The First Casualty
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.33 (798 Votes) |
| Asin | : | B00A8FXTR8 |
| Format Type | : | |
| Number of Pages | : | 225 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-06-20 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Ben Elton’s career as both performer and writer encompasses some of the most memorable and incisive comedy of the last twenty years. His TV credits include The Young Ones, Blackadder, and The Thin Blue Line. He has written three West End plays, directed a feature film, and written a musical with Andrew Lloyd Webber.From the Trade Paperback edition.
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. 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 his murder.Douglas Kingsley is a conscientious objector, previously a detective with the London police, now imprisoned for his beliefs. 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.. He is released and sent to France in order to secure a conviction
“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
Two Stars rickincognito Disappointing re-hash of Blackadder Goes Forth. Amazon Customer said Four Stars. Great story.. Alternate political characters enhance rather than overwhelm WW1 crime story Trevor Kettlewell This book deserves closer analysis than my hazy recollections of a few months ago, but life being what it is this will have to do.Elton creates perhaps the least sympathetic character possible as his war hero: a conscientious objector. I don't know that this book could have even been published closer to the time of its WW1 setting (well, I'm sure it couldn't have given som