Murder Most Malicious by Alyssa Maxwell

Due to the high number of causalities and disabled veterans, World War I forever changed England. One of the more positive transformations reflected in Murder Most Malicious by Alyssa Maxwell is the breaking down of class barriers. At Lady Phoebe Renshaw’s family estate, Foxwood Hall, the Marquis of Allerton is missing. Though he is a thoroughly unpleasant man that no one misses except his mother, he must be found. The local police suspect a footman, but Lady Phoebe believes the young man innocent. Lady Phoebe joins forces with her maid, Eva Huntford to find out what exactly happened to the Marquis of Allerton. This is a charming historical mystery with two strong female characters and an authentic sense of time and place. Recommend to Downton Abbey fans!

The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes

The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes weaves the tale of two stories together to create a captivating book. The first story, set in World War I France follows a young woman named Sophie, the owner of a hotel. When the Germans make their way into France, Sophie and her sister are forced into using their hotel restaurant to feed the German soldiers and their Kommandant. With her husband gone to war, the Kommandant and Sophie begin to chat about art, particularly the piece entitled The Girl You Left Behind which was painted by Sophie's husband. Not hearing from her husband for several months has Sophie desperate to do just about anything to ensure that he is safe, even if it means sleeping with the enemy. When things don't go according to plan, Sophie is sent to a prison camp in Germany and little is known about after that.

Fast forward to the year 2000 in London, where Liv is still grieving her architect husband. On a whim one night, Liv decides to go out on the town where she meets Paul, a former cop. The two strike up a relationship only to have that relationship go awry when Liv finds out that Paul is working for a firm that recovers stolen art work. When Paul realizes that Liv is now the owner of the once looted, now sought after painting of The Girl You Left Behind things get far more complicated.

Moyes does an amazing job of weaving together two captivating stories so different from one another. Who will keep the painting? What happened to Sophie? Can Paul and Liv work things out? All of these questions come down to the final few pages. Using beautiful language, Moyes once again wrote a book that's unable to be put down.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

In All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr has written a World War II novel with some elements of the fairy tale: a motherless blind girl whose father has given her a (possibly) magic talisman and an orphan boy with a special gift. Marie-Laure is a French girl living in Paris with her father, a locksmith for the Museum of Natural History. Werner Pfennig is a German boy living with his sister in a home for orphans. Curious and intelligent, he has a gift for building and repairing radios, a rather new technology. Because of this talent, Werner is sent to an elite school which trains elite German soldiers. After the war begins, he travels through Germany and Russia, using radio frequencies to track down pockets of resistance fighters. Meanwhile, Marie-Laure and her father flee the war in Paris to St. Malo, a town on the Atlantic coast. Here they take refuge with Etienne, Marie-Laure’s great uncle. Here they hide a valuable diamond (or a replica) from the Museum, a stone believed by some to have magical powers.  And here, after the American invasion, the two stories briefly cross. Etienne has an illegal radio transmitter for which Werner and his patrol are searching. This leads him to Etienne’s home. Thus, Marie-Laure and Werner both shelter in the house when the American bombing begins. During a lull in the bombardment, the German boy helps the blind French girl run to safety. Then they go their separate ways. The meeting is brief and Werner’s gallantry during the attack does not affect the outcome of the war, or even the battle. However, it will prove to be of great importance to future generations.

Check out All the Light We Cannot See @ the library!

The Great War by Joe Sacco

World War I is a now a distant event in the American collective consciousness. Armistice Day has become Veteran’s Day, honoring all veterans rather than the end of The Great War which erupted in Europe one hundred years ago. All of its veterans are now deceased. We can only get our information from books and photographs. Graphic artist Joe Sacco has given us a detailed picture of what the war was like for 120,000 British soldiers who fought on one particular day in 1916.

July 1, 1916 was the first day of the Battle of the Somme. The Great War by Joe Sacco is a twenty-four foot accordion-page book illustrating that day. It begins peacefully with the British General Haig attending church, taking his usual walk and going for a ride on his horse. Meanwhile, guns and ammunition and troops are being moved into place for the battle. As the book unfolds, the battle begins. The artillery fires, the soldiers leave their trenches, advance and incur horrendous casualties. The battle rages on as the book opens up to a continuous twenty-four foot panorama of illustrations, showing the various aspects of the battle. An accompanying pamphlet annotates the major points of the drawing. An essay by Adam Hochschild, author of To End All Wars, explains the decisions that led to this disaster.  General Haig had prepared his troops for this battle as if it were to be fought in a previous century.  He underestimated the strength and resolve of the Germans and expected his infantry and cavalry to eventually fight the enemy in the open. But the Germans were not driven from their trenches and did not come into the open to engage the British troops as they advanced across no man’s land. Instead they picked off the advancing soldiers with machine gun fire. By the end of this first day of the Battle of the Somme, the British had suffered 57,000 casualties.

For history buffs, graphic art fans, fans of Downton Abbey and curious readers of all ages, The Great War illustrates a day in a battle in the first modern war. The black and white drawings are detailed but not graphic in their portrayal of the horror of war.

Check out The Great War by Joe Sacco @ the library!

The Secret Rooms by Catherine Bailey

What begins as a trip to do research for an upcoming book turns into a real-life mystery for television producer Catherine Bailey.  The Secret Rooms reads like something in a PBS Masterpiece or Downton Abbey script:  historian goes to giant English castle to research for a book and is let into a series of rooms that have been completely sealed off for more than 60 years.  While going through the extensive trove of family letters, she notices that all of the letters from the person she is most interested in, John, the 9^th Duke of Rutland, are missing for about six months of World War I.  Not only that: all of the letters from all of the family members are missing during the exact same dates.  Another queer fact pops up during this mystery: John died in the series of rooms where all of the family records were kept though he was suffering from a preventable illness.  What was he feverishly working on until the moment of his death?  Her original book idea abandoned due to a lack of primary sources, the thought continually nags at her: why, if the 9^th Duke was such a meticulous records keeper, would such a large bunch of letters be missing?  What transpires is a twisting hunt through decades of family and government records. 

