The Spanish Flu and Murder

Murder by the Book An Unmarked Grave by Charles Todd is the fourth book in the Bess Crawford series.  Here we find Bess in the Spring of 1918 in France in the middle of something deadlier than World War I, the Spanish Influenza Flu.  It is becoming more of an issue  by the minute.  However, Bess Crawford finds hidden among the countless dead waiting for burial the body of a friend and officer who also served in her father's regiment who was not killed by disease or by a German's bullet.  Bess wants to report this heinous crime but falls ill with the Spanish flu.  When she recovers, she finds out that the only other witness to the crime has hung himself.  Bess refuses to let either death go without investigating further putting her life and others close to her in danger.  This is another intriguing look into World War I with its heartache, compassion and dedication of all who have lived through this time period.
Murder by the Book

Movie Review

The King's Speech was a wonderful movie about a stammering Duke who becomes a great King with the help of a brilliant speech therapist.  Colin Firth who portrayed King George VI was wonderful.   He took a very difficult and embarrassing problem like stammering and showed how love and support from family and friends and sheer determination of a person can overcome anything. Mr. Firth was so convincing with the stammering that I believed he really had a problem.  It was also nice to see Geoffrey Rush (Pirates of the Caribbean-the curse of the black pearl fame) as the great Lionel who helped bring levity and seriousness to this character.  Helena Bonham Carter showed how talented she is in the role of Elizabeth as the supportive, loving and lighthearted wife of "Bertie", King George VI.  The King's Speech was a historical and powerful movie depicting a scary and difficult time for England and its people.  This is a movie that I highly recommend seeing.

An Impartial Witness

An Impartial Witness by Charles Todd is the next book to A Duty to the Dead.  Here again we find Sister Crawford in the summer of 1917 on a short reprieve from the trenches in Paris.  She left a badly burned pilot who talked of going home to see his wife back in London.  He shows a picture of his wife to Bess. She finally arrives at a train station in London and sees a distraught woman that happens to be the pilot’s wife.  Murder finds Bess again and she is reluctantly involved in helping Scotland Yard solve a case and the secrets behind this pilot’s family.  The author again transports you back to the Great War and the devastation behind it in vivid descriptions.  I finished this book in a day and a half.  I recommend this book as well and can’t wait for the next Bess Crawford book.

You can find this book by clicking on the links below:

http://www.bluewillowbookshop.com/

http://www.murderbythebook.com/

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/

http://www.amazon.com/