to a secret that Roger had revealed to him, which shattered the family. While in France, he had gone to a convent which cared for young orphans. He exclaimed that one of the young girls that was there looked so much like Roger’s sister that passed away, that she could have been Roger’s daughter. Roger had been stationed in that area, and it came out that Roger had been sending money to care for the young child. -It now became obvious that there was a strong possibility that Roger had fathered a child while in France, and that the cause of his frustration was that he was trying to keep it a secret. This resulted in an even greater rift with Lydia, but it was the event that took place the next morning that shook the family even more. George had left the house early and could not be found. A search was made of the house and grounds, and no sign of George could be found, though his bag was packed and bed made as if he were ready to leave. They expanded the search and Roger’s mother, who was accompanied by Bess, felt that he may have gone to visit the grave of Julian before leaving, as he was friendly with her as well when they were children. A search in the area of the cemetery, near Witchgate, seemed to prove fruitless, until they noticed something in the nearby stream. It was George’s lifeless body lying there in the water. Bess, who is a nurse, quickly checked the man by taking his hand and realized he had long since died. Being aware that foul play may have occurred, she didn’t do anything else to disturb the body, but allowed the family to contact the local constable to come to the scene. An investigation shortly proved that George had been killed by a blow to the head.-Bess was joined by her father’s aid, Simon Brandon, who always watched over Bess for Bess’ father, the Colonel. After an initial and very uncomfortable inquiry by the local authorities, in which each of the members of the household had to provide statements and were grilled by the Inspector in charge, as they were all under suspicion, Bess was free to continue in her service as a nurse to the troops and went to France. Once there, she felt compelled, during whatever free time she was given, to find out if this child did actually look like Julian and she memorized the features of Julian from the painting. Roger Ellis had also gone to the continent, and she wasn’t sure, though, of the intentions of Roger, as he had insisted that the child was not his. It became a game of who would get there first, and because of the war, the convent was moved to unknown areas. Lurking in the background of her mind was the other mystery, that of who could have killed George Hughes and could it have been Roger himself to prevent George from revealing all that he knew about the child.-The situation gets more complicated still, as further deaths occur and other very interesting characters are introduced. The author does an excellent job in slowly revealing the ever deepening mysteries and the final conclusion. I had gone through this book as an audiobook and the reading of the story and portrayal of the different characters through the various narrators also added to the realism. Extremely well done, especially as to how there are ever increasing inconsistencies, along with the revelation of family secrets, which culminate in the discovery of the killer, leading to a surprise ending.

Awesome story!! I was hooked from the first page to the last. So far anything that Charles Todd writes is a riveting read. Bess Crawford gets off the train and heads for her apartment in London for a much needed rest from her duties as a nursing sister aiding the wounded troops in France of WWI. As she approaches her building she find a woman, injured and distraught in need of help. Bess of course can't resistand she invites this lady who says her name is Lydia up stairs.From that point on the plot continues to thicken and now we have 3 bodies, an orphan French child, and her father's assistant, right hand man Simon is there to help her to figure things, and yes the the kookabura Sergeant Larimore who seems to be everywhere as well. He tells Bess that the aborigines of Australia say if you save a man's life he's yours as long as he lives. I am wondering if we will see this young man again, but she has met several young man who have almost stolen her heart. I would almost think this one would be worth keeping. I would recommend this book as well as the Ian Rutledge stories.