The First Casualty by Ben Elton was a great read.
It is set in the First World War, and has an intricate story line that it includes a British officer and famous poet shot dead in France while recovering from shell shock. Another soldier is arrested and charged with the murder. A police detective is put in prison for being a conscientious objector, but ends up being released to investigate the murder. Set in The Third Battle of Ypres life in the trenches really hits home – the cramped train journey, the march to the front and the appalling sanitation. Elton brings together many different view points on war – the hero, the pacifist, the revolutionary, and the ordinary soldier.
Well worth a read.
