A Blackadder meets John Buchan sort of story. Not bad.

An excellent story to read in November.
Difficult to read some of the description, but the story and humanity demonstrated by Ben Elton was superb.
A couple of points though. Firstly as Kingsley spoke both French and German, he presumably could have been involved in more strategic work. Maybe he would he still objected?
Next, in the finale, were there no parents to recognise the deception? And, as it was still 1917, what happens next regarding employment?

An excellent read

This is only the second Ben Elton novel that I have read. I was gripped from the start and the pacing kept the plot moving at a good speed. I've not read many books on the First World War but I'd recommend it even if you have no interest in it. This book is an excellent read.

Not Eltons usual genre but no matter what he writes he manages to make you think and this book is no different. I actually learnt a little from this book. It's gives a basic summary of the tensions in Europe pre war and the reasons behind world war 1 starting. Centred around a man who is a conscientious objector but by no means a pacifist, he believes in war just not this particular one. It makes you question your principles and how much you'll endure for them. I've never found battle scenes interesting. Movie or book. I use to think I saw them for what they were sad and violent but this book thrilled me and made my heart race and after I was left disgusted by the gore but also a little disgusted in myself. If this isn't enough there is a nice little "who done it" theme too.

I was never a fan of Ben Elton as a comedian, it was all Thatcher stole my milk etc
and when I saw this book on Amazon for .99p I was in two minds

well, I am glad I went and ordered it, what an amazing book. it has everything I wanted as a reader
a great pacey plot, great storyline, great characters and its a great wh done it !

its set in WW1, you have a famous Detective on trial for being a conscientious objector. you have a world-famous poet, who is also a viscount and serving in the somme and a murder. it's a great mix and it kept me enthralled. Read it in two sessions over one day and I was not sure who did it until the very end.

this wont be the last Ben Elton book i read !

Velskrevet krimi der udspiller sig under første verdenskrig, både på hjemmefronten i England, men i særdeleshed på den grumme slagmark omkring Ypres. Man føler sig næsten hensat til “Intet nyt fra Vestfronten”. God underholdning.

I am studying this book for my A-Levels…

Don’t get me wrong with that rating I enjoyed reading the book and it was very descriptive… Ben Elton succeeded in that, however, I don’t believe the book was as serious as it could have been for its genre of war. But I guess that could also be down to the fact Ben Elton is a comedian so his writings won’t be as realistic… especially shown through him deciding to throw in some romance, and the detective side of the book being very random at times.

What brought down my review was the final conclusion- the ending of the book. I feel like there could have been more(all my opinion)…

1. The culprit. Shannon being the culprit was too obvious. I hated him for so many reasons and immediately he is a character that you hate and say he will be the one who has done it. And also I feel that as I hate Shannon for other reasons when it was announced it was him I didn’t have this big revelation and wow moment that ‘oh my gosh I would have never guessed he would have done it’
-I would have liked Kitty to have been the culprit… maybe she read Abercrombies poems before Stamford took them and didn’t like it, or from the scene of her watching the performance play you can tell she is homophobic. I also thought it was even more solidified when she had sex with Kingsley as to think ‘he won’t believe it’s me because now he has feelings for me and wont see me as a suspect’

2. There are many unanswered questions. In the final chapter we see him going back to Agnes. However, we don’t see why Agnes has forgotten about all that he has done to harm her. She was shunned from society, her husband left her because he thought his logic was more important, and he lied this whole time. I feel like we needed a chapter or two (like how the chapters changed at the start of the book) on Agnes and her thoughts and life and why this changed.
- there are also many topics that are touched upon but not divulged on further, like: German prison camps, other diseases the soldiers caught like dysentery or trench foot, police brutality and more.

3. Kingsley came out of the war and back home and it was like we had forgotten it happened. Suddenly everything was alright again. Kingsley came out of the war with no shell shock, no severe injuries, completely fine. But I guess that shows Ben Elton’s poetic license. He was able to go across No-man’s land without any injuries, survive a shelling while in a hole with the colonel (he dies, Kingsley doesn’t), and when all the other soldiers drown in the mud Kingsley is able to dig his way out.

4. Another thing about this book that I disagreed with was turning Kitty soft. We saw her as a powerful woman who didn’t care what anyone thought about her, who was outspoken, who carried a condom around, a strong suffragette who was free… but Ben Elton makes her fall in love with Kingsley?! Turns the only strong female figure in the book weak, and follow the natural order with every other woman… she now wants to get married and have a family all of a sudden. No! This part really annoyed me.

These are just a few of the things that affected my experience on reading the book but that is my opinion personally.

He does however touch on Shell Shock in quite a lot of detail and I found it very interesting and heartbreaking. Also touching on misogyny and misogynistic views of the time makes the reader think has time really changed?… I do believe Shannon was perfect for portraying this though and that is why I hated him ( good for portraying both Shell shock and misogyny).

