Mystery Review: The Shattered Tree

Today we have another Great Escapes Blog tour, a mystery set among the violence and chaos of WWI.

Title: The Shattered Tree
Author: Charles Todd
Publisher: William Morrow, 2016. 290 pages.
Source: Publisher's ARC through Great Escapes Tours

 Publisher's Summary: 

At the foot of a tree shattered by shelling and gunfire, stretcher-bearers find an exhausted officer, shivering with cold and a loss of blood from several wounds. The soldier is brought to battlefield nurse Bess Crawford’s aid station, where she stabilizes him and treats his injuries before he is sent to a rear hospital. The odd thing is, the officer isn’t British—he’s French. But in a moment of anger and stress, he shouts at Bess in German.

When Bess reports the incident to Matron, her superior offers a ready explanation. The soldier is from Alsace-Lorraine, a province in the west where the tenuous border between France and Germany has continually shifted through history, most recently in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, won by the Germans. But is the wounded man Alsatian? And if he is, on which side of the war do his sympathies really lie?

Of course, Matron could be right, but Bess remains uneasy—and unconvinced. If he was a French soldier, what was he doing so far from his own lines...and so close to where the Germans are putting up a fierce, last-ditch fight?

When the French officer disappears in Paris, it’s up to Bess—a soldier’s daughter as well as a nurse—to find out why, even at the risk of her own life.

My Review: 
I had to sign on to this tour because as my long-time readers may know, WWI is one of "my" periods (by which I mean that I'm very interested in the history of the time and read a lot of non-fiction about the war, especially personal accounts in an attempt to understand what it was like). I didn't regret signing up for this one at all.

The book is the 8th in the Bess Crawford series, but I had no trouble picking this up and reading it. I was at times aware that there was a history between characters that I didn't know, but the author gives just the right amount of information--so that I didn't feel "left out," but the story wasn't bogged down with explanations. I may have to go back and start from the beginning on the series, but that's mostly because it's good.

The book doesn't have a conventional "whodunnit" plot; although murder comes into it, the chief mystery is the identity of the mysterious officer. That mystery is gradually untangled, and solutions found for awkward problems, all within the time constraints of Bess's Paris leave. I was rapidly drawn into the story, and Bess's uneasiness about the mysterious officer, and none of her actions seemed unreasonable, as at times amateur detectives can be. There were a few moments early on when I wasn't not sure why she should be so obsessed, but the hint that he might be a German spy--and the lack of anyone to take that concern seriously--provides a sufficient motive to get her started, and soon the pursuit provides its own impetus.

The writing in the book is tight and the period clearly well-researched, and setting (time and place) are central to the book in a way that I appreciate.

Recommendation: 
It sounds strange to call a book a "cozy" mystery when it's set in the grim realities of WWI, but it does in fact fall into that category: there is just enough peril, and the characters and their relationships are the center of the story (and the mystery). I recommend The Shattered Tree to fans of the historical period and of well-written mysteries without excessive violence or gore.

About The Authors

Charles and Caroline Todd are a mother-and-son writing team who live on the east coast of the United States. Caroline has a BA in English Literature and History, and a Masters in International Relations. Charles has a BA in Communication Studies with an emphasis on Business Management, and a culinary arts degree that means he can boil more than water. Caroline has been married (to the same man) for umpteen years, and Charles is divorced.

Charles and Caroline have a rich storytelling heritage. Both spent many evenings on the porch listening to their fathers and grandfathers reminisce. And a maternal grandmother told marvelous ghost stories. This tradition allows them to write with passion about events before their own time. And an uncle/great-uncle who served as a flyer in WWI aroused an early interest in the Great War.

Charles learned the rich history of Britain, including the legends of King Arthur, William Wallace, and other heroes, as a child. Books on Nelson and by Winston Churchill were always at hand. Their many trips to England gave them the opportunity to spend time in villages and the countryside, where there’s different viewpoint from that of the large cities. Their travels are at the heart of the series they began ten years ago.

Charles’s love of history led him to a study of some of the wars that shape it: the American Civil War, WWI and WWII. He enjoys all things nautical, has an international collection of seashells, and has sailed most of his life. Golf is still a hobby that can be both friend and foe. And sports in general are enthusiasms. Charles had a career as a business consultant. This experience gave him an understanding of going to troubled places where no one was glad to see him arrive. This was excellent training for Rutledge’s reception as he tries to find a killer in spite of local resistance. [The Ninja Librarian notes: the Todds are also authors of the Inspector Ian Rutledge mysteries.]

Caroline has always been a great reader and enjoyed reading aloud, especially poetry that told a story. The Highwayman was one of her early favorites. Her wars are WWI, the Boer War, and the English Civil War, with a sneaking appreciation of the Wars of the Roses as well. When she’s not writing, she’s traveling the world, gardening, or painting in oils. Her background in international affairs backs up her interest in world events, and she’s also a sports fan, an enthusiastic follower of her favorite teams in baseball and pro football. She loves the sea, but is a poor sailor. (Charles inherited his iron stomach from his father.) Still, she has never met a beach she didn’t like.

Both Caroline and Charles share a love of animals, and family pets have always been rescues. There was once a lizard named Schnickelfritz. Don’t ask.

Writing together is a challenge, and both enjoy giving the other a hard time. The famous quote is that in revenge, Charles crashes Caroline’s computer, and Caroline crashes his parties. Will they survive to write more novels together? Stay tuned! Their father/husband is holding the bets.

