Bess is embroiled in a mystery that eventually will come close to home

The Cliff's Edge (Bess Crawford #13) by Charles Todd       

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Bess Crawford’s home from Ireland. 1919, a year after the war is over. A letter arrives from cousin Melinda asking her to check out the employer/companion of an acquaintance from her South African days whose about to have surgery. Lady Beatrice is about her mother’s age older and a force to be reckoned with. She basically decides Bess will stay to help her with her recovery. 

Whilst there a message comes that the Lady Beatrice’s godson, Gordon Neville, has been in an accident.

Lady Beatrice is unable travel so she sends her companion, Lillian Taylor, and Bess into the wilds of Yorkshire to help.

What they find is Gordon injured, having fallen from a small, yet rugged rise, the Knob, whilst looking for stray sheep. Another man is dead and Gordon is accused of murder. When they get to the Hall they find a particularly obnoxious policeman, Inspector Wade, trying to cart Gordon off to prison. The Doctor and Bess are worried the wound will turn septic and refuse to let him go.

What follows is a dangerous dance of snarling men (and a dog), devious meetings, unreal expectations and the past rushing up to envelop them all. 

The title says it all for those forced to stay together in a house where a murderer might be.

Add to that that half the men of the village of Scarfdale went to war with Gordon. Few came home. There’s anger. 

Believable characters in a village decimated by the number of men they’ve lost.

And at the end Bess is left balancing on a metaphorical cliff’s edge as Simon’s past rushes up to meet him. 

A Willian Morrow ARC via NetGalley.                                              

Many thanks to the author and publisher.