{"id":3435,"date":"2013-01-06T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-07T02:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=3435"},"modified":"2022-11-07T19:33:37","modified_gmt":"2022-11-08T00:33:37","slug":"a-bitter-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3435","title":{"rendered":"A Bitter Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Bitter Truth<\/a><\/em> (2011) Charles Todd<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>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 make sure she is safe. A murder causes her to remain at Vixen Hill rather than returning home, much to her dismay.<\/p>\n

This was a very interesting read for me. I had a very hard time feeling much sympathy for Lydia, and a hard time understanding why Bess remained so willing to help her. <\/p>\n

On the other hand, I very much enjoyed the Australian Sargent who keeps popping up. He was amusing, and it was good to see characters who reacted to the horror of war with humor–it was a nice break from the cases of shell shock in other books.<\/p>\n

One of the things this story made clear is how close the British were to the front–a trip across the channel took one from the war to home. The fact that people serving in France could be called back for an inquest emphasized this.<\/p>\n

Here in the US, we haven’t truly had war on our soil for several generations. This reminds me how–in many ways–the US has been isolated, even when we were at war.<\/p>\n

If you haven’t read a Bess Crawford book, you could certain start here, however, I don’t think this is one of the better books in the series. I take that back, it was good, but I spent so much of the book being annoyed at Lydia, it wasn’t as enjoyable.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, I have the next book waiting to be read.
\nRating: 6.5\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

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 make sure she is safe. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[30,33,8],"tags":[124,123,45],"class_list":["post-3435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-british","category-historical","category-mystery","tag-bess-crawford","tag-charles-todd","tag-wwi"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-Tp","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13771,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/13771","url_meta":{"origin":3435,"position":0},"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":10042,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/10042","url_meta":{"origin":3435,"position":1},"title":"A Bitter Truth","author":"Michelle","date":"March 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A Bitter Truth (2011) Charles Todd Set in Europe in 1917 Bess Crawford is back in London on leave from the war when she finds a young woman hiding in her doorway. Deciding to help her leads to a chain of events including the uncovering of murder. I do love\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-e1511014641483.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3433,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3433","url_meta":{"origin":3435,"position":2},"title":"A Test of Wills","author":"Michelle","date":"January 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A Test of Wills (1996) Charles Todd This was a re-read. After reading and thoroughly enjoying the Bess Crawford mystery, I remembered I had several books in Charles Todd's Ian Rutledge series, and decided to reread them. Inspector Rutledge of Scotland Yard served in the Great War, and he's suffering\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/Test-Wills.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13777,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/13777","url_meta":{"origin":3435,"position":3},"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":3426,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3426","url_meta":{"origin":3435,"position":4},"title":"An Impartial Witness","author":"Michelle","date":"January 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Impartial-Witness.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3407,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3407","url_meta":{"origin":3435,"position":5},"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":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3435","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=3435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3435\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}