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Content snapshot
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Violence
Some
Murder connected to the message Bess carries; wartime deaths in the backstory
Language
Barely any
Period-appropriate language
Sexual Content
Barely any
Mild
Substance Use
Barely any
Mild
Emotional Intensity
A lot
Strong; the burden of carrying someone else's last words; what families bury to survive; Bess as a woman navigating both wartime and peacetime with equal competence
What this book is about
The first Bess Crawford mystery introduces a different set of Todd protagonists: Bess Crawford, a nurse returning from the front, carries a deathbed message from a soldier to his family — only to find the message opens wounds that were never supposed to heal. The Todds' second series shares Ian Rutledge's WWI setting and psychological depth but centers a woman's experience of the war.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Reader Verification
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