No Graves As Yet : A Novel (World War One Novels (Paperback))

Rating:
Summary: Y-A-W-N
Review: If you want a lesson...heck, a series of lessons...in how NOT to write a novel, take this book to your novel discussion group. Like the slow motion car crash that opens the work, one reads on, unable to look away from one artistic horror after another. Leaden characters, endless repetition, sickenly twee and lofty descriptions of Cambridge, inexplicable plot developments, superfluous references,characters and plot material, heavy-handed foreshadowing and more foreshadowing. I can only conclude that Anne Perry's editors are laughing at us all over their champagne glasses, laying private bets on just how bad her books have to be before they stop selling. I wonder just how many more of these monstrosities (the book jacket threatens a further FOUR in this WWI based series) will actually make it into production.

Ghastly, ghastly book...and perhaps the worst part of it is the "teaser" first chapter of the sequel. It is truly, truly awful. Save yourself some money and misery and pass on this dreadful "bestseller".

Rating:
Summary: Consider it on its own terms
Review: It somewhat dismays me that some of the readers' reviews for this book seem to be more concerned with comparing it to the author's Pitt series rather than evaluating it on its own terms. I'm sure the Pitt books were very good, but the fact remains that Anne Perry has chosen to move on. Nostalgia for that series should not cause No Graves As Yet to be treated more harshly than otherwise would be the case.
In any event, I found No Graves As Yet to be a good if not outstanding work. The author's strongest point is her ability to capture a time and place so well with what's usually a fairly brief description. Consider the opening paragraph: "It was a golden afternoon in late June, a perfect day for cricket. The sky burned in a cloudless sky, and the breeze was barely sufficient to stir the slender, pale skirts of the women as they stood on the grass at Fenner's Field, parasols in hand. The men, in white flannels, were relaxed and smiling." I'm not a particularly imaginative sort, yet I had no trouble at all picturing myself at a Cambridge cricket field in 1914, thanks to just three descriptive sentences. Other examples of terse yet vivid descriptions abound throughout the book. Ms. Perry also does a fine job at portraying the atmosphere of fear and suspicion pervading the college where much of the action occurs, as well as the apprehension - often expressed through denial - of upcoming war.
As for the story itself, it was a reasonably interesting mystery with the requisite number of twists and turns, though things were thrown at us very quickly near the end, making for some confusion. I had to re-read the last chapter just to make sure I had it right. Ms. Perry also was able to blend in a little bit of history into the story without making it all seem contrived.
One weakness of the book was that some of the characters were not as well-developed as might be expected, with the singular excepton of Joseph Reavely. We never quite learned as much about his brother Matthew as we would have wanted, though this may be remedied in future books in the series. It also was difficult keeping track of some secondary characters, especially the acquaintances of the deceased John Reavley. But these are minor flaws, and I consider this book to merit a 4 out of 5.

Rating:
Summary: England Teeters on the Brink of World War One....
Review: The weeks immediately preceding World War One is the time frame for Anne Perry's novel "No Graves as Yet." This story of espionage and murder is set in Cambridge England. Joseph Reavley, a lecturer in Biblical Languages at Cambridge, learns the tragic news that his parents have both been killed in a car accident from his brother, Matthew, who is a member of England's Intelligence Service. The brothers quickly determine that their parents' death does not appear to be accidental, so they begin trying to find out who caused their car accident. Matthew reveals that their father had telephoned him the night before he died and said that he had obtained a secret document which "could change the face of England forever". The elder Mr. Reavley was on his way to give the document to Matthew when the accident occurred. Just a few weeks later, one of Joseph Reavley's star students is found dead in his room with a gunshot through his head. Most of the story involves the two brothers interviewing friends of the deceased to try to determine motives for the murders.

Anne Perry's descriptions of her characters and the English country are wonderful. The author evokes a sense of the peace and serenity which pervaded England prior to World War One. However, there is not much action in the story. The first hundred pages moved very slowly. After that, Ms. Perry introduces more information about the "secret document" that the senior Mr. Reavley allegedly had in his possession, and the pace of the story picks up a bit.

The two brothers Joseph and Matthew were characters that I cared about. I look forward to reading about what happens to them in the War in the next book in this series.

Rating:
Summary: Where's the Sequel?
Review: What a let-down. Like another reviewer, when I finished reading this book, I said "Huh?" There are so many loose ends, you have to wonder if there is a sequel. Realizing that the next novel does reintroduce Joseph immediately, I will eat my words if Joseph, in his trench in France, suddenly decides to reflect on his parents' murders, etc. and fills in all the unanswered questions. Actually I had wondered if somehow I had missed something, but now I see from other reviews that, indeed, lots of things were never explained. As a lover of mysteries, (...) leading you along and then stabbing you in the back. Like others, I thought the book bogged down in rambling philosophy, but I kept going, hoping to find solutions.

In fairness, there were one or two interesting philosophical comments: Sebastian's belief that it really matters what you leave behind, "...it's your thanks to the past, your love of the present, and your gift to the future."