There was some comedic elements like Nurse Kitty shooting Shannon in the crotch- I thought that was well deserved. And I would also include the bit of jealousy we see at the end with Agnes- it wasn’t needed.

The book brilliantly shows the concept ‘the first casualty of war is the truth’ starting right from when Kingsley was ‘murdered’. He was ‘killed’, used a fake name, was not a military police officer, lied about having sex with Kitty to his wife, lied about Kitty killing Shannon and more that I have probably missed.

The main theme of the book is deception ‘the first casualty of war is the truth’… but I have 23 different themes listed when doing my notes and the last one is ‘Other’

A genuine surprise

Being written by Ben Elton I had expected some farcical humour but there was none.
The descriptions of the bloody trenches and the mindset of the Tommies are excellent. This was a timely read as we reach the Centenary of the end of the First World War. I found myself thinking very much of my Great Uncle who was killed in the war, a young Private of 20 years.
I would recommend this book for its insight into the horrors experienced in the trenches.
Slight spoiler here in that it does all wind up rather too neatly but that doesn't detract from the main themes.

Interesting?

Not sure how to review this.
The initial premise of an Inspector of Police being tried is wrong as I believe he would be viewed as being in a reserved occupation.
Moving on from here, our prig of a hero then seems to meet many of those he has investigated and caused to be imprisoned. Then he is sprung from prison by the secret service.
All in all, the first part is implausable, somewhat stretching belief: but it is a novel, not history.
The second part is better historically, but I felt that many characters had "comedy" accents. Was I back in Blackadder? Was the baby eating bishop of Bath & Wells here in disguise amongst others?
Hence my conundrum on this review.

Great book filled with well researched detail about the first world war. The protagonist was a nicely rounded Sherlock Holmes like conscientious objector sent to investigate murder in the trenches.

Ex Bookworm group review:


I have always liked Ben Elton. I think he is a funny and intelligent man. But I did not like this.

The main problem for me was that Elton just couldn’t decide what the book should be. It certainly wasn’t a novel of suspense. After all, it took at least half the book to even get the policeman to the scene of the crime. It wasn’t really a “whodunnit” because the clues weren’t there for us to work out. (Mind you, I always thought Shannon had done it simply because he was so obviously the “baddie”). It tried to be a detective story. All the talk of logic was very reminiscent of Poirot’s “little grey cells”, as was Kingsley’s telegram “I intend shortly to produce your murderer. Please advise all interested,” and there was actually a reference to Sherlock Holmes, but the only person present for the dramatic denouement was the murderer. Kingsley couldn’t have all those involved in the story sitting in armchairs agog to hear how clever he was (like Poirot would, like Sherlock Holmes would) because the were all dead. Kitty the Suffragette was there as well, but she doesn’t count, being nothing but a cardboard cutout (more later).

So what was The First Casualty? Was it a morality play or a modern Aesop’s fable? Maybe. There was a good bit about one death mattering amid so many deaths and it being important to establish the truth and maintain a sense of right and wrong (which I agree with) but this was interjected into the story with all the subtlety of a Sunday soap box monologue at Hyde Park Corner. Anyway, what happened at the end made a travesty of it. Truth and justice have to matter all the time, not just when it is convenient. Finally, was it a political novel? Should I have been delighted that Ben Elton created a strong woman who meets men on equal terms? Well, pardon me, but I wasn’t delighted because in the end he copped out. Kitty the Suffragette wasn’t just enjoying sex with a likely looking bloke who happened by, but had to fall in love. Typical male point of view! It also undermined the morality tale a bit to have a bloke risking life and limb to have a last look at the wife he adores one minute and having a suffragette shag in a wood the next.

I don’t think I’ve ever read a modern novel with so many “needs musts” in it. It’s also been a very long time since I read the words “straining manhood” (I expect that was in a bodice ripper). I hope it will be a long time before I see it again. The language struck me as odd overall. I wasn’t sure but I thought the slang may be anachronistic, but maybe they did use the c word constantly throughout the First World War.

The depiction of Lloyd George was laughable. I have heard a recording of Lloyd George’s actual speaking voice, and he barely sounded Welsh, more like received pronunciation. I doubt very much whether he ever called anyone boyo. If you are going to have real people as characters in your book, you at least owe them the courtesy of finding out a little bit about them.

There were some bits of the book that were entertaining, not least the discussion on the train to Ypres about the causes of the First World War. I thought the concept of men trying not to “funk it” or “let the side down” was terribly poignant and rang very true. As for the rest of the detail about trench warfare, the graphic descriptions of wounds and the pure hokum of Kingsley’s escapades at the front seemed very false, as unlikely to have been written by anyone who had experienced what he was describing as Abercrombie’s poems having been written by Stamford.

I did get to the end of the book but it was a struggle. I think Ben Elton should stick to writing comedy.

My second reading and just as brilliant the second time around.