No Graves as Yet

Anne Perry

Jospeh Reavley, a minister and professor at Cambridge University, was at a cricket match in 1914 when his brother arrived to tell him their parents had just died in an automobile crash. Matthew Reavley works for the Intelligence Service in London. He explains that their father had called him the night before and was bringing a document he had procured through political connections. Matthew and Jospeh have to find that document as soon as possible. According to their father, the document would change England...and the world...forever. But they can't find anything in their parents' clothes, in the car, or in the house. The document is a mystery

Two weeks later both men return to work, grieving for their parents and wondering if such a document really exists. The world news begins to catch up with them again. It seems the same day their parents died, an Austrian archduke had been assassinated in Serbia. All the discussions in the Intelligence Agency and among the young men at Cambridge center around the possibility of war. A few days later, one of Joseph's brightest students is found dead, shot to death in his rooms. Sebastian had obviously known his killer because there wasn't any resistance. Someone at Cambridge had killed him.

The tensions at Cambridge grow. Joseph discovers Sebastian wasn't as righteous or good as he thought. A detective is hanging around the college trying to discover the killer. And the situation in Europe looks worse.

Matthew doesn't know who he can trust among his peers. It is probable that someone in the office overheard him talking to his father about the document the night before the "accident." Both Matthew and Joseph, as well as their sister Judith, now believe their parents were murdered - that the car had been sabotaged. Can Matthew trust his own superior? Or the head of the agency? His father had warned the document carried dire implications against the country's government, up through the Royal Family. How can Matthew investigate the possible document if he cannot trust anyone?

Anne Perry weaves a complex, compelling tale in No Graves as Yet, a novel of World War I. The "all knowing reader" suspects there is a connection between the elder Reavley's and the student Sebastian's deaths. But Joseph has to work through what really happened. I was able to put part of it together, yet not all. The clues are there, but Perry often makes them look like red herrings. Joseph's character is fairly well developed, but there are still corners and mysteries that can be fleshed out if there are follow up novels. Matthew's character isn't as well developed, and Judith's is barely touched. I can see how this could easily be the beginning of another series if Perry wishes it.

As usual, Perry's historical facts are well researched and presented. I have never studied World War I. I knew that it happened because of treaties and alliances between different European countries, but nothing more. No Graves as Yet uses the Cambridge students to discuss the complexities of international politics 90 years ago. I finished a good novel with a better knowledge of what happened in Europe at the time.

No Graves as Yet
Shoulder the Sky
Angels in the Gloom
At Some Disputed Barricade
We Shall Not Sleep

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