No Graves As Yet, Anne Perry

 The Book 

Dr, Joseph Reavley finds out from his brother Matthew that their parents were killed in a car crash. Apparently, their father had his hands on a document that revealed a conspiracy that would lead to an awful, upcoming war. Joseph and his brother vow to get to the bottom of the document and the mystery around their parents' deaths. They are so wrapped up in it, that they miss the major news of the day, the death of Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie by an assassin in Sarajevo. Matthew works in the SIS, so he is expertly stationed to follow the clandestine clues. 

Joseph and Matthew barely get started when one Joseph's students at Cambridge is found dead, apparently of murder. Inspector Perth comes in to determine who killed Sebastian, God knows plenty of people hated him. As Europe marches towards war, Matthew and Joseph must figure out of their father actually had a document that would have started a war, and if he did, can they stop it? It seems oh so far away, but tragically, one more person is murdered, and war they can't stop is on their doorstep, whatever is an agnostic preacher to do? 

My Thoughts

I would like to thank Dr. Michael Neiburg for his exhaustive research into what caused WWI. Subconsciously, I think I was leaning into the research for year specifically because I was putting off reading the five books in the WWI series. The Victorian mysteries I loved. I didn't want to shift time periods. And, I knew too much. I knew that Anne Perry based these books on the experiences of her grandfather, Joseph Reavley. Her grandfather had been a chaplain in WWI. The work is fiction. All fiction. And, knowing what I know from Dr. Neiburg's work, the dramatic irony is more than a little hard to swallow. 

Perry does an admirable job of portraying the real feelings of normal people in the fear and disinterest leading up to WWI. But, it doesn't hit home the way the Victorian work does. Perhaps if I knew less, then I would care less. Or maybe, it's because the events portrayed in the book, the dangerous document that would lead to such a catastrophic war, that war pacifists would kill to prevent it from happening. I find this to be such a crazy leap of logic, even given what I know is coming.

I do think after watching lectures from Dr. Neiburg, Dr. Christopher Clarke, and Dr. XXX, that WWI was probably both inevitable and unpredictable. The world had so much globalization at that point, but just as countries got better at solving their disputes, the forces inside the empires that felt left out/left behind became more radical. Just as capitalism made living easier for even the poorest of the poor, the rise of unspeakable wealth left in it's wake great evil. These forces undoubtedly led to WWI. And yet, I feel, had the Archduke survived, we might never have had WWI. 

The plot of the book is thin, the historical portions of the settings, accurate, but twisted. The mystery is solvable. In fact the solution presented itself to me almost immediately, and there is precious little along the way to dissuade me. I'm finishing the series, but I strongly prefer Charlotte and Thomas and William and Hester to the Reavleys. 

How Much My Library Card Saved Me

This book came to me from Park Ridge Public Library. The 368 page hardcover is in really good condition. There is no date on the acquisition of the book on the interior, not all libraries do that, but I find it interesting when they do. Since it's not a first edition, I would conclude that this was an end of the 2003 year purchase. In whatever year they did acquire the book, they were still using the physical check out card system because the card pocket is glued into the back of the book. The only markings in the book are the pristine handwriting, in pencil, by whatever library services tech printed the information that library used at the time to catalogue the book. The publication date was August 26, 2003. The back cover says it sold for $25.95, that is the number I will use. 

 This Book                                                        $25.95

Library Items Reviewed This Year                $711.93

Private Books

This Book                                                       $00.00

Total of Private Books                                    $85.88

Total of All Items Reviewed This Year         $797.81

Still Here? 

 I am now a published author. You can pick up a *FREE COPY* of my novella The Big Intersection here.