Not as satisfying as usual. No clear cut crime and solution. Interesting look at the relationship between Simon and Bess. I look forward to hearing more about the growth in this area in future books (fingers crossed now that Caroline Todd has passed away). Good tension throughout. Hard to put down.

My Thoughts:

I’ve read several books in both of the Charles Todd series. I enjoy both of the main characters. I like their personalities. I like their quirks. I love how they handle themselves during times of trouble and hardship. I have not read enough of the books to know if they become romantically involved with someone (in the present tense). Sometimes adding a romantic partner to a strong character in a story, especially a series of books, takes away some how from who they are and what they can continue to accomplish. After #12, An Irish Hostage, I am curious what will become of Bess Crawford?

Several reasons why I love An Irish Hostage:
1. The setting of the story is in Ireland. I saw the landscape, culture, and society of the people. It shows a history that I’ve not read enough about: The Irish War of Independence . I understand the various opinions, feelings, behavior, and actions of both sides. Even in the group who wants independence, there are varying degrees of how far they will go to get the result they believe must happen.
2. I love the relationship Bess has with her parents and friends. She is one of the most loyal, steadfast, and compassionate book characters I’ve read.
3. Bess is an intelligent, decisive, no-nonsense type person. She is a person who does not give up. She does not surrender. She is like a sleuth dog on the trail of the scent.
4. This book is dedicated to two cats. The writing teams beloved felines. God bless them for doing this.
5. Secondary characters who I thought would not be involved in cruel intentions surprise me.
6. Bess is able to use her nursing skills. I love stories with medical treatment even if it is in history.

Two reasons that held me back from giving this book an excellent rating.
1. Bess shows prejudice. It is slight. It could almost be overlooked, but the prejudice against the Irish is apparent to me.
2. Bess is decisive and a no-nonsense type person as I stated in #3 above. In An Irish Hostage, she comes across as too bold and brash. I understand she wants answers, but without her admitting this to herself, she put herself in harm’s way (and possibly others).

I understand Bess is an imperfect person just as we all are. I understand she is a book character and not a real person. Nevertheless, those two issues still kept me from giving the book an excellent rating.

Source: I received a complimentary e-book copy from NetGalley. I am not required to write a positive review.
Audience: Mystery readers.
Rating: Very good.

This 12th in the series takes Bess Crawford to a hostile Ireland (after the 1916 Easter Rising) for the wedding of her friend, nurse Eileen Flynn to former soldier Michael Sullivan in the small Irish village where Eileen grew up.

Unfortunately, very many view any Irish who served in France as traitors (including Eileen and Michael). Their only protector is Eileen's cousin Terrence, a hero of the Rising in hiding from the British.

There are kidnappings as well as murder before it's all over. After Simon Brandon shows up (in gypsy disguise) to keep Bess safe, she starts to see him differently.

Very poor addition to a previously dynamic series with interesting female protagonist. Murky and muddled take on Irish politics doesn't help the simple plot.

The Irish question

Bess becomes embroiled in the Irish Troubles—after the 1916 Easter Uprising, and some of those involved. Having said she’d be bridesmaid for an Irish friend and nurse, Eileen Flynn, whose leg she saved when the ship they were on sank, she flies to Ireland despite her father’s (Colonel Sahib) misgivings. Eileen’s cousin, a leader with the Defenders during the Dublin Post Office stand, wanted for his actions by the British, stands as surety for Bess’s safety. When the groom goes missing and then later the best man, Bess finds herself in house where the matriarch is rampantly anti British. Who could be trusted, who was at the bottom of the kidnapping. Then Bess has a run in with the Constable. Should she confess her identity or try to solve the problem?
Bess has some close calls. My heart was in my mouth. Simon Brandon is on hand fortunately—in a very different guise. But just exactly what is their relationship. The old ways of being are changing and Bess is unsure.
Another historically accurate, defining episode in Bess’s story!

A William Morrow and Custom House ARC via NetGalley

“An Irish Hostage,” by Charles Todd, William Morrow, 336 pages, July 6, 2021.

It is 1919 and it is peaceful since World War I ended. But in Ireland, anyone who served in France is now considered a traitor, including nurse Eileen Flynn and former soldier Michael Sullivan.

They want to be married in the small, isolated village where Eileen grew up.
Even her grandmother is against the marriage. Eileen’s only protection is her cousin, Terrence, who was a hero of the Easter Rising in Ireland in 1916, an attempt to break away from England. He is still being hunted by the British. 

