I thought the story was a good one but it wasn't well told. I also didn't like the bit he inserted into the epilogue which I thought entirely unnecessary. ( )

Only read about half--just couldn't get involved for some reason.

Engaging mystery-thriller series with a likable monk [previously lawyer]. One day, keeping his bees at the abbey the good Father Anselm is approached by a young lady, Kate, and old man who implicate the now-deceased Fr. Herbert in a mystery. Herbert had been in the British army in World War I and had been one of the officers at a court martial of a young Irish soldier, Joseph Flanagan, for desertion. What was the meaning of the court martial to the young man? Kate feels there had been a good reason. When Anselm starts to investigate, some of the official papers are missing. Why? The story has several subplots: present-day and the investigation and two in the past involving Joseph and another involving the different officers who pursue his case. The World War I background involves the horrible Battle of Passchendaele.

A real page-turner, a cerebral mystery-thriller. I hope to read more about Anselm by this author. Highly recommended. ( )

In the midst of the Salient in 1917, during a lull in the battle, a young Irish soldier is court-martialled for desertion. One of the officers on the panel is Herbert Moore who is so affected by this and other incidents in war that he enters orders. Soon after his death a strange woman and man come to the monastery and start asking questions. Father Anselm is left to piece together a story of courage, conviction and sacrifice.

This novel is made up of two narratives, the contemporary and the now. Without the extra detail which unrolls throughout the book the detective work would not stand up. Joseph Flanagan does not make his motives clear during trial and Herbert Moore takes his two shameful secrets to the grave.

Some reviewers have complained that this book does not develop the Father Anselm character. As a new reader to the series I look at it as being a complete work of fiction, not a part of a series. The story drags one in and plays on emotions - horror, sympathy, frustration all are felt. As First World War novels go, this is outstanding, as reading matter goes, it is superb. ( )

I decided to read this title because my face-to-face book group have chosen a later one in the Father Anselm series for discussion next month.

Father Anselm realises from his brief discussion with Kate Seymour, a visitor to Herbert Moore's grave, that there are great many things he does not know about Father Moore. Anselm takes his disquiet to the Prior who reveals that before Herbert died he had given the Prior some army tags to be handed on to a Joseph Flanagan. For the last fifteen years of his life Herbert had awaited a visit by Joseph Flanagan but he never came. The Prior hands over to Anselm a box of Herbert's possessions containing among other things an envelope addressed to a Private Harold Shaw. The army tags belong to yet another name.

So at the Prior's request Anselm begins to investigate what Herbert Moore had done during the war, and to see if he can carry out Herbert's final request. Anselm solves one mystery to find that there is yet another. The final mystery is not revealed until the very last pages.

The structure of the story is interesting: the results of Anselm's investigations parallel a "real-time" narration of what happened to Herbert Moore in the first World War, and in particular in an "event" he was involved in during 1917. Not a day goes past for the rest of his life that Herbert does not think about his role in that event.

The novel also covers issues like what happened on the front during the war: the inequity of punishments for desertion for example due to timing, rank, and nationality; the horrific effects of bombardments on both sides; the effects of battlefield cleanup and burial duties on those who remained; the decimation of battalions; the differences in how soldiers and commanding officers were treated, accommodated, and fed; and the reasons why men enlisted.

Fascinating stuff. A reminder that at the end those who fought in the First World War were, first and foremost, people, who sometimes just found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. ( )