After much searching, Bailey discovers that there was not one gap in the family’s letters, but three.  Once again, not only John’s letters, but those of the entire family were missing for the periods beginning on August 23^rd 1894, June 6^th 1909 and July 7^th 1915.  While she surmises that the gap in 1915 could potentially have something to do with the war, the gaps for 1909 (when John was stationed at the British Embassy in Rome) and the gap in 1894 (when John was only eight years old) are particularly puzzling.  Was John hiding something that he did or was he covering for someone else?

Bailey takes us on a thrilling ride through the early 20^th British aristocracy and the secrets they kept.  This book is a great choice for both readers who enjoy the writing style of Erik Larson’s Devil in the White City and those who enjoy the world of Downton Abbey.  The Secret Rooms is a fascinating true history of a family who would do almost anything to see their estate and way of life survive.  

Check out The Secret Rooms by Catherine Bailey @ the library!

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear

In this first of many Maisie Dobbs mysteries a seemingly open and shut infidelity case leads the private investigator to more questions than answers.  Maisie looks into a place called The Retreat where severely injured soldiers form the Great War live out their lives with others who understand what they have been through.  Their savings are pooled and used to pay for the community.  This case brings up memories for Maisie from her own time serving as a nurse in the Great War and her backstory is gone over in detail.  You’ll love the smart, independent, and very intuitive Maisie Dobbs and be happy to know she has many more adventures.  Checkout Maisie Dobbs@ thelibrary!

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

Ursula Todd is born early on a snowy morning in February 1910 to a banker and his wife in a charming English home named Fox Corner. Or rather, Ursula is delivered still-born and then is promptly born again on a snowy morning in February of 1910.  Thus begin the lives of Ursula who finds new challenges in each life that she lives including: two world wars, death by drowning, almost being asphyxiated by a cat (and her older brother), death by falling off of a roof, an attempt on Hitler's life, domestic abuse, a creepy typing instructor, an illegal abortion, multiple deaths by Spanish Flu (Four times.  Four!), and a dismal marriage- among many other things.  The two sections of the book that are probably the most interesting are the depictions of war time with Ursula as a child whose father has gone to fight in WWI and then as an adult who has joined a rescue unit for civilians during the WWII blitz.  Ursula has extraordinary feelings of deja vu and in most instances these help her to find a way around some sort of potentially traumatic event.  But figments of lives past and the daily life of the present become entwined in a way which is hellish for poor Ursula.  At one point, Ursula ends up in a private clinic and tries her best to explain in as banal a way as possible: 

"Time isn't circular," she said to Dr. Kellet.  "It's like a...palimpsest." 

"Oh dear," he said. "That sounds very vexing."

The reader is never really sure if Ursula's lives will end or if she solves all of the problems that she is meant to.  But that is the way of things, in this book.  The layers of experience never really end.  

It is difficult to tell you a lot about this novel. A lot of critics have been describing this book as Groundhog Day meets The Butterfly Effect or Cloud Atlas.  But this book is more than that.  Though we see Ursula born time and time again, she owns a different personality, has different knowledge and different actions in each life.  We see the ways in which her family members differ in even the smallest of ways.  We see that no matter how hard Ursula works or tries to remedy a situation that life never turns out the way one plans.  I would highly recommend Life After Life to readers who enjoy an interesting non-linear style plot line or have enjoyed Atkinson's other novels.

Bright's Passage by Josh Ritter

Henry Bright, a young World War I veteran, has returned to his rural West Virginia home accompanied by his battlefield angel who speaks to him through his horse. When Henry’s young wife dies in childbirth, Henry, at the bidding of his horse/angel, sets fire to his cabin, takes his infant son, his goat and his horse and flees, pursued by the evil Colonel, (the father of his dead wife) and the wildfire he has started.  Flashbacks of Henry’s childhood and service as an infantryman in France show the reader how Henry came to this state of affairs. Possibly shell-shocked by the battlefield brutality he has witnessed, Henry sometimes does his best to follow the angel’s instructions and sometimes resists these instructions as he makes his way across the countryside. When he finally stops at a hotel with many other people who have been rousted from their homes by the fire, his conflict with the Colonel reaches a shockingly violent denouement. The author of Bright's Passage is songwriter Josh Ritter.  His lyrical way with words, which is apparent whether he is describing the wild beauty of Appalachia, the horrors of war or a forest fire, or the fresco paintings in a French church, help us to understand the workings of the mind of a battle fatigued veteran.

Overseas by Beatriz Williams

When investment banker Kate Wilson first lays eyes on the legendary and devastatingly handsome Wall Street hedge fund billionaire Julian Laurence after a business meeting, she feels strangely and inexplicably as though she already knows him.  Still, Kate knows she should be cautious with her heart - British billionaires don't fall in love with bankers from Wisconsin.  But Julian's relentless pursuit of Kate's love has a much deeper, more impossible story behind it.  The modern Julian Laurence bears an astonishing resemblence to Captain Julian Laurence Ashford, a British aristocrat and famous poet who was killed in France during World War I, his body never recovered.  With enough romance, passion and enduring love to make your heart sing and your fingertips tingle, Beatriz Williams' first novel is also a fast-paced mystery packed with historical detail.  If you're a hopeless romantic looking for another dashing, debonair gentleman to shelve alongside Mr. Darcy, you'll want to put Overseas at the top of your summer reading list!

Overseas will be published on May 10, 2012.  This review was based on a review copy sent by the publisher.