If you are an Anne Perry fan, then probably you'll enjoy this series, since the things that bugged me about it the most were characteristic of one of her other books (from the series with a husband and wife, IIRC). I know there are many Anne Perry fans out there, so maybe it is just me.However, I think this book would have to try the patience of even her stalwart fans. She was running out of steam, running out of plot, running out of things to say in general, but, alas, not running out of pages. This series could have been much better. Suggestions for improvement:1. Make it a trilogy, not a pentalogy (learned that word for this review!). Resist the idea that you need a book for every year of the war. Alas, one year in the trenches was, horrifyingly, pretty much like all the others.2. Develop the Master Conspiracy ["Peacemaker") plotline fully and first. It is (or should have been) the glue holding the books together. Make sure your readers actually know who the bad guy is when they get to the Big Reveal (which in this book is more like the Big Yawn). 3. Hire an editor who is not awed by your capacity to sell loads & loads of books.4. Choose a less whiny main character who actually has different thoughts over time and who is not a sanctimonious bore. (Yes, I'm talking about you, Joseph Reavley!)5. If people are supposed to be investigating a murder, or a series of murders, have them do something that actually leads to its solution, at least once in a while, rather than relying, over and over, on the lucky chance to bring the solution to light. 6. Read Wilson's Fourteen Points to avoid confusing his position with the French position at Versailles... especially before you write a book in which you make reference to Wilson's position, inaccurately, about a half-dozen times.
A bit drawn out.This was the fifth and final book in the series and I was glad that I had listened to at least one of the earlier books. I felt I needed some background to the The Peacemaker, a vital character who had previously been present only as an alias.The three main characters are the Reavley brothers, Joseph, an army chaplain and Matthew, an intelligence officer, and their sister, Judith, an ambulance driver. Joseph and Judith are serving at the Western front but Matthew has been away from most of the action. He makes his way to the medical post where his siblings are, because he needs to bring a German, von Schenckendorff through the lines to reveal to the authorities in England, the identity of The Peacemaker.Unfortunately their plans are thwarted by the ugly murder of a nurse at the medical station, which results in a murder trial and Matthew becoming implicated. While the murder and its solution is unnecessarily drawn out, it is at least believable, but I found the journey home stretched belief,being too full of lucky coincidences.I had previously listened to an abridged audio book version of Angels in the Gloom, number 3 in Anne Perry's WWI series. Being abridged, it contained all the pertinent facts without the drawn out explanations I found in the unabridged version of We Shall Not Sleep. In particular, the author really laboured the issue of soldiers returning home after the war - how would they readjust, and who would the women back home marry now their men had fallen? My personal recommendation would be to listen to this series in abridged form, rather than in full. This will give the flavour of the war without the repetitions and drawn out explanations.
Do You like book We Shall Not Sleep (2007)?
The WWI series is my favorite of Anne Perry's. If you don't like reading pages & pages of people's feelings & emotions, you won't like this book, but if you enjoy really getting to know the characters & what makes them tick & act the way they do, you will. With each of her major characters, Perry gives you insight into their personalities. I have just finished the last book in this series. More than any series I've run across, it needs to be read in order. The books are not stand-alone. Each of the books serves as background for the next & reading the last first would be a sure-fire spoiler for the rest!
—Jess
Excellent!! Hard to put down. Anne Perry is a prolific writer who brings you into the story so easily. Her eye for detail makes her writing so rich. Here you feel as if she had been at the front of the fighting at Ypres herself and experienced the fear, the cold and mud, the pain of the wounded as well as the caregivers, the lice and the lack of everything. The bravery of so many and the deaths of even more. Any politician who decides to send men to war should read this book first. Yes it was a long time ago and we may have made a lot of progress since then with fighting machines and care, but the dead and the wounded don't change. The struggle to survive under fire never changes. The things that can happen when you turn men into killing machines.
—Marjorie
We Shall Not Sleep (WWI, # 5) concludes the 5-book series about World War One, giving us a glimpse of the end of the war and the Reavley family's future. I loved the way Perry took a family of four children, removed their parents, and showed multiple aspects of the war through the lives of those four. Joseph Reavley is a chaplin at the front, Judith is an ambulance drive, Matthew is in the intelligence service, and Hannah is at home watching her children and awaiting the return of her naval officer husband. Each book in the series had a mystery and all five books continued a mystery about the Peacemaker, a anonymous meddler who wanted peace at a terrible cost to the honor of the British. Finding his identity is a suspenseful part of each book in the series. The first book begins just before war is declared, the middle three books take place during the war, and the last book ends the war. I enjoyed the entire series, but it became a bit long through the middle. How many times can one read about rats, mud, trenches, and the stench of dead bodies? Those descriptions are repeated throughout. I think the series could have been done in fewer books. However, the total futility and the loss of life in this war are dramatically described over and over. And when the war ends, an entire generation of young men and old is gone. To think we were stupid enough to let this all happen again because of the treaty terms is beyond understanding.
—Susan VanKirk
