IN PALE BATTALIONS by Robert Goddard

A historical whodunit involving the family of fictional Lord Powerstock set primarily at the dysfunctional family’s Hampshire estate provides a thrill ride of plot twists and turns. Lord Powerstock’s son is killed at the Somme during the Great War, leaving his grieving and pregnant young widow to deal with the Lord’s scheming second wife and her devious American lover. The timeline for the widow’s pregnancy isn’t quite right and we slowly learn through a dual timeline that all is not as it seems. Characters are developed masterfully and scenes are mostly set in the estate with its Downton Abbey-esque library, observatory, and grounds. Developments in the storyline unfold slowly but engagingly, each setting up the next. Information becomes a weapon as deadly in the bayonets and guns in the trenches, and the harm of withholding of it might not surface for years. After the sides are drawn, collisions ensue between war-hawks and battle-hardened realists, and landed gentry and those sympathetic to exploited workers. While the plot twists keep coming to the very end, throughout the story the place and period are masterfully portrayed, as is dignity in the face of ruin. The emotional turmoil on young officers charged with the safekeeping of others, and themselves, on the Western Front is portrayed sensitively and thoughtfully. A terrific read for those interested in the western front of the Great War and at the same time keen for a good historical mystery. My only quibble is that much unfolds through dialogue as opposed to real-time action.