This is the third in a series with Bess Crawford, WWI nurse, as the protagonist. She returns to her London flat on leave over the Christmas holidays, only to discover a woman in her doorway. The rest of the story deals with Bess helping the woman and her family. There is a murder close to the beginning of the story (which was irritating, as I found the man one of the few interesting characters) and a convoluted story involving family tragedy and scandal. I didn't really enjoy the book much. The writing seems quite uneven: there are times when the prose flows nicely and you can follow along easily. Other times, I would read a sentence and think "huh?" because it didn't make sense, or could have easily been edited to something better. The story seems contrived and is frankly not that intriguing. It seems as though parts of the plot are just shuffled in there to try and make the story more complex. The characters are fairly well-developed but not enough to keep me interested in the tepid plot. I was frankly shocked that this is an experienced, multiply-published author. A disappointment.
Reviewer: Lorien Forrest
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