Lady Elspeth Douglas is in Paris keeping company with her aristocratic - and heavily pregnant - friend, Madeleine Villard, when the German Army races through Belgium and the French army is mobilized. To the front must go Madeleine's husband, Henri, and her brother, Alain, the latter of whom is also Lady Elspeth's fiance.
Elspeth remains in France to see Madeleine through childbirth and then returns home through war-torn northern France to the Channel. What she sees their - carnage beyond anything her mind could have conjured - and who she meets - Captain Peter Gilchrist - change the course of her future. No longer content to be a prim and proper aristocrat, Lady Elspeth defies her family, lays her title aside, and enlists in Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service.
Despite the backdrop of World War I, The Walnut Tree is generally a light (and quick) read. The characters are agreeable, the romance is not too overdone, the plot is not too predictable. (Actually, there were quite a few twists and turns - which made sense when I learned that Charles Todd primarily writes mysteries.) Somewhat bizarrely, there is a subplot about the looting of valuables from abandoned homes in France and Belgium. This added nothing to the overall story and, while it didn't take much away, either, it did leave me completely scratching my head as to why it had been randomly included. Perhaps that mystery thing again.
Despite being set in a different war, The Walnut Tree frequently reminded me of The House at Tyneford, although I cannot put my finger on the reasons why. (In style it is similar to The Book Thief, and I think this may also be YA, which I'm discovering to be a broad and poorly defined genre. But I digress.) In any event, lovers of historical fiction - and, as the publisher notes, Downton Abbey - should certainly enjoy The Walnut Tree.
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