Rating: 
Summary: No Great Fan as Yet
Review: Per the jacket, No Graves as Yet is the debut episode of a new series by Anne Perry featuring Reverend-Professor Joseph Reavley and his extended family. Reavley's parents and two men from his university are killed or murdered in what appear to be unrelated incidents during one summer. Reavley sets out to discover the truth about his parents and discovers shocking links to all of the deaths. Ordinarily, I would be thrilled to find one of my favorite authors spawning a new series. But I am holding my congratulations until I read book #2, as this book offered me less entertainment than I expected from the accomplished Ms. Perry. What I liked about No Graves as Yet: The beginning was highly emotional for me. I wept through the first chapter, but found that the remainder of the book could not evoke any emotion out of me whatsoever--neither grief or tension (except disappointment.) After Chapter Two, I could not find any suspense at all. No Graves as Yet held a lot of promise for a good story in the beginning, but its momentum fizzled out too soon. The ending felt like a puzzle piece that was forced to fit where it didn't really belong. While it plugged a hole, it did not make the best picture. I hope the author was saving some intrigue for the next book. Sadly, this book did not leave me satisfied or chopping at the bit for the next one. Puzzlements: First of all, Reavley seemed to be a man of very shallow, shaken faith. I cannot imagine why he would feel compelled, by the end of the story, to enter the battlefield where men's souls are in dire need of man of strong faith. Secondly, what was the purpose for the younger brother Matthew's involvement in the plot after the first chapter? The youngest sister's role seemed utterly foolish to me. Perhaps Ms. Perry plans to build this strong-willed young lady her into a strong woman like her other series' characters, Mrs. Pitt and Mrs. Monk (but I sincerely hope not--I get tired to death of Ms. Perry preaching women's equality all the through her books--enough already! Lets do something different now.). Overall: I hope the next books in this series offer more intrigue and less preaching (pun intended). I thought the peace-war issue was ridiculous and way over done. But, I still like Anne Perry. I hope I like the next book better. I really want to. So, do you want to buy this book? Sure, why not? Go for it.
Rating:
Summary: atmospheric & engaging!
Review: The first novel in a five book series, Anne Perry tells a superb tale of a fabulous time whose edges are fraying as the gloom of war is settling over everyone, & mystery & murder stalk Joseph Reavley's family. Do not expect NO GRAVES AS YET to be like anything else Anne Perry has written -- it is atmospheric & slow (by our fast-forward addictions) & almost perfect.
Rating:
Summary: England Teeters on the Brink of World War One....
Review: The weeks immediately preceding World War One is the time frame for Anne Perry's novel "No Graves as Yet." This story of espionage and murder is set in Cambridge England. Joseph Reavley, a lecturer in Biblical Languages at Cambridge, learns the tragic news that his parents have both been killed in a car accident from his brother, Matthew, who is a member of England's Intelligence Service. The brothers quickly determine that their parents' death does not appear to be accidental, so they begin trying to find out who caused their car accident. Matthew reveals that their father had telephoned him the night before he died and said that he had obtained a secret document which "could change the face of England forever". The elder Mr. Reavley was on his way to give the document to Matthew when the accident occurred. Just a few weeks later, one of Joseph Reavley's star students is found dead in his room with a gunshot through his head. Most of the story involves the two brothers interviewing friends of the deceased to try to determine motives for the murders.
Anne Perry's descriptions of her characters and the English country are wonderful. The author evokes a sense of the peace and serenity which pervaded England prior to World War One. However, there is not much action in the story. The first hundred pages moved very slowly. After that, Ms. Perry introduces more information about the "secret document" that the senior Mr. Reavley allegedly had in his possession, and the pace of the story picks up a bit.
The two brothers Joseph and Matthew were characters that I cared about. I look forward to reading about what happens to them in the War in the next book in this series.
Rating: 
Summary: Didn't Entice Me To Care Much
Review: This book is a somewhat generic mystery with interesting nuances. It is set in England, just before World War I, and during the time the Archduke of Ferdinand is assassinated in Sarajevo. The mystery is fine, the writing is good, but a central lurking issue is whether England will be drawn into the upcoming war (if there will be a war). Is this a fight England needs to join? Anne Perry believes it was. Obviously this impacts our times. Yet I feel WWI is a poor example because while one must repel invasion by unfriendly forces, WWI is more about powerful privileged men (the Russian Tsar, the German Kaiser, the English King, and the French whatever) and their cronies, who should have met on the dueling ground, but instead sent millions of their young male subjects to kill each other. Cowardice can trump fairness, and WWI is an example. Sadly, WWI also caused WWII, where even more young men died. I love Anne Perry's Thomas Monk/Hester Latterly books, but No Graves As Yet did not resonate with me.
