Friday, April 20, 2007

40. Shoulder the Sky


By Anne Perry
Rated:★★★★

This is the second book in Perry's WWI series. Like the first it is a gripping story, beautiful written but it's also Grim. Very Grim. Several times I had to put the book down and back away from it for a while because it was so intense. For those who are avid readers of this period in history I cannot recommend this series highly enough. But it's not easy reading.

In the trenches of Flanders, the Reverend Joseph Reavley goes about the task of trying to keep up the morale of the British soldiers, extending his duties to assisting in bringing men back from the barbed-wired and mud-mired "no man's land." When he retrieves the body of an egotistical correspondent, Eldon Prentice, every person who knew him confesses to being glad he was killed. However, it wasn't the Germans who murdered him, but one of their own, and Reavley decides to investigate. Perry's eye for historical detail masterfully places the main characters in settings exactingly correct for the era, whether London, the trenches, or the English countryside.