When Amy Vanneck, daughter of an upper-class Edwardian family, falls in love with Edward Haslem, a music teacher with no family, she knows that their life together will not be plain sailing. Her snobbish mother in particular is opposed to the match and does everything she can to discourage Amy. However, she underestimates her daughter`s determination and the couple`s deep love for each other.
War looms in 1914. Edward, although disapproving of violence in any shape or form, is forced by circumstances to join up and is posted as an officer of the Manchesters to the battlefields of the Somme. Amy receives a few letters from him during his service but , in 1919, he is reported as missing in action - wiped out with the rest of his battallion.
Amy refuses to believe this and secretly embarks on a journey to the devastation that is northern France. In spite of the scorn she encounters from some of the British officers overseeing the gruesome tasks of recovering and reburying the bodies of the fallen, she perseveres. Experiencing untold horrors, she wades through the mud and debris of Ypres and the Somme to uncover the truth. Was Edward one of the many who made the ultimate sacrifice or is there a darker mystery? Amy needs to know the truth and her uncle, Sir Evelyn Vanneck, must help her at the highest level of Government.
Love, passion, horror, secrecy, determination and murder - all are present in this gripping read. Beautifully evocative of the Great War, its aftermath and the new emerging mores of post-war Britain.
5 stars
Reviewed by Liz.
Thank you to Vintage Books for sending us a copy to review.