Bess Crawford is on an extended leave from the military nursing service. She had expected to be sent to a clinic for wounded soldiers, but wasn’t. Eileen asked Bess to be the bridesmaid. Major Ellis Dawson is the best man.

Bess’s parents and Simon Brandon, her father’s assistant, are against Bess going to Ireland. Her father is a colonel in the British Army. A friend of Simon’s, Captain Arthur Jackson, has a private plane and agrees to fly Bess to Ireland. But when she arrives, she’s told that Michael has disappeared. They don’t know if the English or the Irish have taken him.

The characters are good, but the novel drags in the middle as people search and Bess and Eileen stay at Eileen’s home. I did enjoy learning about the uprising. When Bess starts doing more towards the end of the book, the story picks up.

Charles Todd is the pen name of mother and son Caroline and Charles Todd. They write this series and the Inspector Ian Rutledge series. This is the 12th novel in the Bess Crawford series. Both are good series.

In accordance with FTC guidelines, the advance reader's edition of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

In An Irish Hostage, the writing team known as Charles Todd shows us how explosive matters were in Ireland after the end of World War I. There may not be bombs and gunfire, but Bess is in just as much danger as she was when she was nursing in aid stations at the front lines in France. An Irish Hostage is steeped in tension, in hatred, in claustrophobia. Bess is reduced to doing a lot of sneaking around after dark, and the only reason why she's (usually) left alone is because this is a small, isolated village with no doctor, and her nursing skills come in handy.

This is also a book about the futility of unreasoning hatred and grief, so much so that the book can be difficult to read at times. But it's also a book about a woman who's had four years of making her own decisions and living her own life now being expected to return to the role of dutiful daughter now that the war is over. Bess Crawford knows that there's no way she can return to that life. As this series progresses, it will be interesting to see the life she makes for herself.

The bright spot that made me exclaim "It's about time!" is that-- after how many books now?-- the penny finally drops for Bess concerning Simon Brandon. It's something that all the fans of this series have been waiting for so long that, no matter what the main plot of the next book is, we're all going to want to know what's next for Bess concerning the more personal side of her life.

An Irish Hostage brings readers right into the heart of the Irish fight for independence with all its danger and high emotion, and it has an escape scene that will have readers at the edge of their seats. I can't wait for the next book.

(Review copy courtesy of the publisher and Net Galley)

3.5 stars

The latest addition to the Bess Crawford historical mystery series. Mother-son author team Charles Todd have two long-running series featuring characters still in the grip of World War I after the Armistice has been signed. These are books set in a dark and confused time, after four years of battle, death and deprivation and the stories reflect that.

Nurse Bess Crawford isn't quite sure what her next chapter will be, now that the war is over. She is emotionally unwilling to move back into her parents' house and resume that life, although she is quite close to them. In the meantime, she has been asked to be part of the wedding of a fellow nurse whose life she quite likely saved during the war. The nurse is Irish, and her parents are dead set against Bess journeying to Ireland, still in turmoil years after the Easter Rebellion. Bess goes anyway.

This story features a lot of Irish history and if it seems murky and complex, that reflects actual history. Bess, as an Englishwoman, is less than welcome by the bride's family. One of the bride's cousins has a price on his head and is a fugitive from the British authorities. The bride and groom served in the war, and some feel that they are traitors to the Irish cause for fighting for England.

No sooner has Bess arrived than the groom disappears. Did the rebels kidnap him? Did he change his mind? Has he been killed? There is lots of mysterious intrigue and no one can be trusted. And there to keep an eye on Bess is Simon, longtime aide to Bess's high powered father. The relationship between Bess and Simon is as uncertain as the other plot elements.

A dark and atmospheric read. Thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Bess Crawford is back in her twelfth book, and I am glad. World War II is over and its 1919. Bess has been invited to Ireland to be maid-of-honor at an Irish nurse’s wedding. But with the Troubles in Ireland and anger over the Easter Rising, the British are not welcomed in Ireland. The bridegroom, an Englishman, disappears just before the wedding and staggers into his nuptial mass bloodied and in great pain. Unable to tell anyone what happened to him, Bess finds herself unable to trust anyone as she tries to uncover what happened to him and the British best man who was kidnapped as well. Simon, of course, is there to help her in a highly creative Gypsy disguise. As usual, there is a lot of historical research that has been done before writing this mystery.

I was really hoping I’d like this book more, but I found it to be somewhat anticlimactic.

