Though the Great War has ended, Bess Crawford finds herself caught in
deadly circumstances on a remote Welsh headland in this tenth entry from
the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author.
The fighting has ended, the Armistice signed, but the war has left
wounds that are still agonizingly raw. Battlefield Nurse Bess Crawford
has been assigned to a clinic for amputees, and the Welsh patients worry
her. She does her best to help them, but it's clear that they have
nothing to go home to, in a valley where only the fit can work in the
coal pits. When they are released, she fears that peace will do what war
couldn't--take their lives.
Their officer, Captain Williams, writes to describe their despair, and
his own at trying to save his men. Bess feels compelled to look into
their situation, but the Army and the clinic can do nothing. Requesting
leave, she quietly travels to Wales, and that bleak coal mining village,
but she is too late.
Captain Williams' sister tells Bess he has left the valley. Bess is
afraid he intends to kill himself. She follows him to an isolated,
storm-battered peninsula--a harsh and forgotten place where secrets and
death go hand in hand. Deserted by her frightened driver, Bess is
stranded among strangers suspicious of outsiders. She quickly discovers
these villagers are hiding something, and she's learned too much to be
allowed to leave. What's more, no one in England knows where she is.
Why is there no Constable out here? And who is the mysterious Ellen?
Captain Williams and his brother's widow are her only allies, and Bess
must take care not to put them at risk as she tries to find answers. But
there is a murderer here who is driven to kill again and again. And the
next person in his sights is Simon Brandon, searching for Bess and
unaware of his danger. . . .
