Author(s): Charles Todd

General Fiction

The daughter of a distinguished soldier, Bess Crawford follows in his footsteps and signs up to go overseas as a nurse during the Great War, helping to deal with the many wounded. There, serving on a hospital ship, she makes a promise to a dying young lieutenant to take a message to his brother, Jonathan Graham: ââ¬ÃÂTell Jonathan that I lied. I did it for Motherâ≢s sake. But it has to be set right.ââˆLater, when her ship is sunk by a mine and sheâ≢s sidelined by a broken arm, Bess returns home to England, determined to fulfill her promise. Itâ≢s not so easy, however. She travels to the village in Kent where the Grahams live and passes on to Jonathan his brotherâ≢s plea. Oddly, neither Jonathan, his mother, nor his younger brother admit to knowing what the message means. Then Bess learns that thereâ≢s another brother, incarcerated in a lunatic asylum since the age of 14 when he was accused of brutally murdering a housemaid. Bess rightly guesses that the dying soldierâ≢s last words had something to do with the fourth brother. Because the family seems unwilling to do anything, she decides that she will investigate. Itâ≢s her own duty to the dead.