Flanders June 1917 a British officer & 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 & 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 & 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 & 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? & 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 & illegal murder becomes evermore blurred Kingsley quickly learns that the first casualty when war comes is truth