Welcome to Litsy!

This one was GOOD - more of a dark mystery than those that went before. Just one more in this series - I'll miss Bess. 😔

⭐⭐⭐⭐/⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

It was so great to get back into this series thru my #doublespin . I had forgotten how much I had missed Bess and her adventures. While this one did not boast a lot of “action”, there was a “creepy”, dark edge to it that I thoroughly loved. I found myself hating to put it down.
The war has recently ended, but Bess is still nursing soldiers and takes a leave to a remote location to check up on some Welsh former patients she feared were giving ⬇️

I wasn't sure if these books would be as good when WWI was over, since the setting has been a big part of why this series has been so enjoyable. However, this may have been my favorite so far. The authors do an amazing job capturing the aftermath of the war - not the glorious triumph imagined, but the reality of a generation of men left dead and maimed; women battered and bitter. The search for hope and a new normal is a big part of this story.

I‘ve liked the Bess Crawford series, but I generally prefer the authors' other series featuring Inspector Rutledge. (Part of that is that it‘s always a bit contrived to try and get a nurse involved in mysteries.)

A Forgotten Place is set mostly in Wales where Bess has gone to check on one of her former patients. While the setting was intriguing , and I did like some of the characters, I wasn‘t particularly interested in the central mystery.

I am a long time fan of the Bess Crawford series but this book became more like walking in concrete mid way through. The premise was interesting but the flow of the novel was off and the secondary characters were dull and predictable.

This was a good mystery, one of their best that doesn't take place on the Front. Bess is stranded in a remote Welsh village after checking up on a former patient. There is a conspiracy of silence - but about what? And why are all these strange things happening on the beach?
4.5⭐

When a series is established w/a nurse who solves mysteries during WWI, and then the books go on long enough to find the war at an end you wonder how it will all continue; but we forget about the aftermath, that just because the bullets have stopped flying doesn't mean that the impact of war has disappeared. Bess' story continues when she's inadvertently trapped in an isolated Welsh coastal town where a local secret must be kept at all costs.

I was worried that this series would falter without the war. Clearly I underestimated Bess. This was solid.

I bailed. Overall, the war is over. Bess takes leave to check on amputees. She doesn't tell anyone. She ends up Stranded in a Gothic like village WAY TOO LONG. I skip it, unless you are really invested in the series.

I won this ARC and misplaced it when it came 😥 Fixing to start now, because I found it. Review to come soon.

I won this ARC from Goodreads. It's the fifth book I have won.