{"product_id":"books-a-cruel-deception-by-charles-todd","title":"A Cruel Deception","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"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 Review\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn 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.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Armistice of November 1918 ended the fighting, but the\u003cbr\u003e Great War will not be over until a Peace Treaty is drawn up and signed by all\u003cbr\u003e parties involved. Representatives from the Allies are gathering in Paris, and\u003cbr\u003e already ominous signs of disagreement have appeared.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSister Bess Crawford, who has been working with the severely\u003cbr\u003e wounded in England in the war's wake, is asked to carry out a personal mission\u003cbr\u003e in Paris for a Matron at the London headquarters of The Queen Alexandra's.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBess is facing decisions about her own future, even as she\u003cbr\u003e searches for Lawrence Minton. When she finally locates him, instead of the\u003cbr\u003e intelligent, ambitious officer she expects, she finds a bitter and disturbed\u003cbr\u003e man who has abdicated his duties at the Peace Conference and is well on his way\u003cbr\u003e toward an addiction to opiates. Indeed, he tells her that he doesn't care if he\u003cbr\u003e lives or dies, he only wants oblivion. But what has changed him? What is it\u003cbr\u003e that haunts him? It seems the truth is buried so deep in his mind that he can\u003cbr\u003e only relive it in wild nightmares. When Minton goes missing, bent on suicide,\u003cbr\u003e Bess must race to unlock his past before he succeeds.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eReluctant to trust an officer in Minton's regiment, a man\u003cbr\u003e with secrets of his own, and uncertain of the loyalties of Matron's friends in\u003cbr\u003e Paris, Bess must rely on her own instincts and experience--and sometimes in\u003cbr\u003e desperation on a stranger who claims he never met Minton.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCould whatever happened to Minton in Paris somehow be\u003cbr\u003e connected to his war? And why did he not kill Bess when he had the chance--then\u003cbr\u003e later, viciously attack her without warning? What is destroying Lieutenant\u003cbr\u003e Minton? Or is it who? And what horror will she have to confront, if she\u003cbr\u003e is to save him?\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn this, the eleventh novel in the award-winning Bess\u003cbr\u003e Crawford series, New York Times bestselling author Charles Todd delivers\u003cbr\u003e a rich and atmospheric portrait that illuminates the cost of war on human lives--the\u003cbr\u003e lingering pain and horror that no peace, no matter how earned, can assuage.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"World of Books ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53669463097617,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780062944290.jpg?v=1781508621","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/books-a-cruel-deception-by-charles-todd","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}