Shoulder the Sky

In April 1915 Joseph Reavley is serving as chaplain on the Front Line at Ypres. The war that should have been ‘over by Christmas’ has already decimated the British Expeditionary Force. To Joseph’s sector comes an ambitious young war correspondent determined to expose the horrors of trench life. But before he can dispatch his piece, he is found dead in no-man’s-land. Still seeking the man behind his parents’ murder, and to protect his sister Judith from the pain of an impossible romance, Joseph must find the truth. His search takes him to London and the beaches of Gallipoli, and at last to face a desperate moral judgement which challenges every belief he holds.

Reviews of Shoulder the Sky

'An absorbing tale' Kirkus Reviews, 15/7/04 Kirkus Reviews 'The plot of this book is riveting throughout; the elegance of the prose and depth of characterisation combine to create a powerful and poignant journey into the past that long stays with you after the final page' The Lady, 28/9/04 The Lady 'The writer weaves her compelling fiction around a graphic account of the horror of First World War trench warfare that has not been bettered since Sebastian Faulks' Birdsong' Nottingham Evening Post 'Perry cleverly resolves some plot lines while reserving the solution of others for future mysteries…she does a superb job of bringing the grimness and waste to life, in a nice shift of gears from her two 19th-century historical series' Publishers Weekly, 26/7/04 Publishers Weekly 'The plot of this book is riveting throughout; the elegance of the prose and depth of characterisation combine to create a powerful and poignant journey into the past that long stays with you after the final page' The Lady, 28/9/04 The Lady 'The writer weaves her compelling fiction around a graphic account of the horror of First World War trench warfare that has not been bettered since Sebastian Faulks' Birdsong' Nottingham Evening Post