The first 3/4 of this book was INTENSE. It described life on the front line at Ypres during WWI. It was horrifying and upsetting, but it was written beautifully, and I feel like I could smell the smells and hear the gunshots and see the horrors myself. The last bit was a bit far fetched, but it also wrapped things up for the time being. On to the next in the series!

Seriously disappointing.

So glad I stuck with this series. Much better than the first one.

Well done. Great story.

If I were discussing only the writing quality of this book, I would probably give it three stars--maybe even four--but I have a major issue with the central conceit. The author--and consequently the main character--thinks World War I was a righteous pursuit of justice that got a bit messy. Eyeview it as a ghastly and unnecessary bloodbath. All soldiers in this book are presented as noble, honorable, and good while all pacifists are cowardly, conniving, and lacking in personal morality. The enemy is perfectly understandable; people unwilling to kill are not. If this book had been written during World War I, this attitude would've been typical and understandable--but it wasn't.

The main character lost all moral high ground with me when he was willing to kill an innocent and helpless man in order to prevent certain truths from being publicized. I agree that the conspiracy in this novel is despicable, but it would have been nice to have at least one character who is opposed to the war and had some personal honor. Many pacifists had believes they were willing to die for — they simply weren't willing to kill others for them.

I don't know whether or not I will continue with this series. I would absolutely love to see a pacifist character who was also willing to help unravel the so-called pacifist conspiracy, or at least one who refuses to participate in it.

Second in the WWI series by Anne Perry. Joseph Reavley is now a military chaplain and at the front in France. His sister is a driver and his brother is an intelligence officer with the government. The trio continues to look for the answers to the murder of their parents. Anne wraps up some of the loose ends from her first book here and leaves new breadcrumbs to follow in future books. Her description of trench warfare was amazing...I felt as though I was there. Superb series.