New York Times Book Review
From the NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW:
THE SECRET OF RAVEN POINT
By Jennifer Vanderbes
Two separate mysteries create and maintain suspense throughout this gripping World War II coming-of-age novel. Eager to solve them is Juliet, an innocent girl from the South. The first mystery involves the disappearance of her beloved brother, Tuck, who has gone missing in action in Italy in the autumn of 1943. Tuck’s last letter to his little sister is a coded call for help, which both baffles and terrifies Juliet. Suppressing her sweet and shy nature, she trains to be a nurse, is sent to Italy and embarks on a search for her lost brother. In the field hospital where she is stationed, she is assigned to look after Private Barnaby, horribly disfigured and steadfastly mute, who has shot himself in the head, a desperate act that failed to kill him outright.
The motive for the private’s attempted suicide is the second mystery, which Dr. Willard, the noble hospital psychiatrist, is attempting to solve. Since Barnaby was a member of the same company as Juliet’s brother, it’s her hope that he can shed some light on Tuck’s fate. And sure enough, over time Barnaby reveals that his attempted suicide and Tuck’s disappearance were indeed connected. As Barnaby’s mind clears, he is arrested by the military police, court-martialed and sentenced to death. When he manages to flee, Willard and Juliet go off in pursuit, unwilling to have him killed when they have so diligently managed to bring him back to life. Evading capture by American M.P.s and murder by marauding Germans, they track the fugitive — and struggle to cope with their feelings for each other.
Despite interruptions for incidents of calculated pathos and musings of high seriousness, the plot moves steadily forward. The solutions to the central mysteries, revealed slowly, are unsettling in their perverse specificity, yet certain aspects of them remain ultimately unknowable. To her credit, Vanderbes doesn’t try to make entirely comprehensible the disturbing actions men may take in the midst of war.
THE SECRET OF RAVEN POINT
By Jennifer Vanderbes
Two separate mysteries create and maintain suspense throughout this gripping World War II coming-of-age novel. Eager to solve them is Juliet, an innocent girl from the South. The first mystery involves the disappearance of her beloved brother, Tuck, who has gone missing in action in Italy in the autumn of 1943. Tuck’s last letter to his little sister is a coded call for help, which both baffles and terrifies Juliet. Suppressing her sweet and shy nature, she trains to be a nurse, is sent to Italy and embarks on a search for her lost brother. In the field hospital where she is stationed, she is assigned to look after Private Barnaby, horribly disfigured and steadfastly mute, who has shot himself in the head, a desperate act that failed to kill him outright.
The motive for the private’s attempted suicide is the second mystery, which Dr. Willard, the noble hospital psychiatrist, is attempting to solve. Since Barnaby was a member of the same company as Juliet’s brother, it’s her hope that he can shed some light on Tuck’s fate. And sure enough, over time Barnaby reveals that his attempted suicide and Tuck’s disappearance were indeed connected. As Barnaby’s mind clears, he is arrested by the military police, court-martialed and sentenced to death. When he manages to flee, Willard and Juliet go off in pursuit, unwilling to have him killed when they have so diligently managed to bring him back to life. Evading capture by American M.P.s and murder by marauding Germans, they track the fugitive — and struggle to cope with their feelings for each other.
Despite interruptions for incidents of calculated pathos and musings of high seriousness, the plot moves steadily forward. The solutions to the central mysteries, revealed slowly, are unsettling in their perverse specificity, yet certain aspects of them remain ultimately unknowable. To her credit, Vanderbes doesn’t try to make entirely comprehensible the disturbing actions men may take in the midst of war.
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