39. No Graves As Yet

by Anne Perry
Rated ★★★★½


This book is one of the best mysteries I have ever read. I never saw the conclusion to the book coming. Excellent writing. My only complaint is that It's very somber and sometimes borders on melodramatic. All the characters take themselves so seriously that in spite of a really good story and skillful writing it's a little hard going. I have been around a lot of Brits and I have never met one who was as totally devoid of a sense of humor or wit as these characters seem to be. Admittedly the subject is serious but it's been my experience with the British people that I know is that when the going gets tough they can always come up with some kind of crack that relieves the tension somewhat. So far, these characters don't seem to be able to do that. So for that reason I am taking away 1/2 star from otherwise would be a five star rating.

There are three more books in this series and I intend to read them all in the very near future. I think that all four put together would be no more than some of the hefty blockbusters I have been reading lately.

Here is the blurb from inside the book jacket: "On a sunny afternoon in late June, Cambridge professor Joseph Reavley is summoned from a student cricket match to learn that his parents have died in an automobile crash. Joseph's brother, Matthew, as officer in the Intelligence Service, reveals that their father had been en route to London to turn over to him a mysterious secret document - allegedly with the power to disgrace England forever and destroy the civilized world. A paper so damning that Joseph and Matthew dared mention it only to their restless younger sister. Now it has vanished." "What has happened to this explosive document, if indeed it ever existed? How had it fallen into the hands of their father, a quiet countryman? Not even Matthew, with his Intelligence connections, can answer these questions. And Joseph is soon burdened with a second tragedy: the shocking murder of his most gifted student, handsome Sebastian Allard, loved and admired by everyone. Or so it appeared." "Meanwhile, England's seamless peace is cracking - as the distance between the murder of an Austrian archduke by a Serbian anarchist and the death of a brilliant university student by a bullet to the head becomes shorter with each day."--BOOK JACKET.