Synopsis: Bess Crawford is an excellent nurse during WWI, and one who made a promise to a dying soldier to bring a message to his brother in England.

I didn’t know this fact until after I finished this book, and I found that to be fascinating. For those who didn’t know, Charles Todd is actually the pen name of two people, mother and son Caroline and Charles Todd, who write this series (and the Ian Rutledge series) together. This is the first book of the Bess Crawford series, set during World War I. But I do have a list of mystery series I want to get through, and this one is on it. There are a few exceptions I find in this genre ( The Alienist by Caleb Carr comes to mind), but for the most part I’m rather tired of historical mysteries. I always like challenging myself when it comes to reading, so this bothers me. There is nothing wrong with this plotline, but after reading dozens of books which are exactly the same, each mystery gets more and more boring. The plots usually go like this: introduce main character, they stumble upon a murder/mystery, feel randomly compelled to solve it, and then spend the rest of the story getting information from different characters until they figure out the mystery and reveal the culprit. There is a certain formula, you might say, when it comes to writing a mystery novel, especially a historical one. And no genre is more true of this than mysteries.

One of the main faults I see in many genres is that the authors play within the limits of certain tropes so much that the plot doesn’t feel unique and new, and instead feels bland and predictable. I’ve read a lot of historical mysteries, so much so in the last year I’ve cut back on how many I read, because they all start to blend together eventually.

A duty to the dead by charles todd