When battlefield nurse Bess Crawford returns from France for a well-earned Christmas leave, she finds a bruised and shivering woman huddled in the doorway of her London flat. Realizing that the woman has nowhere to turn, Bess offers her shelter. When she feels safer, the woman reveals her name and that she has fled from her husband, an officer on leave, who struck her during a terrible quarrel. Still frightened, she will not return to her small village in Sussex unless Bess accompanies her. Every day of leave is precious, for Bess plans to visit her family. But concern and a firm sense of duty compel the independent and compassionate nurse to be certain the woman is safe. But once she arrives at the woman's house, Bess is unsettled by the tense atmosphere, which seems to permeate the very walls. Before she can understand what is going on, matters take a deadly turn when another of the houseguests, a wounded soldier, is murdered. Not only is Bess caught in the center of the hunt for a killer-she becomes a prime suspect herself.

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Product details

ISBN-10 : 9780792781622
ISBN-13 : 978-0792781622
Dimensions : 18.42 x 4.45 x 15.88 cm
Publisher : Blackstone Publishing; Unabridged edition (1 October 2011)
Language: : English
ASIN : 0792781627

Customer Reviews:
197 ratings

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Review

A thoughtful mystery with an excellent plot, well-drawn characters, and wonderful atmosphere.

-- "Associated Press"

Highly recommended-well-rounded, believable characters, a multilayered plot solidly based on human nature, all authentically set in the England of 1917, make A Bitter Truth an outstanding and riveting read.

-- "Stephanie Laurens, New York Times bestselling author"

Landor narrates in cool, clear tones with a mild English accent, effectively differentiating the female characters. Her strong, deep voice for males works well.

-- "Booklist, audio review"

Outstanding...The Todds (a mother-son writing team) plausibly insert their heroine yet again into a criminal investigation, besides providing their usual depth of characterization.

-- "Publishers Weekly (starred review)"

About the Author

Charles Todd is the New York Times bestselling author of the Inspector Ian Rutledge mysteries and the Bess Crawford mysteries. A mother-and-son writing team, they live on the East Coast.

Rosalyn Landor is an English-born television, theater, and multiple-award-winning audiobook narrator. Her television credits include Love in a Cold Climate, Rumpole of the Bailey, Sherlock Holmes, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. She has won numerous Audie awards and AudioFile magazine Earphones awards.

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Barbara Le Cornu

its ok. just

Reviewed in Australia on 28 January 2015

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its ok. Just

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A Bitter Truth

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 December 2015

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Bess Crawford is on leave from the front when she stumbles over a woman outside her house. She takes pity on her and learns that the women has been struck by her husband and has fled to London. She slowly gain the woman's trust and learns that her name is Lydia and that her husband's name is Roger. Bess agrees to travel with her home to her house in the country. But this act of kindness will result in quite a lot of trouble as everyone in the household inclusive Bess will be suspected in a murder case.

Once again has Charles Todd written an engrossing historical novel with where Bess en up having to find out the truth. She must try to figure out why anyone would kill a houseguest, but this time, even she is a suspect. Prior to the man's death has he asked Roger at dinner about a child that looked like Julianna, Rogers little sister that died when she was just 6 years old. But who is the child in question and could that simple question really be the reason for his death?

Ad much as I enjoyed the book and the mystery was I also a bit puzzled why it all had to be such a hush-hush thing. When the truth finally was revealed about the child was not that overly surprised, I would have liked a more interesting and perhaps surprising mystery than that. I felt that the family mourning of Julianna was frankly a bit over-the-top sometimes that it could affect the present time that much. Yeah, it was tragical, and yeah she was a beautiful child. But sometimes the truth could perhaps save some heartache and time. Still I enjoyed finding out the truth even though it was a little let down that it wasn't that complex.

But the murders is all whole other story, I failed to realize who the murder was. It wasn't until Bess and Simon Brandon realized who it was and then everything made sense.

One thing that really pleased me (and confused me) was that Sergeant Lassiter Larimore has finally made his first entrance in this book series. I am a bit confused about the name of him since I read about him A Pattern of Lies where he was Sergeant Lassiter, but here is is called Sergeant Larimore. Could there really be two different Aussie Sergeants with the same trademark Kookaburra laughter?

I just have to read on to figure it out...

H. Lacroix

I liked this one a little less... but I still read it in just over 24 hours...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 April 2013

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This is the third Bess Crawford mystery I've read and it's the one I least enjoyed. But let me qualify what I've just written. It still took me just over 24 hours to read it, I still found it difficult to put it down and compared to other books I have read I would still rank it higher in terms of interest and appeal. It by no means fails I just found it slightly less absorbing than the two others I've read so far. As always the exposition scenes are excellent and capture your interest right away. Maybe following on 'Duty to the Dead' and finding Bess once again among a family in mourning I found it less original than ' an unmarked grave' which was also the first book of the series I came upon. Not taking to the character of Lydia might also explain why I found this one less compelling. Lydia is impeccably drawn but as her character develops and as we realise how selfish, manipulative and uncaring for Bess's wishes she is, it gets more difficult to feel any sort of compassion for her and one is left to wonder why Bess should do so much as it is obvious that she sees through her rather quickly once both the young women find themselves at Vixen Hill. I also found the identity theft story at the end rather contrived and as usual found the ending rushed and implausible. I have found it so in all the books by the Todd team I have read and once again when comparing the quality of the beginnings to the hurried and often rather unsatisfactory endings it is as though each one had either the end or the beginning to write. I doubt that the mother and son team do it this way but however they choose to write it would be good if the same care could be given to the concluding part of the stories as is given to the opening chapters. I do realise that once you have been hooked you won't give up reading twenty pages before reaching the end but I still think that some effort should be made so that the reader ends up fully satisfied and eager for more.

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Gaye Sissons

Very glad there are more in this series

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 February 2015

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I find WW1 hard to contemplate because the tragedy of it is just so huge. These books tell a good story about investigations, with everyday information about what happened behind the front and in Britain just part of the tale. They earn my biggest compliment because they are 'you are there' books.

Amazon Customer

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 January 2015

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As I am a Maisie Dobbs fan I enjoyed this book

SusieQ

Three Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 September 2014

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no clear recollection

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A Bitter Truth Lib/E: 2 Audio CD – Unabridged, 1 October 2011

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