Tug of War: A Joe Sandilands Mystery [Paperback]

This is a quiet mystery--no violent moments, no "action" in a Pulp Fiction or a pulp fiction sense--but the characters are well-drawn, the writing is good, and the setting is interesting, so it's ultimately very satisfying. It may seem a bit slow at times, but it's a measured pace. The basic storyline is that in 1926 a former prisoner of war is returned from Germany to Reims in France: the soldier suffers from severe shell shock/amnesia. Identification is a problem: the soldier is probably French, but could be English. A great difficulty is posed by the fact that 350 thousand French soldiers alone went missing in combat in WW I. Commander Joe Sandilands is sent to help the French sort out the identity.

A number of families around Reims have claimed the soldier as theirs: relationships and motives vary: pension and back pay are attractive to some. Sandilands and his ward Dorcas visit the families: all seem to have strong claims, and things get complex and confusing, as they should. So the novel centers on people, character, hopes, and motivations. You cannot escape the war, its effects and its aftereffects.

If you're new to this series (as I was) you may find yourself thinking "where are the murders? the blood-spattered corpses? Where's old Poirot?" But this is not Agatha Christie. It's quieter, and you'll find youself getting caught up in the story, even though you might have expected something a bit more action-packed. It's richly done, and it's satisfying, and that's what is important. This novel reminds me in ways of Robert Goddard's superb In Pale Battalions, which also has its roots in the battlefields of France, and also deals with questions of identity. We're seeing a number of mysteries set in the aftermath of WW I: Charles Todd, Jacqueline Winspear, and Rennie Airth have written some very fine books. Tug of War is certainly a good addition to this group.

The sixth in the Joe Sandilands murder-mystery series is a little different from its predecessors, in that there is no murder in the mystery (well there is, but it doesn't happen during the course of the investigation, and it's not the focus of the novel). In the summer of 1926, Sandilands is roped in by a superior officer into investigating an enigma in the south of France, effectively disrupting the holiday that he's planned. A catatonic soldier is being kept in a local sanatorium, and four different claimants have come forward, declaring that the man belongs to their family: an elderly mother, a mistress, a farming family, and young wife.

Sandilands has been invited to stay at the vineyards of Aline Houdart, who is convinced that the man is her husband. Yet the doctor in charge of the man's wellbeing has another opinion: that the man is English, considering that he speaks this language whilst enacting a bizarre scene of murder. Despite his desire for a holiday, Sandilands joins forces with Inspector Bonnefoye (who reappears in Folly du Jour: A Joe Sandilands Mystery) to eliminate those attempting to exploit the unidentified soldier and return the man to his rightful home.

Accompanying him is his fourteen year old foster-niece Dorcas (introduced in the previous book The Bee's Kiss (Joe Sandilands Mysteries)) who provides insight on several of the suspects and behaves years older than she actually is. I'm not entirely sure her presence in the story is required, but her repartee with Sandilands provides several amusing moments.

This is an intriguing, but slow-paced mystery that some may find disappointing after the action and exoticism of Cleverly's earliest books; especially those set in India. However, there is a poignancy and bittersweetness to this WWI mystery, that contains plenty of historical detail concerning the war and the effect that it had on the families and soldiers of France. All of the "suspects" attempting to claim the soldier are three-dimensional and fascinating figures, each with slightly different reasons for wanting to have him for themselves.

It is disappointing then, that by this stage Sandilands himself comes across a little too good to be true. He seems to be irresistible to women, sports a heroic war-wound, holds a high investigative position despite his age... and this book further reveals that he's a wine connoisseur. I've always found him a little bland, but for whatever reason, he grated with me a little in this installment, particularly when teamed up with Dorcas, who seemed equally unrealistic in her skills and capabilities.

But this is a minor quibble, and certainly didn't stop my enjoyment of the story - in fact, it's one of my favourites, and is an interesting change from Cleverly's usual formula.

In the first few books in the series, Cleverly had hold of something special: exotic settings, strong, elusive women, obversations about the role of Colonial Britain and a detective with some potential for fatal flaws.As time went on, though, the quality of the writing and the plotting began to deteriorate, as if the publisher saw the series as a way to keep the moola flowing and imposed an arbitrary guiideline: publish yearly (or more frequently) or perish.After reading "The Bee's Kiss" I was annoyed--flat, unsuccessfully plotted and the detective, Sandiland's, only reacted to events from the outside. His flaw seemed to be more fatal than interesting.I read "Tug of War" in order to decide if I would leave the series off my future list after having read them all in order of publication. There are new and continuing series that are rewarding and fun to read."Tug of War" confirmed for me that Cleverly had lost her way: gone was inspiration, gone was exoticism--even full character development was left to a few lines of exposition and little action or behavior to move us into the lives of these characters. Caught between the rock of identity of the "unknown" soldier and the hard place of historical sentiment, Cleverly tosses together improbability and implausability with the solution coming as no surprise.Sad to see what had the makings of a superb series go down the drain: however, the first three are worth reading.

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