No Graves As Yet
A Novel of World War I
By Anne Perry 

     This mystery is the first volume in an anticipated triology about World War I. It begins in tranquil Cambridge in June 1914 as Professor Joseph Reavley learns from his intelligence officer brother, Matthew, that their parents have been killed in an auto accident. With that powerful beginning, the brothers start an investigation into their parent's deaths. It seems that their father was on his way to London to give Matthew a secret document with the power to disgrace England and destroy the civilized world. The brothers uncover evidence pointing to the probability that their parents were murdered. England feels secure, and no one thinks that the threat of World War could possibly involve them.

     Then Joseph's most gifted student is murdered in his dormitory room. The brothers begin to suspect that Sebastian's murder may be somehow tied in with the murder of their parents and an international plot to destroy the peace. Perry manages to weave many twists and turns into the plot, along with adultery, cheating on exams, suicide, patriotism, betrayal, German spies and a plethora of unlikely suspects; she keeps you guessing right up until the end.

     Anne Perry is a master at characterization; she makes you feel the emotions of the great variety of characters that people this story. She ties it all together in a way that you never guessed and primes you for the start of the Great War...to begin in the next volume. I'm waiting with great anticipation. I really enjoy Perry's leisurely writing style that still manages to build the suspense and keep you reading.