Author Links
http://www.charlestodd.com/ https://www.facebook.com/CharlesToddNovels/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/131.Charles_Todd?from_search=true

Purchase Links
HarperCollins     Amazon    B&N


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FTC Disclosure: I received an advance review copy of The Shattered Tree from the publisher, and was given nothing further from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising." 

IWSG: Making time to write

The IWSG question this month is "How do you find time in your busy day to write?" This one hits me where I'm vulnerable.

Let me be clear: I'm not vulnerable because my days are so jam-packed I can't make time. I feel guilty when I see this question precisely because my days are NOT. Unlike many of my fellow writers, I don't hold down a full-time job (though I do hold a few part-time jobs, I still have more free time than most people). My kids are now pretty much grown. The oldest is out of the house, the younger is in his last year of high school.

I'm fresh out of excuses.

And still, I often seem to run out of time before I get to my writing (witness Monday: I didn't intentionally not post because it was Labor Day. I didn't post because I failed to prepare a post, and by the time I realized it, I was too tired to care). I'm forced to conclude that no matter how much time you do or don't have at your disposal, you have to consciously pick and defend your time to write, and it takes discipline.

The good news is, I've gotten back to work since everyone is back in school. I always do better when the house is empty (and what will I do in 2 years when the spouse retires? Build a shed in the back yard and "commute" to work?). But stuff interferes even so. Today, my sacred morning writing time was eaten up by a meeting and a breakfast party with a bunch of the old PTA moms. And those things are important, so I can't and don't want to say "no."

And yet: if we don't guard our writing time with a fierce intensity, however much or little we have of it, we'll soon have none. The best I can do is remind myself to treat it like any other job: "Sorry, I can't do that at that time. I have to work" is a line to practice. For me, it's best if I'm consistent with morning being my time to write. For some people who have younger kids and full-time jobs, it may be a matter of looking at each day and figuring out where you can get 20 minutes. Either way, you have to guard that time.

The final time-suck is the internet, and social media. I may well soon be investing in that amazing writer's tool, a timer that shuts off the internet for a set period of time. Sounds like a god-send to me!

So how are you doing at carving out and guarding your work time? Do you put people off so you can have your time, or let the demands of work and family eat it all up?

Reading or writing: you make your time where you find it. (The spouse is reading, the offspring is writing a novella. After a day's hiking).

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2016
As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated!

What I didn't finish, and why

Lately, I've found myself  not finishing some books, and while I don't like to write reviews of books I haven't finished, I thought it might be useful to talk about why I let them go. I'll say right here: it's not always because they are bad books. In fact, it's usually just because they aren't the right books and the right time. That said, here are a couple of books I let expire, and (to the best of my ability to suss out) the reasons why.

The Road to Little Dribbling, by Bill Bryson
Yup, that's right: I DNF'd a book by the famously witty Bill Bryson. As a matter of fact, this didn't totally surprise me. I had a love-hate relationship with A Walk in the Woods (yes, he made me laugh, but he also made me want to throw the book across the room with his lack of knowledge and planning, utter ignorance of good hiker etiquette and Leave No Trace principals, etc.). I enjoyed his book about Australia, but then when I read the one on the US, I found that when he wrote about places I know well his version was often shallow, misguided, or just plain wrong.


So I did start Little Dribbling with some trepidation, and it was justified. There was much less than usual of interesting history and stories and description of places, and much more griping about things that have changed in 20 years (I get that; I break my heart over some things that have changed, and not for the better. But as a theme for the book? Not good). But the final straw was that his humor seems to have become mean-spirited. I almost quit when he recounted tormenting a McDonald's employee for doing his job. I did quit after his excoriation of a shop owner who didn't seem to care if Bryson stayed or went. Really, Bryson? He ends up sounding not only like a grumpy old man, but a grumpy rich old man who is kind of annoyed by all the common people around him.

(Credit where it's due: I've enjoyed Bryson's historical work, At Home: A Short History of Private Life and The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way. Regarding that latter, knowing he'd written it and done his research, I was surprised at his rant in this new book about...English spelling. You explained that to us, man).

The Inspector and Mrs. Jeffries, by Emily Brightwell
This is a completely different case. The book is fine, really. Well-written and a bit humorous, and all that. But...it's not grabbing me, and after a bit of thought, I think I know why. Actually, it's the same problem as Bryson has, in a way: the humor comes at the expense of someone. I've had issues with this in other books I've read, where a character is presented as just kind of a comic bungler. When it's the main character in a mystery, it kind of works--after all, they manage to solve the crime. It works even better when the bumbling character is the narrator, because that's just humorous self-deprecation and we can take it for what it's worth. But in this case, I feel like the Inspector is just a patsy to allow Mrs. Jeffries to be the smart one. I get the plot device. The author has found a way to avoid the biggest problem of the amateur detective, their difficult position vis-a-vis the police. But.

My take-away: snark is a dangerous weapon. Self-directed snark by a 1st-person narrator is pretty safe, but beyond that, things get risky.

Note: I hesitated about putting this one on here, because for all I know the Inspector will get the last laugh and prove not to be an idiot after all. But I kind of doubt it. For now, I'm leaving the book on my MP3 player and may finish at some point. In which case, if I am more satisfied, I'll write a real review.

Other books
There have been some other books I've not finished, books that I won't name. Those have been books with deeper flaws, often: historical inaccuracies, poor writing or editing, etc. I don't need to reflect much to know why I drop a book with those problems. But I had to think about why I might dump a book with good prose, a strong plot, and a professional proof-reader. I hope it gives me food for thought for my own writing.

How about you? Do you leave books unfinished? If so, do you ever analyze why?

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2016
As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated!