No Graves As Yet

Starred review from June 30, 2003
This absorbing mystery/spy thriller, set in tranquil Cambridge just before the onset of the Great War, marks a powerful start to bestseller Perry's much anticipated new series. In a lush and deceptively peaceful opening scene, college professor and chaplain Joseph Reavley is interrupted while watching a cricket game by his intelligence officer brother, Matthew, who reports the sudden death of their parents in a car crash. This horrifying news sets off a long but compelling investigation by the brothers that takes them across verdant summertime England, looking for a secret document that their father was trying to deliver to Matthew at the time of his death. Against a backdrop of ominous news from the continent, Perry artfully weaves connections between pacifist students at Cambridge, one of whom is also murdered, and German agents who may be planning "a conspiracy to ruin England and everything we stand for." The intrigue is further complicated by jilted lovers and jealous spouses at the university, all with grudges against an alleged blackmailer in their midst who may also be privy to exam cribbing and other illicit goings-on. Perry's title, a quotation from G.K. Chesterton, is a portent of the carnage that soon awaits the youth of England, yet by the final resolution of this gripping case, many graves have regrettably already been filled in Cambridge's serene churchyards. (Sept. 1)Forecast:For Perry fans concerned that her two long-running Victorian series have been losing steam, this fresh beginning, backed by a 12-city author tour, will renew their faith. Expect stronger than usual sales.

May 1, 2003
Even as an assassination rocks Sarajevo, Cambridge professor Joseph Reavley and his brother, Matthew (who's in the Secret Intelligence Service), discover that the murder of their parents has international implications. The start of a five-book series set during World War II.

Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2003
Perry has probably found as much intrigue\emdash and certainly more fun\emdash in the Victorian era than did Queen Victoria herself. Her almost three-dozen historical mysteries\emdash one series starring William Monk, the other Thomas and Charlotte Pitt\emdash have plumbed the heights and depths of London society. Now, she launches a new series (five novels are proposed) chronicling the British experience of World War I. This first novel, as the title indicates, takes place just before the bloodbath. On the same day that the archduke and archduchess of Austria are shot in Sarajevo, the father and mother of three young adults living an idyll at Cambridge are killed in a car accident. The young man who is to become the hero of this series, Joseph Reavley, believes his parents were murdered for a secret document in his father's possession outlining a cataclysmic conspiracy. His suspicious are borne out by a series of break-ins following the accident and by the murder of a young Cambridge student. Starting with the forced coincidence of the archduke/duchess\endash mother/father murders, Perry's latest is pretty heavy-handed and occasionally downright corny. Clich\'e9-laden dialogue doesn't help. This is clearly a misstep for the talented Perry, but her devoted fans will flock to it. Too bad it reads more like a clumsy nineteenth-century potboiler than the product of a contemporary mystery maven. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)