{"id":3426,"date":"2013-01-04T20:16:03","date_gmt":"2013-01-05T01:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=3426"},"modified":"2022-11-07T19:00:32","modified_gmt":"2022-11-08T00:00:32","slug":"an-impartial-witness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3426","title":{"rendered":"An Impartial Witness"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Impartial Witness<\/a><\/em> (2010) Charles Todd<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Bess Crawford is escorting wounded soldiers back to London, including a pilot who was badly burned, and whose thoughts of his wife seem to be what is pulling him through the horror of his injuries. Bess sees the wife, making a tearful plea to a soldier, but before Bess can reach them, the soldier has gotten on his train and the wife has disappeared into the crowd. <\/p>\n

I’m enjoying reading about Bess Crawford, and her experiences of life during the Great War. I don’t know much about that time period–but it was a time of transition, when transportation was still split between automobiles and horse drawn conveyances in the country. When women still wore corsets, yet women were also serving as nurses during the war.<\/p>\n

I also like the serendipity of see things I’ve recently read about elsewhere. I’ve been reading Lives of the Trees<\/a><\/em> and just learned that in Britain, lindens are called lime trees. That bit of information made this passage, “I was just coming up the avenue of lime trees later that day when I heard Simon’s motorcar pulling in behind me.” Considering that England is not tropical, knowing that lindens are called lime trees, makes much more sense. (Especially since I already have a mental association of British sailors being called “limeys.”)<\/p>\n

He also does a good job bringing to mind just how horrifying this war was for those who were living through it. The Great War was being fought with modern weaponry using ancient strategy, and the toll was terrible.<\/p>\n

There were any number of new graves, the earth still brown, and others were the grass was just a tender green. I tried not to think that for every man who died of wounds here in England, hundreds of others were buried in makeshift cemeteries in France.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It was a different time, this era on the cusp of what we’d consider modernity, where men had created better and better tools to kill one another, but hadn’t yet caught up with ways to save those we went to battle.<\/p>\n

Of course, that’s not what this story was about. This book was, in fact, about murder, and Bess trying to solve that murder and see justice. <\/p>\n

But although I knew relatively quickly who the murderer was (it paralleled another story I remembered) I still read avidly, wanting to see what Bess would discover.
\nRating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Published by HarperCollins<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Impartial Witness (2010) Charles Todd Bess Crawford is escorting wounded soldiers back to London, including a pilot who was badly burned, and whose thoughts of his wife seem to be what is pulling him through the horror of his injuries. Bess sees the wife, making a tearful plea to a soldier, but before Bess […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,30,33,8],"tags":[124,123,629,45],"class_list":["post-3426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-10","category-british","category-historical","category-mystery","tag-bess-crawford","tag-charles-todd","tag-roaring-20s","tag-wwi"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-Tg","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9718,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9718","url_meta":{"origin":3426,"position":0},"title":"An Impartial Witness","author":"Michelle","date":"February 24, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"An Impartial Witness (2010) Charles Todd Set in Europe in 1917. Nursing sister Bess Crawford has just escorted a group of wounded soldiers back to London, including a terribly burned pilot whose picture of his wife was what he turned to through his excruciating first days. When that woman's murdered\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Impartial-Witness-e1511018288905.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13771,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/13771","url_meta":{"origin":3426,"position":1},"title":"Tales: Short Stories Featuring Ian Rutledge and Bess Crawford","author":"Michelle","date":"December 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Tales: Short Stories Featuring Ian Rutledge and Bess Crawford (2015) Charles Todd This collection is four short stories with Bess Crawford and Ian Rutledge. \"The Kidnapping\" \"The Girl on the Beach\" \"Cold Comfort\" \"The Maharani's Pearls\" \"The Kidnapping\" - Ian Rutledge, London 1920 I actually have a copy of this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tales Short Stories Featuring Ian Rutledge and Bess Crawford","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Tales-Short-Stories-Featuring-Ian-Rutledge-and-Bess-Crawford.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13777,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/13777","url_meta":{"origin":3426,"position":2},"title":"The Shattered Tree","author":"Michelle","date":"January 1, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The Shattered Tree (2016) Charles Todd (Bess Crawford) Set in France in 1918. Bess Crawford is back towards the front when a soldier in a French uniform is brought in, suffering from blood loss, his feet torn up because someone stole his boots before he fled across no-man's land. But\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Shattered Tree","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/The-Shattered-Tree.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3407,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3407","url_meta":{"origin":3426,"position":3},"title":"A Duty to the Dead","author":"Michelle","date":"January 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A Duty to the Dead (2009) Charles Todd Bess Crawford is serving as a nurse in the Great War. The hospital ship on which she was serving was sunk, and although she survives, a badly broken arm sends her back to London to recuperate. A promise made to a soldier\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Duty-Dead.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3435,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3435","url_meta":{"origin":3426,"position":4},"title":"A Bitter Truth","author":"Michelle","date":"January 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A Bitter Truth (2011) Charles Todd In the third Bess Crawford mystery, Bess has returned home for Christmas leave, but before she makes it to her parent's home, she discovers a young woman huddled in her doorway. Taking pity on her, she ends up returning home with the woman, to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Bitter-Truth.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13775,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/13775","url_meta":{"origin":3426,"position":5},"title":"A Pattern of Lies","author":"Michelle","date":"December 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"A Pattern of Lies (2015) Charles Todd (Bess Crawford) Set 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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pattern of Lies","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Pattern-of-Lies.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3426\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}