Bess Crawford plans on traveling to Ireland for her friend and fellow nurse’s wedding, but since the Easter Rising, Eileen and her fiancé Michael are seen as traitors because they served in France during the Great War. It’s not safe for the English to travel to Ireland during such dangerous times, but she decides to go anyway so she can stand by her friend’s side. Only problem is, Michael is missing and presumed to be taken captive, and without him there can be no wedding.

I thought the premise for this story was intriguing, and it had its moments of suspense. However, the majority of the plot didn’t grab my attention, and I didn’t really care for the characters either.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4037984860

The mother/son team who write as Charles Todd create excellent historical novels! An Irish Hostage takes place just after the end of World War I, when tensions between England and Ireland were quite high. Many Irishmen served alongside English soldiers fighting the Germans during the war. But once they returned home to Ireland, many were considered traitors rather than heroes.
Bess Crawford journeys to Ireland to serve as maid of honor in another nurse's wedding. But the groom is kidnapped, badly beaten, and left for dead. Bess doesn’t know who to trust, but she has her hands full treating the wounded, planning her escape back to England, and trying to foil a conspiracy. An absorbing read!

This series started very strong, but has begun to drag as Todd tries to continue Bess's story into the post-war months and years.

In An Irish Hostage, Bess Crawford has traveled to Ireland for the wedding of a former colleague, only to find that the groom has disappeared. Anti-English tensions are high, and Bess is not welcomed by the entire household. When the battered groom reappears just in time for the wedding and then collapses, Bess feels compelled to remain to nurse him. This was the best of the past several Bess Crawford novels. The situation with Simon was left hanging, but there is a sense that the series may be winding down, so hopefully there will be a resolution in the next book in the series!

I've stayed away from the Bess Crawford series by Charles Todd for the last several books for various reasons but the title of this one intrigued me so I decided I wanted to read it. This plot has Bess staying in one place for the entire story and I liked that much better. If you have been a fan of this series you will likely remember the sinking of the Britannic as it was taking wounded soldiers from the battlefield to England and the other nurses who were on board. This story takes us to the wedding of those nurses who has asked Bess to be her wedding attendant in the tiny village of Killeighbeg in Ireland. Bess is on leave from her nursing duties since the end of the war and at a loose end but her parents are concerned about her traveling all that way alone in the political unrest evident in Ireland. It is 1919 but the unease from the Easter Rising in 1916 is making travel to Ireland by any British subjects a dangerous undertaking. Then Bess comes up with a solution for how she can travel to Ireland and back safely so it is agreed that she can go.

This is my favorite Bess Crawford book in the series thus far. The dangerous political atmosphere is very well written and it brought home how insecure the lives of the Irish were during this time of unrest. Bess had to trust her instincts when it came to who she could trust and those relationships played out in a very convincing way. The question I've had throughout these books comes very close to being answered but right at the end it skittered off the page with no resolution. Maybe in the next book? I hope so.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow and Custom House for an e-galley of this novel.

Bess Crawford is back. The Great War is over but there are troubles in Ireland. Bess journeys to Ireland to act as bridesmaid for one of her nursing sisters. This is not simple, there is danger. The English are not safe, and the Irish who fought in and returned from World War I are considered traitors by the Irish "rebels". The groom is missing and Bess must tread carefully. The setting was very interesting. I knew very little of the Irish Rising or the politics of the time. It was an uncertain and frightening time and made for an effective setting for this installment in Bess's story.

In 1916, nurse Bess Crawford saved fellow nurse Eileen Flynn's life when the ship they were on, transporting injured soldiers from the front lines of the Great War, was torpedoed. Now it's 1919, the war is over, and Eileen has asked Bess to be her maid of honor in her wedding to Michael Sullivan. But there are still terrible frictions between England and Ireland, and Bess' parents and her father's assistant Simon Brandon, are fearful of her traveling across Ireland by train. Instead, to assuage them all, Bess arranges to be flown to Eileen's home by Captain Arthur Jackson, an American still stationed in England. When Bess arrives at Eileen's house, she discovers Michael is missing, most probably kidnapped by Irish nationalists, possibly because, like Eileen, he "took the king's shilling" and worked on the side of the enemy. Are Bess and Michael's best man, another Englishman, Major Ellis Dawson, also in danger?

Historically it's easy to forget that 100 years ago the Irish were nearly rooting for the Germans, so terrible had been the English stewardship of Ireland, with its domineering landlords who sent thousands of starving Irish fleeing to the United States during the potato famine of 1849, the remaining population treated not much better than slaves. Three years after the bloody Easter Rising, the Irish nationalists still want revenge for the murder of the men who stood their ground at the Dublin post office, and you can understand their passions.

