Charles Todd is a pseudonym for an American mother/son writing team. Todd writes two series, the Ian Rutledge series and the Bess Crawford series. Bess Crawford is a British, World War I nurse, who has an inexplicable knack for getting caught up in murder mysteries. A Duty To The Dead is the first novel in the Bess Crawford series; it is also the first Charles Todd novel that I've read. Someone donated a paperback copy to the library recently that I borrowed and read after some initial confusion over whether it was the first or second in the series (because we all know I like to read a series in order!). A promise made to a dying soldier is what leads to the mayhem as it were (although, really there isn't mayhem related to the mystery until a bit at the end), and when the smoke clears a family is left in shambles with hardly anyone left to pick up the pieces. Bess promises a dying soldier named Arthur Graham that she will personally relay a message to his family: &qu
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