Flanders , June 1917. A British officer and celebrated poet is shot dead, killed not by German
fire but whilst recuperating
from shell shock well behind the lines. A young English soldier is arrested and, although he protests his innocence, charged with 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 paints a vivid picture of both the dreadfulness of the front line in the trenches and the detached mentality of those on the
home front. His descriptions of the fighting take on a more
horrific nature when you realise that the battles are taking place only fractions of a mile from
what might, in the greater scope of things, be seen as normality. Add to this the remoteness
of decisions made on the home front and one begins to imagine a war so horrific as to be
beyond the humanity of man. Belief in the characters that Ben Elton weaves add further to the realism of this story. This is certainly a book that grips from first page until last; well written and researched, it is a novel that will remain in the memory long after it has been finished