A good story about an awful time in our history

What an inhuman war the First World War was. Too much by far was required of men who were expected to endure, day after day, the mud, the noise and the fear that the next bullet would have their name on it.
There was no escape except death!
I feel so much compassion for the poor souls who were condemned to fight in this war.

My first Ben Elton read... which I thoroughly enjoyed. Historical fiction at its best.

Ben Elton is such a multi-talented author. His range of topics and genres seems to be endless. This particular offering is set in 1917 during the first World War and combines a murder mystery with a London Detective who is sent out to the 'killing fields' at Ypres to solve the crime.

It is beautifully written, considering the subject, with superb character descriptions, so good that it was easy to remember each one.

The most gripping part of the book is the vivid account of war on the front line. So good you could almost feel and breathe the horrific life (or death) that soldiers had to face day after day and night after night. If you think of the front line in the BBC comedy Black Adder Goes Forth but without the humour, it gives a real sensation of being there. Never before have I experienced such a feeling of horror, excitement and suspense from a novel.

If you like a good historical murder/detective story set in a war environment, not depressing but just wanting to continually get to the next page, this is a must-read.

This is a very powerful book from Ben Elton, set in the First World War.
The title comes from the expression, "The first casualty of war is truth" and the thread running through the book is indeed the solving of a murder portrayed by the authorities as a death on the battlefield. However, the police investigation, carried out by an extremely arrogant, self-assured, narcissistic officer from the London Met, is really a prop for the book's main subject - the First World War and the horrors of trench warfare. This is not a book for the faint-hearted. Mr Elton's descriptions of life in the trenches and ensuing battles are graphic and sickening but excellently crafted. I would question the likelihood of the police officer's second involvement in an attack on German positions but, in the madness of war, perhaps anything is possible.
This is a book with a message and I would strongly recommend it.

Ben Elton is a brilliant story teller. This book is set in 1917 and concerns a conscientious objector policeman who is sent to Flanders to investigate a murder. Some of the battle scenes are very graphic but do show how life must have been in the trenches.

The First Casualty of War is of course truth: with hindsight it is easy to label WW1 futile and lament the loss of A 'Golden Generation' At the time anyone who spoke out against the senseless carnage risked imprisonment, or social obvilion at the least. and so having defended himself in court, explaining why he refuses to climb into a uniform and shot some hapless German citizen whose government is also urging him to kill Brits & their allies by whipping up the same propaganda, our hero finds himself in Wormwood Scrubs prison. Only the fact that he is probably the best detective in the UK and the authorities need him to solve the most unusual murder of a 'golden boy' saves him from being 'shot while trying to escape.' The Golden Captain was a man who is not only a war hero, but also one of the most popular war poets with his 'Honey Still for Tea' type poems.
There isn't a hint of Blackadder humour in this book. There are several terribly grim scenes, for example where a soldier misses his footing and disappears in a sea of mud never to be seen again. Our hero branded the most cowardly man in Britain time after time shows true courage, as he works against time to solve the crime before all the witnesses and the possible killer are slaughtered on the Flanders' fields.
The very best of Ben Elton's novels.

An intriguing and violent read into the gruesome world of world war 1. The main protagonist looks deep into the human experience when humans become animals once more and fight for survival.
A good read that simply flickers through your hands as you just have to read one more chapter.
Recommended! Ben Elton is always a good read!

Very engaging writer; funny, emulsional and engaging.
Comrade Saunders you would enjoy.

I had to read this book for a-level english literature, and what can i say?

it’s ridiculous, painful, and i can’t believe i had to read this for a few useful lines that i could compare to Wilfred Owen poetry (mostly the parable of the old man and the young, and occasionally insensibility or mental cases, and the one verbatim line from dulce et decorum est)

Ben Elton practically wrote a self insert WW1 fanfic, where he gets to live out his fantasy of being an intelligent conscientious objector who objects to the war based on ‘logic’. a man whom women love and who somehow manages to run across no-mans land three different times without getting show, AND become James Bond in the middle of it.

A terrible read especially in a room of sixteen year olds.

I usually love Elton and had the highest of hopes for this book and I do understand that this isn't the genre of book where humour will naturally flow but it is a hard read and the characters don't seem as well rounded and finished as his normally do. That said it's not a bad read or a bad story, it just isn't his usual high level

Another well-written Ben Elton mystery. This book was really rather bleak as it was set during the first world war and draws its readers right into the dark, violent, grizzly front-lines. The characters are well crafted and the unfolding murder mystery--set against the mass-scale death of the war--an interesting one.

As always, Ben Elton tackles ideas and situations in a new and different sort of way - I always enjoys his take on history. Good characters and good storyline.