Rating:
Summary: Not her best
Review: This is the first in a new series for Anne Perry. Forget the Pitts and Monk, Anne Perry has moved on in time to the start of the First World War and her main characters are brothers Joseph and Matthew Reavley. Joseph is a professor of biblical languages at Cambridge University and Matthew works for the British Intelligence. When their parents are killed in a car crash and Joseph's star student is shot the brothers find themselves having to begin unravelling a complex web of international intrigue. An obscure Archduke is shot in Serbia. What could that possibly have to do with the death of the Reavleys and Joseph's cloistered world at Cambridge? Everything, it turns out, as international forces trying to prevent war vie against those riding heedlessly ahead. War is unthinkable, and yet it seems that there is something worse. One of Anne Perry's strengths as a writer is her understanding of the nuances in the relationships between people and this is shown to advantage in this book. On the other hand, the pace is often slowed by moral discourses and discussions of right and wrong and greater rights versus greater wrongs. In addition to these endless moral dilemmas I didn't feel that the writer is at her best using male viewpoint characters. In her earlier books I loved the sheer fun of Charlotte Pitt and the social whirl and delicious ball gowns, as well as the juxtaposition of rich and poor in Victorian life. I felt for the anger and fire of Hester Latterly as she fought the Victorian medical establishment. I didn't feel for the Reavleys. So this was not one of Anne Perry's more memorable books. I hope there will be more action and more three dimensional characters in the remaining books of the series.
Rating: 
Summary: Oh, Anne Perry...not again!
Review: What a disappointment! I was so looking forward to Perry's new series. Although her foray into SciFi was horrendous, Perry has had her Victorian mystery series down pat: great plots, wonderful characters, incredibly vivid recreation of the times...
I thought "...Perry's got a new stage to move new characters onto...should be great..." Wrong! The vivid recreation of the times is here: a sleepy, self-satisfied, wonderful, upper middle class England right before the horrors of WWI. All those bright young Oxonions - golden in the British sun - before they go for cannon fodder in the trenches of France. Perry's got it 'spot on' and I gave her two stars for painting a great picture. A novel, however, needs to do more than paint pretty picture (or ugly ones, for that matter.) The plot was plodding - no excitment...no breathless page turning...it was dull. The characters were boring and stupid (especially the ones who were supposed to smart.) The female characters (heretofore a real Perry strength) were particularly lame: stock English countrywomen with no brains or little wit, contrariness for the
whim of it...my skin crawled. And the dialogue! Perry spent PAGES over internal conversations about faith that had little impact on the mystery that lay at the heart of the plot. I have no problems with religion as a central factor of life...I believe that it is underrated as a motivating factor in most lives and in most novels...but not just rambling musings. I don't care if the character was once a minister; a sane character has to muse at least semi-coherently. If the author wants to write a religious tract, let her do so and keep it out of her novels. Is Perry a recently born-again something? I hope this series improves with later releases(which I will purchase used or in paperback)but I don't have much hope.
Rating:
Summary: dull, occasionally even silly, poorly edited
Review: What a disappointment. I was looking forward to Anne Perry's new series, hoping for another set of lively characters and satisfying stories, driven by good writing and informed by history and period details.
But the most charitable thing I can find to say about this book is that perhaps it will have been worth slogging through if it sets up better plotting and characterization in the rest of the books in the series. It certainly doesn't stand alone as a novel: despite its 300+ page length, it's populated with paper-thin characters, some of whom appear only once and to no purpose, carry on interminable and uninteresting conversations (or internal monologues) that fail to advance the extremely flimsy plot, which HAS NO PAYOFF.
This book felt like Perry has become so enamored of her own prose style (which is, as ever, exemplary) that she's forgotten to give us people and a mystery (or at least a story) to care about.
Rating: 
Summary: Muddled Nonsense
Review: What a huge disappointment! As a fan of the Monk and Pitt series I expected to be introduced to a vibrant new "cast" of characters. These are cookie cutters. "Minister/Teacher". "Intelligence Officer." "Local Ignorant Policeman" "Adulterous Wife" "Angry Mother"
I had to force myself to plough through it. I kept thinking there would be some MEANING to the mysterious missing document, but it never came. And what exactly was the befuddled Sebastian involved in? I finished the book and asked myself "what on earth was THAT mess about"?
Rating:
Summary: Something NEW from Anne Perry
Review: When Arthur Conan Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes in 1893, the whole of England (perhaps the world) took up arms and demanded that he return. Conan Doyle was forced to adjust his imagination and skill back towards Holmes and away from his other literary pursuits (Sir Nigel, Professor Challenger, et al). In "No Graves as Yet", Anne Perry has created two new characters out of the clay of her imagination and wants us, the readers to go along with them. While I enjoy the adventures of the Pitt and Monk, I crave something new from Anne Perry. "No Graves as Yet" fulfils this desire to see her expand her horizons. It was quite entertaining and I can't wait to see more adventures of the Brothers Reavley. Fans of long-running characters can turn on a creator. As in the case of Conan Doyle, Perry wants to spread her wings and write something IN ADDITION to her long-standing series characters. Don't let some die-hard reviewers unwilling to let go of Pitt and Monk dissuade you from picking up this book. "No Graves as Yet" is entertaining and engaging and a fine addition to the Anne Perry Library.
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