At Some Disputed Barricade, Anne Perry
At Some Disputed Barricade, Anne Perry
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At Some Disputed Barricade

Author: Anne Perry

Narrator: Samuel Roukin

Unabridged: 11 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 12/17/2024


Synopsis

Anne Perry’s gift for illuminating the heart’s deepest secrets shines through in her bestselling series of World War I novels. With compelling immediacy, she depicts the struggles of men and women torn by their convictions and challenged by the perils of war.

July 1917. Joseph Reavley, a chaplain, and his sister, Judith, an ambulance driver, are bone-weary as they approach the fourth year of the conflict; the peace of the English countryside seems a world away. On the Western Front, the Battle of Passchendaele has begun, and among the many fatalities from Joseph’s regiment is the trusted commanding officer, who is replaced by a young major whose pompous incompetence virtually guarantees that many good soldiers will die needlessly. But soon he, too, is dead—killed by his own men. Although Joseph would like to turn a blind eye, he knows that he must not. Judith, however, anguished at the prospect of court-martials and executions for the twelve men arrested for the crime, has no such inhibitions and, risking of her own life, helps all but one of the prisoners to escape.

Back in England, Joseph and Judith’s brother, Matthew, continues his desperate pursuit to unmask the sinister figure known as the Peacemaker—an obsessed genius who has committed murder and treason in an attempt to stop Britain from winning the war. As Matthew trails the Peacemaker, Joseph tracks his comrades through Switzerland and into enemy territory. His search will lead to a reckoning pitting courage and honor against the blind machinery of military justice.

At Some Disputed Barricade is an Anne Perry masterpiece—brilliant, surprising, and unforgettable.

About Anne Perry

Sometimes the personal story of a particular author seems almost as intriguing as the books they write. Such is the life of British author Anne Perry (aka Juliet Marion Hulme). As a child Hulme was very ill with tuberculosis and ended up being fostered out by a family in the Caribbean. She did get better, and the family moved to a private island in New Zealand, where she describes her life as a Swiss family Robinson type existence. She became ill again and during her bouts of illness through her teen years, she missed most of her childhood education. However, her mother had prepared her by teaching her how to read and write by the time she was four. Her heart always seemed to be in writing.

At the age of 15, Juliet and her best friend plotted and killed her friend's mother. The three went for a walk in the park and Hulme dropped a stone, causing the mother to bend over to pick it up, and her friend hit her own mother on the head with a half brick. They had planned on the strike killing her, but they had to strike her 20 times before she was dead. The girls were put on trial and each served five years in prison. It is said that they never saw each other again after being released. For many years, nobody connected author Anne Perry as the teen murderer, Juliet Hulme. In 1994, the film Heavenly Creatures, portrayed Hulme and her friend Pauline Parker with characters being played by Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey respectively.

Perry's genre of writing covers Victorian Era Detective fiction for the most part. Her novels have been centered around two main characters, Thomas Pitt and William Monk. She has published 47 novels and several collections of stories.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Tamora on May 29, 2012

The third of Perry's WWI series featuring the Reavsley siblings, this book revolves around a mutiny in the regiment in which Joseph is a captain/chaplain and which his sister Judith serves as an ambulance driver. A new, rigid, ignorant major, a general's son, is discovered dead, killed by an English......more

Goodreads review by Laura on February 24, 2015

I barely finished this book. I have read the 3 books in the series leading up to this one and become increasingly disappointed in each. Perry has a wonderful subject to write about. There are an unlimited number of stories and plot lines she could follow. And when she does what she does best - give......more

Goodreads review by Vida on July 25, 2022

WW1 is known to most people only by what they learn in their history class. I don’t know if the events in this story are true or not, or composed of several incidences during the inexplicable horror of “the war to end all wars” but this series has forced me to delve deeper into events and the battle......more

Goodreads review by Mary Ellen on August 19, 2012

I am really skimming these Anne Perry WWI books now (one to go!), and the primary merit of this one is that it is shorter than the earlier ones. (And, in a less snarky vein, Perry gives lots of period detail that makes the scene very real, very 3-dimensional. That is her strength in these books. Not......more

Goodreads review by Mommalibrarian on January 07, 2008

Fourth in the WWI series. Drama maintained until the end.......more