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A Pattern of Lies

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

A Pattern of Lies (2015) Charles Todd (Bess Crawford)

Pattern of LiesSet in England and France in 1918.

Stuck in Canterbury waiting for a transport train to take her to London, Bess meets a soldier she had helped nurse back to health. Invited to spend the night with his family when the train is further delayed, she ends up involved in intrigue going back two years prior, from when the local gunpowder mill exploded.

Potassium nitrate— saltpeter— made a better gunpowder than sodium nitrate. And alder trees made the best charcoal for the formula. That was something else I’d heard. But for some time now gunpowder works all across Britain had begun to produce cordite instead of traditional black power, and that was a much more complicated recipe. With far more chances for something to go badly wrong.

Most of the trouble comes down to this:

It’s comforting, you know, to find someone to blame. It says that God isn’t cruel, it’s Man who caused such pain and loss. You can rage at a man. It’s harder to rage at God.

100 men were dead and the town wanted someone to blame. What they can’t figure out is who has stirred up all this hatred and resentment two years after the fact.

I read this very quickly, remembering only vague details about the mystery. After finishing the book, I thought of / noted several weak points, but they didn’t detract from my enjoyment while I was reading.

Although the ending / chase scene was over-the top.

Publisher : William Morrow
Rating: 7.5/10

Categories: 7.5/10, British, eBook, Female, Historical, Mystery, Reread

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