Search
Log in
  • Home

  • Categories

  • Audiobooks

  • E-books

  • Magazines

  • For kids

  • Top lists

  • Help

  • Download app

  • Use campaign code

  • Redeem gift card

  • Try free now
  • Log in
  • Language

    🇧🇪 Belgique

    • FR
    • EN

    🇩🇰 Danmark

    • DK
    • EN

    🇩🇪 Deutschland

    • DE
    • EN

    🇪🇸 España

    • ES
    • EN

    🇫🇷 France

    • FR
    • EN

    🇳🇱 Nederland

    • NL
    • EN

    🇳🇴 Norge

    • NO
    • EN

    🇦🇹 Österreich

    • AT
    • EN

    🇨🇭 Schweiz

    • DE
    • EN

    🇫🇮 Suomi

    • FI
    • EN

    🇸🇪 Sverige

    • SE
    • EN
  1. Books
  2. Crime
  3. Police procedurals

Read and listen for free for 30 days!

Cancel anytime

Try free now
4.2(13)

The Shattered Tree : A Bess Crawford Mystery

World War I battlefield nurse Bess Crawford goes to dangerous lengths to investigate a wounded soldier’s background—and uncover his true loyalties—in this thrilling and atmospheric entry in the bestselling “vivid period mystery series” (New York Times Book Review).

At the foot of a tree shattered by shelling and gunfire, stretcher-bearers find an exhausted officer, shivering with cold and a loss of blood from several wounds. The soldier is brought to battlefield nurse Bess Crawford’s aid station, where she stabilizes him and treats his injuries before he is sent to a rear hospital. The odd thing is, the officer isn’t British—he’s French. But in a moment of anger and stress, he shouts at Bess in German.

When Bess reports the incident to Matron, her superior offers a ready explanation. The soldier is from Alsace-Lorraine, a province in the west where the tenuous border between France and Germany has continually shifted through history, most recently in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, won by the Germans. But is the wounded man Alsatian? And if he is, on which side of the war do his sympathies really lie?

Of course, Matron could be right, but Bess remains uneasy—and unconvinced. If he was a French soldier, what was he doing so far from his own lines . . . and so close to where the Germans are putting up a fierce, last-ditch fight?

When the French officer disappears in Paris, it’s up to Bess—a soldier’s daughter as well as a nurse—to find out why, even at the risk of her own life.


Author:

  • Charles Todd

Narrator:

  • Rosalyn Landor

Format:

  • Audiobook

Duration:

  • 9 h 36 min

Language:

English

Categories:

  • Crime
  • Police procedurals
  • Crime
  • Classic crime
  • Historic and folklore novels
  • Historic novels

More by Charles Todd

Skip the list
  1. The Cliff's Edge : A Novel

    Charles Todd

    audiobook
  2. Black Cat Weekly #50

    Charles Todd, Cynthia Ward, Somtow Sucharitkul, Phyllis Ann Karr, Michael Bracken, Paul Di Filippo, Barb Goffman, Elizabeth Zelvin, Darrell Schweitzer, Algis Budrys, E. E. "Doc" Smith

    book
  3. Blood Money

    Charles Todd

    book
  4. A Game of Fear : A Novel

    Charles Todd

    audiobook
  5. An Irish Hostage : A Novel

    Charles Todd

    audiobook
  6. A Fatal Lie : A Novel

    Charles Todd

    audiobook
  7. A Hanging at Dawn : A Bess Crawford Short Story

    Charles Todd

    audiobook
  8. The Murder Stone

    Charles Todd

    audiobook
  9. A Divided Loyalty : A Novel

    Charles Todd

    audiobook
  10. A Cruel Deception : A Bess Crawford Mystery

    Charles Todd

    audiobook
  11. The Black Ascot

    Charles Todd

    audiobook
  12. A Forgotten Place : A Bess Crawford Mystery

    Charles Todd

    audiobook

  • 36 books

    Charles Todd

    Charles Todd is the New York Times bestselling author of the Inspector Ian Rutledge mysteries, the Bess Crawford mysteries, and two stand-alone novels. A mother-and-son writing team, Caroline passed away in August 2021 and Charles lives in Florida.

    Read more

Help and contact


About us

  • Our story
  • Career
  • Press
  • Accessibility
  • Nextory One
  • Partner with us
  • Investor relations
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

Explore

  • Categories
  • Audiobooks
  • E-books
  • Magazines
  • For kids
  • Top lists

Popular categories

  • Crime
  • Biographies and reportage
  • Fiction
  • Feel-good and romance
  • Personal development
  • Children's books
  • True stories
  • Sleep and relaxation

Nextory

Copyright © 2025 Nextory AB

Privacy Policy · Terms ·
Excellent4.3 out of 5