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Fiction. Mystery. HTML:Joe Sandilands has been despatched to France to stay as the guest of a glamorous French war-widow on her Champagne estate.The widow is determined that Joe should support her claim that a mysterious shell-shocked soldier, suffering from amnesia and a loss of speech is her husband. The problem is that four other claimants have identified him differently, and his doctor suspects he is an English soldier.
Joe decides to investigate the four claimants and picks his way show more through a tangle of lies, deceit, and manipulation, discovering that each of the four has an undeclared motive for claiming the unknown soldier. He uncovers a cleverly concealed murder committed during the war years and during this pursuit he finds out who the soldier really is.
The discovery presents him with an even greater dilemma, he must not only to solve a killing in the past, but avert a tragedy in the future.
Praise for Barbara Cleverly's Previous Novels
'A delight' The Observer for Folly du Jour
'Colourful historical detail with a modern rendition of the classic mystery novel' The Observer.
'Cleverly's (novel) evokes and in some ways surpasses, the work of Agatha Christie.' Publishers Weekly
'A well-plotted novel... The atmosphere of the dying days of the Raj is colourfully captured.' Susanna Yager, Sunday Telegraph
'The historical background is as fascinating as the murder. Stiff upperlip soldiers, American heiresses, handsome Afghan tribesmen -- they are all here in spades. A great blood and guts blockbuster.' Guardian
'Solidly plotted throughout, with lots of energy and all period accoutrements up to scratch and true to the Raj.' Literary Review. show less
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Recommendations
Member Reviews
Number Six in the Joe Sandilands series, and (like number five) less interesting as the ones set in India. The plot, moreever, is a bit over the top -- very, very complicated and not exactly plausible. Still, it's a good read, with a nice feel for the time and place. I enjoyed it considerably more than the previous Sandilands novel, "The Bee's Kiss".
Positives:
Interesting theme - WW1.
The WW1 data seems to be quite accurate.
The sub plots are effective.
Characters.
Negatives:
The 14 yr. old 'honorary' niece is not realistic.
Did the WW1 British army really have officer ranks of Commander?
Too many chapters ended with 'cliff hangers!'
Too much WW1 drama - for a mystery, I want entertainment, not tears!
The ending is vague.
Interesting theme - WW1.
The WW1 data seems to be quite accurate.
The sub plots are effective.
Characters.
Negatives:
The 14 yr. old 'honorary' niece is not realistic.
Did the WW1 British army really have officer ranks of Commander?
Too many chapters ended with 'cliff hangers!'
Too much WW1 drama - for a mystery, I want entertainment, not tears!
The ending is vague.
Intriguing mystery with a reasonable factual basis.
Slight but worth a quick read.
Liked it least of all
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Author Information
25+ Works 4,096 Members
Barbara Cleverly writes the Detective Joe Sandilands series and the Laetitia Talbot Mystery series. Her book The Last Kashmiri Rose was named one of the best crime thrillers of 2002 by the New York Times. (Bowker Author Biography)
Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Tug of War
- Original publication date
- 2007-07-17
- People/Characters
- Aline Houdart; Thibaud; Didier Marmont; Dorcas Jagow-Joliffe; Inspector Bonnefoye; Joe Sandilands
- Important places
- Reims, Marne, Grand-Est, France; Champagne, France; Craonne, Aisne, Hauts-de-France, France
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 250
- Popularity
- 129,348
- Reviews
- 5
- Rating
- (3.48)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 11
- ASINs
- 4
