The First Casualty

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 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'.

Ben Elton’s career as both performer and writer encompasses some of the most memorable and incisive comedy of the last twenty years. His TV credits include The Young Ones, Blackadder, and The Thin Blue Line. He has written three West End plays, directed a feature film, and written a musical with Andrew Lloyd Webber.


From the Trade Paperback edition.