To the September, 2012 book: Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman
Reading some history of WWI brought to mind some mystery series I’ve read that personalized the horror of the war, and were good reads besides (especially if you like mysteries).
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The Phryne Fisher mystery series is great fun; set in 1920’s Melbourne, Australia with the beautiful and accomplished Honourable Phryne Fisher as the sleuth. The twelfth book in the series, Murder in Montparnasse, recounts some of Phryne’s background as an ambulance driver in France during WWI.
[Kerry Greenwood - Murder in Montparnasse (Phryne Fisher, #12)]
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Seymour of Special Branch series by Michael Pearce.
This series takes place prior to WWI but is interesting because Sandor Seymour is a member of Special Branch, the cases often involve political intrigue and its resulting entanglements.
First book in series: In a novel set in 1906 Trieste, a British consul disappears, and Seymour of the Special Branch is called in to investigate--a mission made difficult by the presence of revolutionaries and the Secret Police, both capable of extreme violence.
1.A dead man in Trieste (Oct 2004)
2.A dead man in Istanbul(Oct 2005)
3.A dead man in Athens (Sep 2006)
4.A dead man in Tangier (Sep 2007)
5.A dead man in Barcelona (Dec 2008)
6.A dead man in Naples (Dec 2009)
7.A dead man in Malta: a Sandor Seymour mystery (Nov 2010)
The author has another very interesting series set in early 1900’s Cairo, the Mamur Zapt Mysteries, that explores the relations among the British, the French, and the Caliph in governing Egypt.
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Bess Crawford series by Charles Todd (pseudonym for a mother - son writing team)
Bess’s experiences as a nurse give an up close view of the horrors of the war.
First book in series: Independent-minded Bess Crawford's upbringing is far different from that of the usual upper-middle-class British gentlewoman. At the outbreak of WWI, she volunteers for the nursing corps, serving from the battlefields of France to the doomed hospital ship Britannic.
She feels obligated to fulfill a dying soldier’s request even though it puts her in danger.
1.A duty to the dead (Sep 2009)
2.An impartial witness: a Bess Crawford mystery (Aug 2010)
3.A bitter truth: a Bess Crawford mystery (Aug 2011)
4.An unmarked grave: a Bess Crawford mystery (Jun 2012)
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Maisie’s background as a nurse in WWI shows up as empathy and understanding of veterans of that war. After the war she takes over a private investigation agency, with some help from a mentor. I found Maisie to be an interesting character, and the war has a bearing on some of her cases.
Maisie Dobbs Series by Jacqueline Winspear
(First book in series): In her first case, private detective Maisie Dobbs must investigate the reappearance of a dead man who turns up at a cooperative farm called the Retreat that caters to men who are recovering their health after World War I
1.Maisie Dobbs (Jul 2003)
2.Birds of a feather (May 2004)
3.Pardonable lies: a Maisie Dobbs novel (Aug 2005)
4.Messenger of truth: a Maisie Dobbs novel (Aug 2006)
5.An incomplete revenge: a Maisie Dobbs novel (Feb 2008)
6.Among the mad: a Maisie Dobbs novel (Feb 2009)
7.The mapping of love and death: a Maisie Dobbs novel (Apr 2010)
8.A lesson in secrets: a Maisie Dobbs novel (Mar 2011)
9.Elegy for Eddie: a Maisie Dobbs novel (Mar 2012)
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and now... for something completely different... a film...
Originally released in 1967, I remember this black comedy as a powerful anti-war film...
King of Hearts
Alan Bates, Pierre Brasseur, Jean-Claude Brialy, Genevieve Bujold, Adolfo Celi, Francoise Christophe, Julien Guiomar, Micheline Presle, Michel Serrault.
A Scottish soldier is assigned the task of disarming a bomb in a small French town at the close of World War I. The townspeople have deserted the town leaving behind the inmates of the local insane asylum who embrace the soldier as their king.
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