The First Casualty

The First Casualty

Ben Elton

Language: English

Pages: 419

ISBN: 0552771309

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


In 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 Konig, formerly a detective with the London police, soon discovers that both the evidence and the witnesses he needs are quite literally disappearing into the mud that surrounds him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

come to loathe. And all this in fifteen days?’ ‘Well, I talked to the other fellows…I…used my imagination.’ ‘In fifteen days, Lieutenant?’ Now Stamford was silent, staring at the floor. ‘Who is the Golden Boy?’ Nurse Murray asked. ‘Just a figure. I made him up.’ ‘He seems to have meant a great deal to you. ‘Not really. It’s just poetry.’ ‘Oh? You didn’t seem to feel that way when you wrote about him. By far the most moving passages of the poems you gave me concern this Golden Boy and his

your trouble you should be burdened with this.’ For a moment it seemed almost as if Agnes’s distress would overwhelm her, but then she looked puzzled. ‘Why…why have you come with this news, Captain? Why is this an army matter? Douglas had nothing to do with the army. That’s why he was in prison.’ ‘I’m with, well…I’m with what you might call intelligence. Whilst in prison your husband was contacted by Irish nationalists. We do not believe he told them anything but we had to look into it. I was

Most of the men you see here will be sent back to fight within a month or so.’ Kingsley looked once more at the desultory activities taking place on the beautiful lawns around him. These strange, abstracted men did not appear to have much fight in them. ‘Captain Marlowe?’ Nurse Murray said, a frown wrinkling her brow. ‘May I speak plainly?’ ‘But of course.’ ‘You will probably think me very rude but I must speak my mind. I always speak my mind and I make no exceptions for military policemen.’

umbrellas if they wish.’ Kingsley was a little late and joined Nurse Murray at the place she had been saving for him just before the concert began. He had been asking the company sergeant major if Private McCroon was present but had been disappointed to find that he was not. ‘I’m sorry that I have no box of chocolates to share with you, ‘Kingsley said as he sat down, remembering how Agnes would always insist on chocolates when they visited the theatre. ‘I came prepared,’ Nurse Murray replied,

than that, Captain, because I must have that gun.’ ‘Well now,’ Captain,’ Edmonds replied, his manner still polite but no longer jovial, ‘I rather think you should remember that this is my trench and that I am in charge, hence I do not need to explain my decisions to you, nor are you in a position to make demands. However, as a courtesy, because you are my guest and since you are probably the first copper who’s ever been in a frontline trench, I shall tell you that tonight I have been ordered to

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