At Some Disputed Barricade, by Anne Perry
The Book
The Reavleys are back at it. Joseph is still at the front, being a chaplain to his men. Matthew is still in the intelligence services, Judith is still driving an ambulance, and Hannah is still holding down the fort. Matthew finds out that the man he believed to be the Peacemaker wasn't. Now he's trying to unravel a bundle of lies wrapped around two promising junior lawmakers/government ministers. He can't save both of them, it's doubtful he can even save one. But he's got to try. And he's got to do all of that without alerting his three remaining suspects that he's on the trail of the Peacemaker again.
Meanwhile, back in France, Judith and Joseph are wrapped up in the murder of Colonel Northrup, the only child of General Norththrup. Joseph must solve the mystery of the man's murder, a murder he would've been reluctant to report had not the journalist Richard Mason force him into it. If Joseph does not, an extremely brave and admired doctor facing the firing squad.
The journey takes Matthew to emotional terrain as fraught as Joseph's trip behind enemy lines. And Judith realizes too late, she may have done the emotionally compelling thing, but maybe it was wrong, after all.
My Thoughts
It's a fairly tightly written book. It takes us through the near mutinies on the Western Front after the mutinies by the French troops in 1917. Joseph flies in the the airplanes, with a run in with the notorious Red Baron, and finally behind the German lines, where starvations reigns and everyone is ready to quit the war. As a broad overview of 1917 in WWI, it's not a bad backdrop.
I did not find this plot, so similar to Shoulder the Sky, to be as compelling. Nor did I find Colonel Northrup as well drawn out as Prentice, the despicable journalist killed in the previous novel. In fact, it seems, Joseph's moral weariness is the only reason to have included this plot.
Likewise, I did not find Matthew's story arc compelling, and I got too little of Judith to make something of her story arc. All in all, it seems, so far, Angels in the Gloom, is perhaps the best of this series. We have two more books to go, and still 3 suspects to find out who is the Peacemaker. Aiden Thyer, the president of St. John's college in Cambridge, seems an excellent choice, but again, if it's Matthew where the deepest betrayal will hit close to home, then Calder Shearing is the most likely suspect. However, there are reasons, unless Perry has mistaken herself, to believe Shearing is not the Peacemaker, notably, things Shearing would have known and the Peacemaker seems not to know in this book. That makes, by reason, Dermont Sandwell our most likely Peacemaker. He fits the profile we need. He was a friend of John Reavley, he's high enough placed in government to both know the secrets and to manipulate the ends, he's well connected, and there are gaps in the Peacemaker's knowledge that his distance from Joseph and Matthew makes sense.
How Much My Library Card Saved Me
This book came to me from Des Plaines Public library (hi Cam!). It looks like it entered their collection, which was already on a digital system in March of 2007. The plastic library cover is a bit scuffed, but otherwise this book is in excellent condition. There are no internal markings or dog ears (yay). The book was easy to hold, so I believe it has been read regularly enough, but not so much as to wear out the glue in the spine The receipt says Des Plaines calculate this book at $21.95 and the inside cover agrees. That's the number I will use for the book.
This Book $21.95
Library Items Reviewed This Year $196.83
Private Books
This Book $00.00
Total of Private Books $52.75
Total of All Items Reviewed This Year $261.58
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