Cruel Deception, A. A Bess Crawford Mystery

"As always, Todd's intense feelings for the traumatized survivors of war make one mother's son the broken hero of an entire generation of lost souls."  - The New York Times Book ReviewIn the aftermath of World War I, English nurse Bess Crawford attempts to save a troubled officer from a mysterious killer in this eleventh book in the acclaimed Bess Crawford mystery series. The Armistice of November 1918 ended the fighting, but theGreat War will not be over until a Peace Treaty is drawn up and signed by allparties involved.
Representatives from the Allies are gathering in Paris, andalready ominous signs of disagreement have appeared. Sister Bess Crawford, who has been working with the severelywounded in England in the war's wake, is asked to carry out a personal missionin Paris for a Matron at the London headquarters of The Queen Alexandra's. Bess is facing decisions about her own future, even as shesearches for Lawrence Minton.
When she finally locates him, instead of theintelligent, ambitious officer she expects, she finds a bitter and disturbedman who has abdicated his duties at the Peace Conference and is well on his waytoward an addiction to opiates. Indeed, he tells her that he doesn't care if helives or dies, he only wants oblivion. But what has changed him? What is itthat haunts him? It seems the truth is buried so deep in his mind that he canonly relive it in wild nightmares.
When Minton goes missing, bent on suicide, Bess must race to unlock his past before he succeeds. Reluctant to trust an officer in Minton's regiment, a manwith secrets of his own, and uncertain of the loyalties of Matron's friends inParis, Bess must rely on her own instincts and experience-and sometimes indesperation on a stranger who claims he never met Minton. Could whatever happened to Minton in Paris somehow beconnected to his war? And why did he not kill Bess when he had the chance-thenlater, viciously attack her without warning? What is destroying LieutenantMinton? Or is it who? And what horror will she have to confront, if sheis to save him?In this, the eleventh novel in the award-winning BessCrawford series, New York Times bestselling author Charles Todd deliversa rich and atmospheric portrait that illuminates the cost of war on human lives-thelingering pain and horror that no peace, no matter how earned, can assuage.