I received this book for free from my own shelves in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: my own shelves
An Irish Hostage
by
Charles Todd
amateur sleuth, vintage mystery in a Kindle edition that was published by William Morrow on July 6, 2021 and has 336 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include An Impartial Witness, A Lonely Death, A Bitter Truth, The Confession, An Unmarked Grave, The Walnut Tree, Proof of Guilt, A Question of Honor, An Unwilling Accomplice, Hunting Shadows, A Pattern of Lies, A Fine Summer's Day, No Shred of Evidence, The Shattered Tree, Racing the Devil, A Casualty of War, The Gate Keeper, A Forgotten Place, The Black Ascot, The Cliff's Edge
Twelfth in the Bess Crawford amateur sleuth vintage mystery series and revolving around a nursing sister who had served on the frontlines in World War I. The focus is on the danger to Bess in taking part in a friend’s wedding in the Ireland reeling from the Easter Rising. This story takes place in June 1919 in Ireland.
My Take
I get it. I understand the Irish being angry with the British, but I also understand various characters seeing the Rising as poorly timed. What did they think was going to happen? Rising up during a bloody war? Duh.
I gotta confess I am totally with the Irish in their ruling their own country. The point Todd makes about the lack of aid in the potato famine is just one of the negatives. Then again, I don’t agree with those terrorist activities by the Irish.
I feel badly about that description of how Fergus put that collection of abandoned cottages together into a home and studio. It sounds lovely and yet so depressing as to why those cottages are abandoned.
Back to the story, I am so very angry at those hateful Irish who have decided that any Irish who served in World War I are all traitors. Hullo! How were they supposed to know the Easter Rising would happen? How can you hold that against them? Especially when they enlisted hoping to show England that the Irish were willing to die for England. That the Irish deserved home rule. Which they did and do. —It was interesting to read that note about the Suffragette movement.
Then there’s those Irish who did leave the front to come home to Ireland, with their fellows thinking how grand they are for doing it. But they didn’t show up for the Rising. As for that Constable, oy, what a jerk!
These Irish are so suspicious of every tiny little thing! Bess must be a spy. No, the major is a spy. No, they’re both spies. Why would an officer stand up for a sergeant? Oy. What is with these people!?!
It was an acrimonious start to An Irish Hostage as Bess argues with her parents and Simon about attending Eileen’s wedding. It only gets more tense when Bess arrives, expecting to see her friend, but only sees an empty house.
And it gets so much worse! Part of the tension is on which side has done the kidnapping. Part of my own tension was my anger with Eileen. Putting everyone at risk! The attitude she takes toward Bess! Then there’s the supposedly heroic Terrence who keeps being challenged.
As for Niall, he’s something of a jerk as well. Well, I guess his attitude is to be expected for that time period, expecting Bess to cook and serve him simply because she’s a woman. I do love Bess’ attitude, ahem, lol.
As for Eileen’s grandmother, what a nightmare!! And you’ll learn her “why” at the end. Oh, brother. Talk about a nutjob!! Terrence. Oh, the poor guy. He does have his head on straight, in spite of how he feels about Eileen. My heart just broke. What a good man.
Although, why the man couldn’t have died in the Rising, so he could show everyone what a great hero he was. DUH. What an incredibly stupid attitude!
I understand Bess’ parents’ concerns; they do make a good point about Bess being “protected” by the British army during the war and totally on her own now. Then again, Bess, despite it being 1919, is a grown woman with experience.
I had hoped those references to Bess’ adventures in Ireland from The Cliff’s Edge, 13, would explain what I had missed when I finally read An Irish Hostage. And it does, sort of. Only, I feel as if I’ve missed a story what with Bess referring to Simon’s attitude after coming back from a trip to Scotland. It seems that his stiffness starts then and is only exacerbated by events in Ireland. And I can’t believe Bess is that oblivious!
I do hate war. The effects it has on people. When Bess thinks of the “eligible young men . . . she had danced with, played tennis with and ridden with” being dead. It’s another heartbreaker.