On the other hand, this really wasn't what I wanted in another Bess Crawford book. I know the war is over, and I know Bess will have a great lifestyle change now that her nursing duties appear to be complete. But I think I'd rather have her solving mysteries related to the Great War than making a detour into Irish politics. The ending of the story seems to come out of another book completely, like an espionage thriller. So—enjoyed and kept my interest, but like the WWI-set plots better.

And for those who keep asking: yes, there's the tiniest bit of progress with the Bess/Simon UST.

The war is over and Bess Crawford is trying to figure out her future life but first she has to
attend.a fellow nurses wedding in Ireland. The rebellion is in full swing and matters take a nasty turn.
The 12th book in this series is full of historical details and has a nice revelation in the end.

Thanks to NetGalley for a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I can't believe we're at #12 in this series! I swore I wrote a review as soon as I finished this but I must have composed it in my head. Our intrepid heroine is in Ireland this time, to stand in a wedding for a fellow nurse. Bess is English and immediately realizes this could not only be a disadvantage but a danger. As Bess arrives by plane in a tiny village, she is horrified to discover that the groom has gone missing-has he run off? Been captured by the English or the Irish? Tensions are at a breaking point in the village as the Rising is still a sore wound for everyone. People are either convinced other folks didn't do enough, or others did too much. Will the groom return in time for the wedding? As always, this novel is a tightly constructed web full of history, drama, tension, and this time: the War is over. What will Bess do (if she survives Ireland) now that she won't have soldiers to nurse? How will Simon play into all of this?!
About 3/4 of the way through the book I started quietly cursing out the author because I realized that something I've been wondering about, for the last 11 books, was actually being brought into the story. Of course, this being a series, there is no nice neat bow on the topic. In fact, I sat, staring at the last page as I finished, with my jaw hanging open. I suspect this series is maybe winding down, since the driving force behind it (WWI) is now over, but if it doesn't neatly answer several lingering questions I'll riot.
Overall, a well done book and I'm already clamoring for #13 because I NEED ANSWERS PEOPLE.

I've enjoyed all the Bess Crawford novels and Book 12 did not disappoint. The story is set in the summer of 1919, after World War I, and finds Bess at loose ends. Her work as a battlefield nurse has ended and she's not quite sure where life should take her next. When her friend Eileen invites her to be her attendant at her Irish wedding, it's a welcome distraction for Bess, but her parents and her friend Simon are afraid Ireland is too unsettled and dangerous. The Easter Rising of 1916 is still fresh in everyone's mind and her father says travel through the country by an unaccompanied English female is impossible. Bess wins them over by arranging a direct flight with her American pilot friend (from book 11). Like all Todd's historical novels, meticulously researched details bring time and place alive for the reader.

Nurse Bess Crawford is back in the twelfth novel in the series, AN IRISH HOSTAGE. With the Great War over and Bess's nursing services no longer in need in battlefield hospitals, she has returned home to England and is trying to figure out the next step in her life. To fulfill a promise made early on in the war, Bess travels to Ireland to serve as the Maid of Honor at a fellow nurse's wedding. Upon Bess's arrival, she is subjected to hostility from the local Irish. The Irish are hoping for Home Rule, and they are hostile against anyone who is English or who fought for England. Eileen Flynn and her fiancé, Michael Sullivan, have been on the receiving end of the hostility—including from the bride's extended family. Not long before Bess arrives in Ireland, the groom goes missing. Bess joins in on the search to find Michael before the wedding. When Michael does show up, he is badly beaten and in need of Bess's nursing skills. Instead of fleeing Ireland for her own safety, Bess decides to remain and care for Michael. While trying to get Michael healed enough to leave Ireland, his best man goes missing. Bess, along with the help of Simon Brandon and Eileen's cousin who staunchly supports the Home Rule, go in search of the missing English officer before he meets a fate worse than Michael's.

AN IRISH HOSTAGE is a great addition to the Bess Crawford series. With the war over and Bess's days as a nursing sister almost over, it is good to see her growing and making decisions based on the future. It's also interesting to see Bess in another hostile environment outside of France or England. Charles Todd weaves the history of the 1916 Easter Rising throughout the novel and shows Bess (and the reader) why the Irish are so angry with England and why they feel betrayed by some of the Irish who fought for England during the war. Some sections of the novel dragged at times, and sometimes it was a bit unbelievable as to why Bess would remain in Ireland where she was clearly in danger when she could have easily escaped back to England. That being said, I enjoyed the novel. And, considering the way AN IRISH HOSTAGE ended, I can't wait to see what happens next between Bess and Simon.