The New York Times Book Review - Marilyn Stasio
As always in this immensely satisfying series, Todd heightens the mystery by setting it within a war-shattered world of battered villages, barren farms and broken people.
Publishers Weekly
06/13/2016
Not even a life-threatening bullet wound can stop Bess Crawford in bestseller Todd’s compelling eighth whodunit featuring the dogged English nurse (after 2015’s A Pattern of Lies). At an aid station in France in October 1918, Bess encounters an injured, unidentified French lieutenant, who yells in fluent German after being attacked by a fellow patient, a Scotsman. Though Bess’s matron suggests that the Frenchman is from German-speaking Alsace-Lorraine, Bess isn’t so sure. Two weeks later, Bess is in the trenches when a German sniper shoots her in the side. Sent to Paris to recuperate, Bess pursues the matter of the French officer’s identity at her peril. She finds an ally in old acquaintance Captain Barkley, an American who’s ostensibly in the city searching for deserters. Bess keeps pushing her luck, but Todd (the mother-son writing team of Caroline and Charles Todd) makes her persistence plausible and delivers an interesting answer to the mystery. Agent: Jane Chelius, Jane Chelius Literary Agency. (Aug.)
From the Publisher
Praise for The Shattered Tree: “The Shattered Tree is an enjoyable and quick read-well worth the time.” — New York Journal of Books
“A fast, engrossing, and entertaining read....The mystery has excellent pacing, giving readers just enough clues to keep us absorbed in the story while withholding sufficient information to keep us from solving it before reaching the end.” — All About Romance
“[A] riveting mystery… It is almost as if the Great War has become a secondary character.” — MilitaryPress.com
“Todd’s meticulous research... illustrates the toll the war has taken on the battle-weary military as well as the nurses and doctors, the sacrifices of the residents, [and] the citizens’ valiant struggle to maintain a sense of normalcy…. A vivid and personal look at WWI.” — SouthFlorida.com
“The Shattered Tree is a true spellbinder. From spies to the brutal facts of war to Bess’s unwavering determination to uncover the truth, author Charles Todd has penned yet another fantastic thriller.” — Suspense Magazine
“Admirable, courageous and occasionally reckless, Bess ranks among the best of fictional amateur sleuths. [Todd] again creates a thought-provoking novel that evokes the terrors and suspicions of war.” — Richmond Times-Dispatch
Another Charles Todd book is always a luscious treat, and I devoured The Shattered Tree in one sitting... Highly recommended. — Historical Novel Society
Praise for A Question of Honor: “A gripping whodunit haunted by the brutal realities of war and graced with the selfless determination of Bess to uncover the truth.” — Richmond Times-Dispatch on A QUESTION OF HONOR
Praise for An Unwilling Accomplice: “Bess is a character with depth and complexity, an army nurse during that awful war, so, like that series, not only intricate mysteries but engrossing historical fiction.” — SCDemocrat.com on AN UNWILLING ACCOMPLICE
Praise for A Pattern of Lies: “A richly realistic depiction of both the era and people who lived through it.” — Margaret Maron, Edgar Award-winning author
“[Charles Todd’s] books are like Sherlock Holmes detecting a crime in Downton Abbey, with more gravitas.” — Nancy Thayer, author of THE ISLAND HOUSE
“As always in this immensely satisfying series, Todd heightens the mystery by setting it within a war-shattered world of battered villages, barren farms and broken people.” — Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review on THE SHATTERED TREE
Historical Novel Society
Another Charles Todd book is always a luscious treat, and I devoured The Shattered Tree in one sitting... Highly recommended.
All About Romance
A fast, engrossing, and entertaining read....The mystery has excellent pacing, giving readers just enough clues to keep us absorbed in the story while withholding sufficient information to keep us from solving it before reaching the end.
MilitaryPress.com
[A] riveting mystery… It is almost as if the Great War has become a secondary character.
Margaret Maron
Praise for A Pattern of Lies: “A richly realistic depiction of both the era and people who lived through it.
SouthFlorida.com
Todd’s meticulous research... illustrates the toll the war has taken on the battle-weary military as well as the nurses and doctors, the sacrifices of the residents, [and] the citizens’ valiant struggle to maintain a sense of normalcy…. A vivid and personal look at WWI.
SCDemocrat.com on AN UNWILLING ACCOMPLICE
Praise for An Unwilling Accomplice: “Bess is a character with depth and complexity, an army nurse during that awful war, so, like that series, not only intricate mysteries but engrossing historical fiction.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Admirable, courageous and occasionally reckless, Bess ranks among the best of fictional amateur sleuths. [Todd] again creates a thought-provoking novel that evokes the terrors and suspicions of war.
Suspense Magazine
The Shattered Tree is a true spellbinder. From spies to the brutal facts of war to Bess’s unwavering determination to uncover the truth, author Charles Todd has penned yet another fantastic thriller.
Richmond Times-Dispatch on A QUESTION OF HONOR
Praise for A Question of Honor: “A gripping whodunit haunted by the brutal realities of war and graced with the selfless determination of Bess to uncover the truth.
New York Journal of Books
Praise for The Shattered Tree: “The Shattered Tree is an enjoyable and quick read-well worth the time.
Nancy Thayer
[Charles Todd’s] books are like Sherlock Holmes detecting a crime in Downton Abbey, with more gravitas.
Marilyn Stasio
As always in this immensely satisfying series, Todd heightens the mystery by setting it within a war-shattered world of battered villages, barren farms and broken people.
Library Journal
08/01/2016
In her eighth outing (after A Pattern of Lies), World War I nurse Bess Crawford spots on the streets of Paris a former French Army patient now wearing an American uniform. She had previously witnessed this wounded soldier speaking German. Driven to investigate, Bess sets out, putting her life in danger.
DECEMBER 2016 - AudioFile
In WWI France, Bess Crawford investigates the past of a wounded soldier who is found under a shattered tree in no-man’s-land. He claims to be French, but he speaks German. Crawford doesn’t trust him. Rosalyn Landor’s skillful narration takes listeners to battlefield hospitals, to gritty Paris, and to villages in the French countryside. Crawford, an intrepid nurse, together with a host of military officers and spies, peels back the patient’s past. Landor nimbly shifts from Crawford’s British tones to French, German, and subtle American accents, each perfectly paired with the various individual characters. Listeners will be totally engaged as Crawford works to uncover the truth about a soldier who may have murder in his past. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine