The Best Reader + silence

A Duty to the Dead — Charles Todd

From TowerBooks...

"England, 1916." Independent-minded Bess Crawford's upbringing is far different from that of the usual upper-middle-class British gentlewoman. Growing up in India, she learned the importance of responsibility, honor, and duty from her officer father. At the outbreak of World War I, she followed in his footsteps and volunteered for the nursing corps, serving from the battlefields of France to the doomed hospital ship "Britannic."
On one voyage, Bess grows fond of the young, gravely wounded Lieutenant Arthur Graham. Something rests heavily on his conscience, and to give him a little peace as he dies, she promises to deliver a message to his brother. It is some months before she can carry out this duty, and when she's next in England, she herself is recovering from a wound. When Bess arrives at the Graham house in Kent, Jonathan Graham listens to his brother's last wishes with surprising indifference. Neither his mother nor his brother Timothy seems to think it has any significance. Unsettled by this, Bess is about to take her leave when sudden tragedy envelops her. She quickly discovers that fulfilling this duty to the dead has thrust her into a maelstrom of intrigue and murder that will endanger her own life and test her courage as not even war has."

"A Duty to the Dead" is an absolutely phenomenal book. I finished it in a week, which many would think is no small task, but really, for a college senior — that's saying something.

The plot is riveting and exciting — incomparable to anything I've ever read. Characterization and plot were flawless in this first Bess Crawford Mystery. I immediately felt for and related to Bess Crawford after the first chapter. I was drawn into the story on the first page. I just had to find out what Arthur Graham's message meant. The message is so entirely simple and seemingly uncomplicated — but it amasses to a deeply rooted conspiracy surrounded by lies.

This past week I have been charged in creating an entire year's curriculum map and a lesson plan (two separate classes) — I chose to do eleventh grade American Literature for the map and because I'm lazy and I don't like reinventing the wheel, for the lesson plan I did "The Examination of Sarah Good." I then, for another class, was assigned to create a webquest (more to come on that later) and I chose to continue my lesson on Sarah Good and the Salem Witchcraft Trials. Because I spent so much of my week reading about the Trials, I couldn't help but compare this book and its message to that of the Salem Witchcraft Trials. So much pain and hurt as a result of foolish little children. I don't want to say too much — and I don't think I have — but I had better stop here.

While the ending came quick, I wouldn't have had it any other way — it just worked. This book is absolutely wonderful. I feel so very lucky to have received this book from Goodreads as a First Reads Winner. I will definitely be looking for more of Bess Crawford.

Because I so much enjoyed this book I will not be offering it up for giveaway. I will definitely be taking this book to my classroom next year. I may have to purchase another copy so that when my students inevitatably read it to pieces, I'm not left without. Anyone could enjoy this novel — adults and advanced young adult readers. There's no sex, no massive swearing, and enough blood to keep high school boys interested — a perfect book for a young teacher looking for books to give her students (especially males!).

Favorite Quotes:

  • "Truth is a very illusive thing." "I'm not sure that truth exists. Perhaps we only think it does. But in reality it's only what you believe" (202).
  • "You were ever taking pity on the halt and the lame and the lost" (259).
  • "That was what hurt the most. That I would have been drawn into the conspiracy of silence, unwittingly and therefore unwillingly" (326).

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A Duty to the Dead — Charles Todd + silence