Pagan

The horrors of World War I continue to haunt two veterans on holiday in 1930s France in this “stirring” novel (Books Monthly). In the War to End All Wars, Charles Pagan and Dick Baron fought side by side and survived the slaughter. Over a decade later, they return to France not as soldiers but as tourists, taking a serene walking holiday through the Vosges Mountains. But their idyll soon turns dark when they stay at a remote country guesthouse. The locals are secretive and frightened, breaking their silence only to warn the visitors against visiting an old battlefield nearby. Having seen many such fields under fire, Pagan and Baron consider such apprehensions nonsense—until one night when Pagan thinks he’s glimpsed an apparition on the moonlit battlefield . . .