An Unmarked Grave by Charles Todd

An Unmarked Grave is the fourth title in the Bess Crawford historical mystery series by mother and son writing team Charles Todd. I've reviewed the first three titles in this series: A Duty to the Dead, An Impartial Witness, and A Bitter Truth.

The basics: The novel opens in France in the spring of 1918 when the Spanish influenza is killing many on the front lines. When a private discovers an extra body in the shed, Bess once again finds herself in the middle of a murder mystery.


My thoughts:

I will say that this one started kind of slow for me.  Now I love a good historical fiction so I didn't just put it down and walk away, I stuck with it and I'm actually glad I did.

I think the author did a great job of pulling in a good amount of suspense and intrigue.  In a sense, it almost reminded me of Downton Abbey, that same time frame, dealing with the war etc.

The main character is Bess, who is a nurse for the WWI soldiers.  As the novel starts she's completely immersed in nursing soldiers affected by the Spanish Influenza, there are so many around her and they're dying just as fast as they are being brought in.   The first twist in the book is when Bess is shown a dead soldier that clearly didn't die from the flu, but looks more to have been murdered.

From that point in, the story takes off.  Bess is trying to get to the bottom of this incident but unfortunately falls ill herself.

I think the book is fantastic, it certainly was a fascinating story to follow and the authors did a great job in the details, the scenery and really pulling you into the book.

For the rest of the tour stops, be sure to check out:

Wednesday, June 13th: Diary of a Stay at Home Mom
Monday, June 18th: The Written World
Monday, June 18th: Tutu’s Two Cents
Tuesday, June 19th: Book Dilettante
Wednesday, June 20th: Literary Feline
Thursday, June 21st: Helen’s Book Blog
Monday, June 25th: Picky Girl
Tuesday, June 26th: Dwell in Possibility
Wednesday, June 27th: Luxury Reading
Thursday, June 28th: Confessions of an Avid Reader
Monday, July 2nd: Bookstack
Tuesday, July 3rd: Travel Spot
Tuesday, July 3rd: cakes, tea and dreams
Wednesday, July 4th: Reviews from the Heart
Thursday, July 5th: Paperback Princess
Friday, July 6th: Bloggin’ ‘Bout Books

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for providing me with a review copy.