After four long years, peace is finally in sight. But chaplain Joseph Reavley and his sister, Judith, an ambulance driver on the Western Front, are more hard pressed than ever. Behind the lines, violence is increasing: Soldiers are abusing German prisoners, a nurse has been raped and murdered, and the sinister ideologue called the Peacemaker now threatens to undermine the peace just as he did the war.
Matthew, the third Reavley sibling and an intelligence expert, suddenly arrives at the front with startling news: The Peacemaker's German counterpart has offered to go to England and expose his co-conspirator as a traitor. But with war still raging and prejudices inflamed, such a journey would be fraught with hazards, especially since the Peacemaker has secret informers everywhere, even on the battlefield.
For richness of plot, character, and feeling, We Shall Not Sleep is unmatched. Anne Perry's brilliantly orchestrated finale is a heartstopping tour de force, mesmerizing and totally satisfying.
In the last installment in the Reavley family series, the character known as the Peacemaker is finally identified. As WWI draws to a close, Joseph, a chaplain; Judith, an ambulance driver; and Matthew, an intelligence officer, make the treacherous journey from Flanders to London to expose the Peacemaker. Narrator Michael Page splendidly portrays each character, particularly Oldroyd, an elderly teacher, with the moral issues and complex emotions inherent in war--a sense of duty, compassion, and guilt. The story depicts an often forgotten aspect of the British experience of WWI--siblings and neighbors fighting side by side, seeing the best and the worst in each other. S.G.B. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
About the Author
Anne Perry is the bestselling author of two acclaimed series set in Victorian England: the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels, including Seven Dials and Long Spoon Lane, and the William Monk novels, most recently The Shifting Tide and Dark Assassin. She is also the author of the World War I novels No Graves As Yet, Shoulder the Sky, Angels in the Gloom, At Some Disputed Barricade, and We Shall Not Sleep, as well as the holiday novels A Christmas Journey, A Christmas Visitor, A Christmas Guest, A Christmas Secret, and A Christmas Beginning. Anne Perry lives in Scotland. Visit her website at www.anneperry.net.
