A
Cruel Deception by Charles Todd brings back Bess Crawford
in a riveting mystery. As always tidbits of the historical
context of the war allows readers to feel as if they were
transported in time to another place and era.
We wrote this quote about President Wilson to show how “Wilson
was an idealist who wanted to end all wars and believed in
self-determination. In theory, it had a lot of merit, but
in practicality did not address what happened on the ground.
He wanted self-determination where every little country that
wanted could have its independence. He had the American viewpoint
that all these colonies could be created as a new country
in the image of the US. It just doesn’t work that way.
Look at today with Syria, Iraq, Turkey, and the Kurds. We
sadly do not learn from the past. We seem to think in terms
of what works for us and do not have an understanding of the
tribal systems.”
As Bess is pondering her future at wars end, she is asked
by her Matron to travel to France to find out what has happened
to her son Lawrence Minton. He is a WWI veteran who is supposed
to be sitting in on the Paris peace talks but seems to have
gone missing. After tracking Lawrence down in a small village,
Bess discovers he’s addicted to laudanum and plagued
by guilt. During one of his sleepwalking episodes, Lawrence
cries out not to be judged, because he “tried.”
Realizing he is taking the drug to escape his crippling sense
of guilt over the wartime trauma, Bess must find out what
happened and why someone is trying to murder him. She has
an uphill battle because Lawrence is heavily addicted to the
opiate laudanum, bitter to the young woman who is trying to
help him, and refuses to communicate with her. To make matters
worse, he can’t confide in Bess, because the truth is
so deeply buried in his mind that he can only relive it in
nightmares.
Lawrence is a character that we wanted to show was “Broken
and someone who could not find himself. He struggled and is
haunted by what happened to him. He is not thinking of the
other person who is trying to help. At the end of the book
we wanted to make him face the truth. This self-destruction
was his form of shell-shock, with the feeling he deserved
to be miserable. We also wanted to show how the drug could
be turned into a murder weapon. A few drops could be prescribed,
but someone could put in more drops and suddenly the person
dies.”
The cast of characters has varied from many of the books.
Simon Brandon was a young soldier who served under Bess’s
father, Colonel, Richard Crawford, rising through the ranks
to become Regimental Sergeant-Major. He now serves as the
Colonel’s assistant, but also became a companion to
Bess as he taught her to ride, to shoot, and later to drive
a motorcar. It is Simon to whom Bess turns when she can't
talk to her parents and needs someone to assistant her in
solving the mystery. Yet, in this book Simon is barely mentioned.
Instead, Bess turns to help from her father, Colonel Sahib
as he is known, and to a new character introduced in this
novel, Captain Clifford Jackson.
“It is a subtext throughout the story, ‘where
is Simon.’ We deliberately did it because we are going
to have him do something in the next book, and we did not
want Simon to always save the day. Even though Simon is not
on the printed page, Bess is always wondering about him. Also
in the next book will be the character Captain Jackson, a
pilot who was part of the Lafayette Escardrille, a unit of
largely American volunteer pilots flying for France and under
French command. He is from Albuquerque who had an unsophisticated
sense of logic that could not be argued with. He is kind,
caring, and gallant, a typical Westerner. The Captain took
Bess under his wing as his protector. A cowboy who was like
Sergeant York. ”
This story will tear at the reader’s heartstrings. By
the end of the book they will be emotionally drained as they
experience what Bess is going through from anger to compassion
to fear for her and Lawrence’s safety.
Reviews
of other titles in this series
Duty
to the Dead, #1 [review]
Impartial Witness, #2 [review]
Bitter Truth, #3 [review
1] [review
2]
An Unmarked Grave, #4 [review]
A Question of Honor #5 [review]
An Unwilling Accomplice #6 [review]
A Pattern of Lies #7 [review]
The Shattered Tree # 8 [review]
A Casualty of War #9 [column/review]
The Forgotten Place #10 [review]
Cruel Deception #11 [review]
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