We Shall Not Sleep

by Anne Perry

My first finished book of 2008 may just wind up being my favorite at the end of the year. At least, I would not be surprised if it did.

Anne Perry has long been in my top 10 favorite authors. It's with exuberance that I review this, the fifth and last, in her acclaimed World War I series. The overall mystery that ran throughout the series covering the length of the war was discovering who the 'Peacemaker' was and stopping him before he succeeded in his plan for world peace and dominance. There was within each book a separate mystery that was solved within the time frame of the book.

In book five a nurse is brutally murdered and two innocent people are blamed. The Reavley siblings must discover who it is in order to take care of some secret service work before the war ends. And the end is soon approaching. A young lady the reader knows well from other books was raped and she may be the only one who can shed light on who the real murderer is, but if she comes forward she could loose the love of her life. Perry provides real insight into the feelings of people in the early part of the century towards rape victims.

I seldom cry during movies or books, but I was choked up several times while reading We Shall Not Sleep. I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning to finish the book. After doing so, I crawled in bed beside my sleeping husband and thanked the Lord that he never had to personally experience war. And my heart wept for those who suffered and who still battle today for freedom.

Perry wrote a powerful series. The mysteries are captivating, the history is well-depicted, and the storyline is well constructed. I marked a kazillion passages to reread at the end. I love putting a little bookdart* at a thought or passage that I want to reread at the end of the book. It refreshes the ideas and allows me to think of them again but with the end of the book in mind.

When talking with the Peacemaker, Mason (a war correspondent) became aware of the conflicting beliefs of Joseph Reavley and the Peacemaker. "The Peacemaker had argued over and over that the greater end justified the smaller ugliness of the means. Joseph Reavley had said that the means were inextricably bound into and part of the end. Being a chaplain, he had put it in religious terms. He had said that if you picked up and used the devil's tools, you had already served his purpose, because using them had changed you, and that was all he wanted."

In this passage the flaw of the Peacemaker's plan is contemplated by Mason.

"The Peacemaker had begun with such high, clear ideals. They would broker peace, prevent the slaughter and ruin of war, at a relatively small price. Except that it was not a small price. They had not seen then that the lack of open war is not the same thing as peace. There are internal prices to pay that create a different kind of war, another sort of destruction. . . It wasn't nationality that was the issue. It was the passion and belief of the individual, the right to rule himself in the manner of his choice, the chance to be different, funny, inventive, to learn anything and everything, to question, to make mistakes and to start again."

At one point Matthew Reavley (Secret Intelligence) is recruiting Mason's help and tells him of the Peacemaker's plans.

"It would be peace, but without any passion or individuality, any freedom to think and question, to be different to dare new ideas, to complain against stupidity or injustice, to question or work or laugh aloud. It would be the peace of death. . . He still hasn't learned that you can't force people without at the same time destroying them."

Joseph often refers to Dante's Inferno. Here he has a brief insight of his study of that book.

"It's Dante again - Rewarded not for what we do, but by it--and by what we see, and what we see others do."

Joseph confronting the Peacemaker.

"There would always have been some who would pay for the freedom for us to make our own laws, speak our differences aloud, follow the faith we choose . . . If we pay with our lives, then so be it. We will not pay with the slow death of our minds or the withering of our souls."

Though there are more, I will only share one last kernel.

"Great men use power as little as possible."

*I bought several tins of bookdarts for Christmas presents and they sent me a couple of extra sleeves. If you would like to win a sleeve of 12 or so bookdarts, make a comment and I will draw for a winner on Sunday, January 13.

A Christmas Secret

by Anne Perry

This was my second book for the Christmas Theme Book Challenge. Perry is one of my favorite authors. I especially like her WWI series and her Monk mystery series.

This short book is about a mystery left on the shoulders of a young reverend and his wife who are temporarily filling the shoes of a well-loved reverend who was quickly called away from his parish.

I liked the wife, Clarice, who tried so hard to build her husband's confidence in himself. She is kind of plain and often embarrasses her husband. I guess I related to that. The mystery was easy to solve and the story was not exceptional, but it was still a fun book.

At Some Disputed Barricade

by Anne Perry
This is book 4 in Perry's excellent World War I historical fiction/mystery series. The year is 1917. Joseph Reavley, a chaplain, and his sister, Judith, an ambulance driver, are bone-weary as they approach the fourth year of the conflict. On the Western Front, the Battle of Passchendale has begun, and among the many fatalities from Joseph's regiment is the trusted commanding officer, who is replaced by a young major whose pompous incompetence virtually guarantees that many good soldiers will die needlessly. Soon he dies, too, but not from enemy fire, but by one of his own men. Joseph would like to turn a blind eye, but he cannot. In fact, he is charged with tracking his escaped comrades through Switzerland and return them to the front where they will have to stand trial.

Matthew Reavley is continuing his work in the Secret Intelligence Service and is in London trying to uncover the identity of the Peacemaker - an obsessed genius who has committed murder and treason in an attempt to stop Britain from winning the war.

One quote: If we have any right to claim that we fight for civilized values, a way of life acceptable to man and God, then we do not look away from the truth because it is not what we wish it to be or find comfortable to deal with.

So much of the tension in these novels comes from the clash between the atrocities of war and personal attempts at integrity and honor. These men were living in situations not even imagined in their worst nightmares. Joseph described the French trenches as a blood-soaked gateway to hell. Some of these men spent over 3 years in this hell, mindlessly killing the enemy who they knew were good, kind men with families of their own. They jumped up and over the sides those trenches day after day, watching their lifetime buddies falling around them and wondering if this was the day they would die.

With war as the backdrop, Perry's characters are challenged with decisions of honor, with questions of Gods existence, with the value of one life over another.

This book was released in March 2007. The last and final book comes out on Apr 10 - just one month later. I think that is very kind for those of us who are so anxious.

I actually read finished this book several days ago, but have been busy with family, so I'm a little slow in getting it posted.