SEVEN LETTERS FOR A DEAD SOLDIER

Six letters brought him home. The seventh waited eighty years. Birmingham, England, 1945. Private Ruthanna “Rue” Bellamy has crossed an ocean with the women of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, charged with clearing mountains of undelivered wartime mail and finding the soldiers to whom it belongs. Rue is good at names. Better at numbers. And she knows her mother’s handwriting instantly. Among millions of lost letters, Rue discovers six envelopes addressed to a soldier named Asa March—a man she has never heard of. The Army says he is dead. But the records tell a different story. A hospital notation appears weeks after Asa’s reported death. Another soldier bears an almost identical name. Two service numbers differ by reversed digits. And somewhere inside the Army’s paperwork is evidence that a living man may have been buried beneath a dead man’s identity. Even more troubling, Rue’s mother refuses to explain why she was secretly writing to him. As the war in Europe ends, Rue follows a trail of letters, directory cards, hospital records, and family secrets across England and France—determined to restore a soldier’s name before the truth disappears with him. Eighty years later, Rue’s granddaughter discovers one final sealed letter hidden inside her grandmother’s uniform. It is addressed to the daughter of Asa Joseph March. And with it are five words that turn an old family mystery into an unfinished promise: I delivered six. Please deliver the seventh. To honor her grandmother’s last request, Tessa must discover what happened to the soldier the Army declared dead—and why the most important letter of all was never delivered. Inspired by the extraordinary service of the real Six Triple Eight, Seven Letters for a Dead Soldier is a sweeping dual-timeline historical mystery about forgotten women, lost names, family secrets, faith, and the courage to put the truth back into the record.