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    The Return of Captain John Emmett
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    The Return of Captain John Emmett
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    The Return of Captain John Emmett
    Audiobook13 hours

    The Return of Captain John Emmett

    Written by Elizabeth Speller

    Narrated by Matthew Brenher

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    In the aftermath of the Great War and a devastating family tragedy, Laurence Bartram has turned his back on the world. But with a well-timed letter, an old flame manages to draw him back in. Mary Emmett's brother John - like Laurence, an officer during the war - has apparently killed himself while in the care of a remote veterans' hospital, and Mary needs to why. What connects a group of war poets, a feud within Emmett's regiment and a hidden love affair? Was Emmett's death really a suicide or the missing piece in a series of murders? As veterans tied to Emmett continue to turn up dead, and Laurence is forced to face the darkest corners of his own war experiences, his survival may depend on uncovering the truth.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDreamscape Media Audio
    Release dateMay 29, 2012
    ISBN9781611207514
    Unavailable
    The Return of Captain John Emmett
    Author

    Elizabeth Speller

    Elizabeth Speller studied the classics at Cambridge University. She is the author of The First of July, The Return of Captain John Emmett, and The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton. She lives in England.

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    Reviews for The Return of Captain John Emmett

    3.5/5

    176 ratings29 reviews

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    • 5/5
      When Captain John Emmett returns from France at the end of World War I, his mother and sister are worried about his mental condition. John is suffering from shell-shock, which is causing him to become aggressive and violent. After spending some time in a nursing home, John escapes and is later found dead in a nearby wood. It is assumed that he committed suicide.John's sister, Mary, contacts one of her brother's old school friends, Laurence Bartram, in the hope that he can help her discover what really happened to her brother. Why would a man who had survived the horrors of the war shoot himself two years later? As Laurence starts to investigate, he begins to wonder whether someone else was behind John's death.The Return of Captain John Emmett is a fascinating story. It works well as a historical fiction novel, with its portrayal of the people of 1920s Britain coming to terms with the aftermath of World War I. But it's also a gripping psychological mystery in which Laurence Bartram reluctantly takes on the role of detective to investigate the circumstances surrounding his friend's death. There are clues, suspects, red herrings and all the other elements that make up a compelling and well-structured detective story.The book is also an interesting and poignant study into the effects, both long-term and short-term, that the war had on individuals and their families. How people came back from the war an entirely different person to when they went away. How men dealt with the memories of the atrocities they witnessed. How their wives felt about the part of their husbands' lives that they had been unable to share. How people were left with physical disabilities and had to learn to adjust.We are given insights into the thoughts and emotions of a First World War soldier and we learn what it was like to be part of a firing squad. The War Poets are also touched upon, and so are the loyalties and friendships formed in British public schools.Due to the subject and setting, the book had a sombre and depressing feel, yet I found myself really enjoying it. As the mystery surrounding John Emmett's death became more and more complex and involved, I was completely drawn into Laurence Bartram's investigations. The plot relies quite heavily on coincidences in places, but not so much that it spoiled the story for me at all. I loved it and will definitely be looking out for more novels from Elizabeth Speller!
    • 3/5
      Set in England in the aftermath of World War I, the story here is part mystery and part war story and part "shell shock" story. It revolves around events surrounding the eponymous character and his premature death. Events from during the war and more recently. As a favor to Emmett's sister, the story's protagonist, Laurence Bartram, conducts an investigation into Emmett's last days and eventually gets to the bottom of things, but that doesn't necessarily mean that there are a bunch of happy endings here or that there is complete closure. When all is said and done, the mystery side of the equation here is the weakest part of the story, as its resolution is unoriginal and uninspired. On the other hand, the ways that other plot elements are settled is handled extremely well, with one final twist being perhaps the best of the lot.
    • 5/5
      Like many of Britain's young men after World War I, Laurence Bartram has found it difficult to pick up the pieces of his prewar life. When contacted by the sister of a school friend, he agrees to research the circumstances surrounding her brother's death. As he locates many of John Emmett's former acquaintances, Bartram becomes convinced that a battlefield execution holds the key to Emmett's death, as well as others. Reminiscent of both the Inspector Rutledge Mysteries (Charles Todd) and the Maisy Dobbs series (Jaqueline Winspear), Speller's writing draws the reader steadily into the time period. The gradual unwinding of family secrets leads to an ending that is satisfactorily unexpected. I'm looking forward to reading the second in this series by Elizabeth Speller (Strange Fate of Kitty Easton).
    • 4/5
      I was drawn to this book because it is set in the very early 1920s, when Britain was dealing with the aftermath of the Great War. It's the first book in a series featuring Laurence Bartram, an officer in the War and a widower, who's having a bit of trouble settling to civilian life. When the sister of a school friend writes to him asking for help, Laurence agrees out of a sense of obligation for past kindnesses. John Emmett, who was being treated for what we'd now call PTSD, had unexpectedly committed suicide some months before. His sister Mary needs to know why. Laurence's investigation on her behalf leads him to many surprising revelations.THE RETURN OF CAPTAIN JOHN EMMETT centers on on of the more unfortunate chapters in the history of World War I, and one which has come up in more than one mystery set in and just after that time. It is a very thoughtful book and also has a lot to say about families. The characters are well-drawn and very believable as they participate in the post-war social transitions. Laurence has a wonderful sidekick in his friend Charles, who, through his wide network of friends and cousins, is invaluable at getting needed information. Highly recommended -- I look forward to reading more by this author.
    • 4/5
      Laurence Bartram is unable to move on with his life after the Great War. He tries to work on his book about churches. He tries to forget his losses - wife and son at childbirth, friends in war, parents when he was young.His interest in life returns when he receives a letter from the sister of an old childhood schoolmate. Mary Emmett asks for Laurence's help in determining why her brother killed himself and what he had been like in these last few years since he returned from the war. The mystery of John Emmett engulfs Laurence. He sets out to answer Mary's questions, but finds a deeper mystery involving multiple deaths since the war. They all tie back to the execution of an answer carried out during the war. Ms. Speller peels back the layers of her story in a wonderfully suspenseful way while at the same time creating deep, thoughtful characters.
    • 5/5
      This book was extremely well written, but painful to read. Laurence Bertram, a survivor of WW I, is asked by the sister of a friend to help her understand and make peace with her brother's suicide. John Emmett, her brother, survived the war physically, but lost his way in guilt and grief, committing suicide three years after the armistice.
    • 1/5
      Just started this book and although I am only 20 pages in and some might find it a bit of slow-starter, I am enjoying this work.

