The First Casualty

By: Ben Elton

Narrated by: Glen McCready

Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

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. 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's tenth novel is a gut-wrenching historical drama which explores some fundamental questions. 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 ever more blurred, Kingsley quickly learns that the first casualty when war comes is truth.

©2005 Ben Elton (P)2009 Random House Audio

Extraordinary

This book was totally wonderful! It took you to the darkest parts of WWI but managed to stay entertaining and it never felt maudlin. The writing was everything you might expect from the creator of Black Adder!

Great read & a cracking story

Really great read that is well worth the credit!

The narration is superb which transports you back to the trenches & lets you get a flip a if the world in 1917...

I can highly recommend this as an addition to your library

Compilation was a bit troublesome

The chapters listed had no correlation with the actual chapters, and this made keeping track of where you were a bit difficult. Other than that it was a splendid book, keeping in with Ben Elton’s style. I would recommend this book and Ben Elton to anyone looking to understand history...but without all the boring facts and figures.

Not Elton's best

What did you like best about The First Casualty? What did you like least?

'The First Casualty' is a whodunnit which is really an excuse to take the reader into the trenches of WW1 and 'over the top' (twice). The plot has lots of holes - it's easy to guess the murderer because there are no other candidates, really. And why would the government use the hero for this secret assignment, when he is just about the most loathed and recognisable conscientious objector in Britain at the time? Surely it had other detectives? And surely he would have understood long before what awaited him in prison, as a hated policeman? No, the real purpose is to describe trench warfare, where the hero, despite his 'logical' objection to the war, turns into a killing machine in short order. In general, I found it difficult to see what we are supposed to take away from the novel. Not one of Elton's best, but as usual a page-turner.

Has The First Casualty turned you off from other books in this genre?

If by 'this genre' you mean books about WW1 the answer is no, although I think that event has had enough exposure for the time being.

What about Glen McCready’s performance did you like?

Excellent. At first I thought his voice a bit monotone, but actually he proved he could do a whole range of feeling and accents.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No.

Any additional comments?

Elton has an odd idea of what (most) suffragettes stood for. It was 'votes for women, chastity for men' in most cases. Extreme sexual promiscuity (of the kind his heroine displays, with her much re-used condom) wasn't on the agenda.