Comment

Jan 03, 2016DorisWaggoner rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Great second in this series. Not just a good mystery, but a good use of the WW I setting, both when nursing sister Bess Crawford is on the front in France, and home on leave in England. The US author team has done their research well. The plot gets a bit convoluted, as the families involved are intricately related. Bess's profession as a nurse is a good one for her compassionate interest in detection, and her powers of observation allow her to solve crimes. The books can be read on their own, but are more fun in order. As an aside, I've checked whether petrol was rationed during WW I in England; it was not, though food was. After the War, England and France divided up the Middle East between themselves to make sure of their continuing supplies of oil. There was talk, by 1918, of converting to coal-gas for cars to save the petrol for military use, but the conversion process itself was too expensive so it wasn't done. In WW II, gas was indeed rationed. Food was rationed in both wars. Bess and Simon might be charged with silliness for driving all over England, but not with wasting petrol. And England's a much smaller country than the US, so we're comparing apples to oranges.