Todd uses first person protagonist point-of-view from Bess’ perspective, which helps explain why we hear her memories on why she joined the nursing service in 1914. Now she wonders if she’ll be allowed to stay with the Queen Alexandra’s.
Lol, a good reason to learn a foreign language.
It’s a niggle of a point, but it irritates me about those confusing notes about whose house it is. Todd grants ownership to several people.
While the Irish are mostly agreed about wanting to end English occupation, there are so many conflicting perspectives on how.
It’s character-driven and action-packed with plenty of drama and anger in a country at war with itself.
The Story
The war is over and nurses and soldiers have returned home. The lucky ones are able to re-connect with their loved ones, two of whom are finally able to marry . . . if they can survive their fellow Irishmen.
Luckily for Eileen and Michael, Bess Crawford is brave enough to come act as Eileen’s attendant.
Still, being English in Killeighbeg is an invitation to death.
The Characters
Killeighbeg, Ireland, is . . .
. . . a small, isolated village where Eileen Flynn, an Irish ward nurse Bess had helped save when the Britannic went down in A Duty to the Dead, 1, grew up. The Flynns are all against the English and especially antagonistic towards Michael. Granny appears to be the ringleader. Terrence Flynn, Eileen’s cousin, was a hero of the Rising and is still being hunted by the British. Niall Flynn is Terrence’s younger brother and gung-ho Irish. The only staff left is Molly, whose mother needs the money Molly earns. Maeve, the daughter of Harry FitzGerald and Eileen’s mother, had married Eileen’s father, Eamon, and has suffered ever since.
Eileen is getting married to Michael Sullivan, a former sergeant, who wants to raise horses. Michael’s best man is Major Ellis Dawson, an Englishman who had been Michael’s commanding officer in the Irish Guards in France.
Father O’Halloran is also against the marriage. The Constable is anti-English as well. Fergus Kennedy is an artist who came to paint the sea and has been painting the portraits of the heroes of the Rising. Ewen is a fisherman. Shawn Fahy is a musician, who hates Terrence. Padriac “Paddy” Murphy, a.k.a. Cassius, is a violinist who fought with Simon. Mrs O’Grady runs the local shop with medicinal goods. The brother of Mattie Byrnes took a nasty header.
An Irish Traveler shows up with his swearing green parrot. Inishmore is one of the islands nearby and has an old fort, Dún Aonghasa, on it.
The Easter Rising in 1916 was an attempt to break away from England and set up home rule. Michael Collins and Padraig Pearse were leaders in the Rising.
Somerset is . . .
. . . where Bess’ parents and she herself live. Bess had been a surgical Sister in the war. Sergeant-Major Simon Brandon is still with the Colonel Sahib, although both have retired, ahem, from the regiment. Simon currently lives in a cottage at the bottom of the Crawfords’ garden. The colonel is taking part in the Peace Talks in Paris, although he’s currently on leave. Iris is the Crawford maid. Sara is the daughter of the Crawfords’ nearest neighbor.
Captain Arthur Jackson, an American friend of Simon’s, is a pilot who is concerned about Bess’ welfare.
Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service supplied the nurses at home and on the front. Mrs Hennessey is the landlady who kept an eye on the nursing sisters when they were on leave in London. Sergeant Lassiter, an Australian soldier Bess first met in A Bitter Truth, 3, as Sergeant Larimore, keeps proposing marriage to Bess. Edith Cavell had been a British nurse who treated wounded soldiers from both sides without discrimination.
The Cover and Title
The cover shows us Bess standing next to a Celtic rock cross, her hair up and wearing a long red coat under a green and gray sky, setting a dark mood with headlands spreading out from the left almost all the way across, above a shining grayish green sea. There’s a testimonial in white at the very top with an info blurb in a pale yellow below it. Below this is the author’s name in white with the title below that in a dark green. All above Bess’ head. At the bottom is the series info in white.
The title should be in the plural for there is more than An Irish Hostage, unless you count the country itself, itself held hostage.
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