Product Description

It is Flanders in June 1917: a British officer and celebrated poet, is shot dead, killed not by German fire, but while recuperating from shell shock well behind the lines. A young English soldier is arrested and, although he protests his innocence, charged with his murder. Douglas Kingsley is a conscientious objector, previously a detective with the London police, now imprisoned for his beliefs. He is released and sent to France in order to secure a conviction. Forced to conduct his investigations amidst the hell of The Third Battle of Ypres, Kingsley soon discovers that both the evidence and the witnesses he needs are quite literally disappearing into the mud that surrounds him. Ben Elton's tenth novel is a gut-wrenching historical drama which explores some fundamental questions. What is murder? What is justice in the face of unimaginable daily slaughter? And where is the honour in saving a man from the gallows if he is only to be returned to die in a suicidal battle? As the gap between legally-sanctioned and illegal murder becomes evermore blurred, Kingsley quickly learns that the first casualty when war comes is truth.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #199703 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 389 pages

Review
" A work of formidable imaginative scope the writing is so good, the language so surprisingly subtle and the characters so beautifully delineated."
-- "Daily Telegraph
"" Riveting action scenes bristle with a queasy energy unputdownable and disgustingly realistic."
-- "Sunday Telegraph"

"From the Paperback edition."

From the Publisher
Ben Elton's first historical thriller

From the Inside Flap
Flanders, June 1917: a British officer and celebrated poet is shot dead, killed not by German fire but while recuperating from shell shock well behind the lines. A young English soldier is arrested and, although he protests his innocence, charged with murder.

Douglas Konig is a conscientious objector, previously a detective with the London police, now imprisoned for his beliefs. He is released and sent to France in order to secure a conviction. Forced to conduct his investigations amidst the hell of the Third Battle of Ypres, Konig soon discovers that both the evidence and the witnesses he needs are quite literally disappearing into the mud that surrounds him.

Ben Elton's tenth novel is a gut-wrenching historical drama which explores some fundamental questions. What is murder? What is justice in the face of unimaginable daily slaughter? And where is the honour in saving a man from the gallows if he is only to be returned to die in a suicidal battle?

As the gap between legally sanctioned and illegal murder becomes ever more blurred, Konig quickly learns that ‘the first casualty when war comes is truth’.

Customer Reviews

The real "First Casualty" is believability
Ben Elton is one of the best comic script writers around and can turn his hand to good comic novels, what a shame therefore that he has produced this historic who-dunnit and has been unable to leave out the left-wing dogma that we associated him with in the eighties. This book falls in many places; the hero as a very successful Scotland Yard detective inspector would easily have been able to exempt himself from war service or have been offered complimentary work within the military that did not jar with his conscience. All the characters from the military, penal (prisoners, Irish nationalists, and guards), and the aristocracy on down all conform to Ben Eltons stereotypes, I was awaiting at every page a "Captain Thatcher" who would be a grandparent of Mrs T and who would delight in doing down the worker-soldiers and aim to break their solidarity.

All in all a waste of Eltons superb talent in a revisionist diatribe. A fair who-dunnit but stereotyped way beyond neccesary. No one doubts that WW1 was pure carnage and waste and however correct the sentiments of the hero, we can only say so with todays attitudes. Many a Lords son was also killed at Ypres as well as workers. This is a poor effort.

An Unusual Combination
This new book of Ben Elton's was gripping from the first page. It is an unusual combination of a detective story set in the first world war. Using this canvas it is able to explore many of the major issues of war, morality, conscience and human dignity, as well as highlighting the terrible and wasteful tragedy that the first world war was. Of what importance is the murder of one man when governments are killing millions in the war? What is particularly well defined by Ben Elton is all the power and machinery of the state that is used to compel people to do things, that given the chance to think properly they probably would not do.

Most of this is done deftly by the author, although at times the language, not surprisingly reads as though it is a screenplay, or perhaps one's mind translates it into language that one might have heard in well known TV/screen productions. This doesn't detract from the book, which is too much of a 'page-turner' and too full of thought provoking ideas to distract the reader. The hero sometimes sounds quite stiff, but this is probably in keeping with his character and with social behaviour of the times.

As somebody who has read all of Ben Elton's books, I thought that this was his best, although don't expect the usual humour. It is quite different from the rest of his work, although still retaining the strong moral messages.

Ben Elton's Best......
I was very surprised when I read the back of the book jacket and found out Elton was writing a serious novel. I was skeptical and did not expect much. To my surprise, I found myself up late at night reading this gripping well written novel. I hope his fans support this novel. I'd love many more like this.