Authorhouse UK Ltd, 2010
ISBN 978-1-4490-7089-2
Steve Little has written a fascinating novel about the capture and court martial of a deserter from the Third Battle of Ypres.
The book starts when our two protagonists, Private Eddie Wilson (the deserter) and Corporal (later Sergeant) Frank Shipley, the Military Policeman assigned to tracking him down, playing cat-and-mouse in the lanes around Calais. These two men are drawn sympathetically and, once the inevitable happens, we are concerned about Eddie's survival - the court martial will only have one outcome.
The book is let down by the lengthy middle section in which we find out why Eddie deserted. Apparently he arrives at the Western Front in October 1917 with minimum training and in three weeks he experiences every catastrophe imaginable: bullying sergeants, attempted suicide, death by shelling of his platoon (including his closest friend).
Once the author has moved back to the journey in which Frank takes Eddie to Poperinghe for the court martial, the story picks up. We learn from episodes of 'madness' that Eddie is still suffering from shell shock and Frank slowly comes to believe that Eddie is not a coward. The court martial is very well described and the denouement with its twist is extremely well laid out.
If you can overlook some of the middle section (everything happens over a period of three weeks while Eddie is in the front line), the story is well written and very engrossing.
Reviewer: Peter J Palmer
