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The World War I Novels

by Anne Perry

The World War I Novels series by Anne Perry has 5 known books (5 published) and is best read in publication order, starting with No Graves As Yet (2003).

Books
5 known books (5 novels)
Published
5
First published
2003
Status
completed
Shelved under
Historical Fiction
Last checked

Start here: No Graves As Yet (2003) — then read straight through in publication order.

Book one

Cover of No Graves As Yet

No Graves As Yet (2003)

Reading order

The date order of published books and any announced future entries — the default way to read the series.

  1. No Graves As Yet

    Novel

    No Graves As Yet (2003, 339 pages) opens the five-book series, introducing the Reavley siblings -- Joseph, a Cambridge theology don, his brother Matthew, an intelligence officer, and their sisters Judith and Hannah -- in the days just before World War I breaks out, after their parents are killed in a car crash that turns out to be murder tied to a document that could have prevented the war.

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  2. Shoulder the Sky

    Novel

    Shoulder the Sky (2004, 568 pages) is the second entry, following the Reavley family into the trenches and field hospitals of the war's early phase as the underlying mystery of the shadowy Peacemaker continues to run beneath the story.

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  3. Angels in the Gloom

    Novel

    Angels in the Gloom (2005, 353 pages) arrived a year after Shoulder the Sky, continuing the Reavley siblings' investigation as the third entry against a Britain being remade in real time by grief, propaganda, and betrayal.

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  4. At Some Disputed Barricade

    Novel

    At Some Disputed Barricade (2006, 320 pages) is the fourth installment of The World War I Novels, pushing the Reavley family's hunt for the Peacemaker further into the war's harsher, later years.

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  5. We Shall Not Sleep

    Novel

    We Shall Not Sleep (2007, 304 pages) closes the series, carrying the Reavley siblings and the long-running Peacemaker mystery through to the Armistice of 1918.

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About The World War I Novels

Anne Perry's five-book World War I series follows the Reavley siblings -- Joseph, a Cambridge theology don who becomes an army chaplain; Matthew, an intelligence officer; and their sisters Judith and Hannah -- across the length of the war, beginning when their parents are killed in a car crash that turns out to be murder, tied to a mysterious document their father was carrying that could have prevented the war entirely. That inciting mystery (the identity and aims of a shadowy figure known as the Peacemaker) runs underneath all five books, but each volume is also its own self-contained story set against a different phase and front of the war, from the trenches and field hospitals to the home front and its own crimes and betrayals.

Where Perry's Victorian detective series treat murder as a puzzle to be solved within a stable social order, the World War I novels use the same instinct for investigation against a backdrop where that order is being destroyed in real time -- grief, propaganda, cowardice, and genuine heroism sit much closer together here than in her London drawing-room mysteries, and the mystery plotting is in service of a larger meditation on what the war cost a single family and a generation.

Frequently asked questions

How many books are in Anne Perry's World War I series?

Five: No Graves As Yet (2003), Shoulder the Sky (2004), Angels in the Gloom (2005), At Some Disputed Barricade (2006) and We Shall Not Sleep (2007).

Who are the main characters in the World War I series?

The Reavley siblings -- Joseph, an army chaplain; Matthew, a military intelligence officer; and their sisters Judith and Hannah -- following their parents' murder on the eve of the war.

Is the World War I series connected to Anne Perry's Victorian mysteries?

No, it's a separate, self-contained series with its own characters and a different historical period, set roughly three decades after the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels end.

Do I need to read the World War I novels in order?

Yes -- they form one continuous story spanning the whole war, following the Reavley family and the mystery of a document known as 'the Peacemaker' from 1914 through the 1918 Armistice.

Is the World War I series finished?

Yes, all five books were published between 2003 and 2007.

Reading order last verified .