The First Casualty is a historical

Historical novel

According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...

 crime novel by English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 author Ben Elton

Ben Elton

Benjamin Charles "Ben" Elton is an English comedian, author, playwright and director. He was a leading figure in the British alternative comedy movement of the 1980s, as a writer on such cult series as The Young Ones and Blackadder, as well as also a successful stand-up comedian on stage and TV....

, set during the First World War.

Synopsis

In June 1917, whilst recovering from shell shock

Combat stress reaction

Combat stress reaction , in the past commonly known as shell shock or battle fatigue, is a range of behaviours resulting from the stress of battle which decrease the combatant's fighting efficiency. The most common symptoms are fatigue, slower reaction times, indecision, disconnection from one's...

 inside a military hospital, beloved war poet

War poet

A War poet is a poet writing in time of and on the subject of war. The term, which is applied especially to those in military service during World War I, was documented as early as 1848 in reference to German revolutionary poet, Georg Herwegh.-Crimean War:...

 and dedicated soldier Viscount

Viscount

A viscount or viscountess is a member of the European nobility whose comital title ranks usually, as in the British peerage, above a baron, below an earl or a count .-Etymology:...

 Abercrombie is inexplicably shot dead. Meanwhile, Douglas Kingsley, a liberal

Liberalism

Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

 Inspector

Inspector

Inspector is both a police rank and an administrative position, both used in a number of contexts. However, it is not an equivalent rank in each police force.- Australia :...

 for Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...

, has refused national service

National service

National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...

 because he considers the war to be an affront to his highly prized sense of logic. As a result, he's hauled before a judge, branded a coward by those who love him - including his wife Agnes - and thrown into prison

Prison

A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...

, where his fellow inmates routinely assault him, taking revenge for him putting them behind bars in the first place. However, the Home Office

Home Office

The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...

 give the disgraced copper a chance for redemption

Redemption (theology)

Redemption is a concept common to several theologies. It is generally associated with the efforts of people within a faith to overcome their shortcomings and achieve the moral positions exemplified in their faith.- In Buddhism :...

 when they abduct him from his cell, fake his death and order him to investigate the Viscount's death behind the lines at Flanders

Flanders

Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...

.

As he begins his reluctant inquiries, encumbered by the presence of his psychopathic

Psychopathy

Psychopathy is a mental disorder characterized primarily by a lack of empathy and remorse, shallow emotions, egocentricity, and deceptiveness. Psychopaths are highly prone to antisocial behavior and abusive treatment of others, and are very disproportionately responsible for violent crime...

 minder Captain Shannon, Kingsley discovers that not only was Abercrombie a homosexual, but that he had also become disillusioned with the war and was composing poetry to this effect before his untimely death.

Reception

The novel was generally very well received by critics, although questions were raised regarding the historical accuracy of some details. The Daily Telegraph described it as a "work of formidable imaginative scope... the writing is so good, the language so surprisingly subtle and the characters so beautifully delineated."

Characters

• Inspector Kingsley - A vaguely arrogant, but nevertheless kind and morally upstanding, intellectual
  Intellectual
  An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...
  
  , whose intricate sense of logic is frequently given superiority over self-preservation, a trait which proves his undoing. His brother Robert was killed in battle and he must now face the prospect of losing his wife, Agnes, and young son George. Despite his objection to the war, he is also a talented soldier, as proven when he wades into the middle of no man‘s land
  No man's land
  No man's land is a term for land that is unoccupied or is under dispute between parties that leave it unoccupied due to fear or uncertainty. The term was originally used to define a contested territory or a dumping ground for refuse between fiefdoms...
  
   during a fray in order to obtain information.
• Captain Shannon - An unbalanced, sadist
  Sadism and masochism as medical terms
  In psychiatry, the terms sadism and masochism describe a personality type characterized by the actor or actrix deriving pleasure and gratification from inflicting physical pain and humiliation ; and from suffering pain and humiliation upon the self ; such pleasure often is sexual, but not...
  
  ic psychopath whose warped mentality has clearly been exacerbated by his experiences of war. He is deeply misogynistic, but has no trouble attracting women because of his handsome face and surface charm. Kingsley narrowly prevents him from raping a teenage girl, and throughout the story Shannon displays a cold disregard for women, civilians, conscientious objectors and victims of shell shock.
• Nurse Murray - A staunch feminist and former suffragette
  Suffragette
  "Suffragette" is a term coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for members of the late 19th and early 20th century movement for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, in particular members of the Women's Social and Political Union...
  
  , who abandoned her cause following the outbreak of war so she could lend her support to the military. She has a brief but passionate affair with Kingsley, who is both enamoured of and horrified by her unashamed vulgarity.
• Agnes Kingsley
• Viscount Abercrombie
• Stamford