      Gave up forty pages later. The enjoyable slow start turned into complete and utter drudgery.

      Do not recommend.
    • 2/5
      I enjoyed this mystery overall and found it much deeper and more logical than the Bess Crawford series (also set around WWI) I read some months ago, but it still felt flawed. Speller has a fabulous eye for detail, and she truly makes the time period come alive. The mood is brilliant. Sometimes it seems overly complicated, though, and pages are spent on explaining things. The protagonist isn't the brightest bulb. I think I really would have preferred the book told through the POV of his friend Charlie, who is a much more engaging character.There's also a brief visit with a prostitute early on that squicked me with gross detail--and it was utterly unnecessary to the book. It's there for realism, I'm sure, but it wasn't NEEDED.I am glad I kept reading beyond that because the mystery was engaging, but at the same time, I really have no desire to read onward in the series.
    • 5/5
      Heartwarming and tragic. That is how I would describe the story that Ms. Speller has told in this book. Laurence Bartram is an officer from the First World War who managed to make it out of the "war to end all wars" with no visible injuries. But, as for so many that fought in this terrible war, he has experienced and seen things that he cannot ever forget, and he has lost so much, that it has left huge scars on his psyche. He is managing to exist and is trying to write a book on British churches, which helps him feel that he is keeping busy, but he feels that he really isn't any longer a contributing member in the post-war English society. Then a sister of an old school friend comes to him to ask him to look into the circumstances of the apparent suicide of her brother Captain John Emmett. Laurence is reluctant to come out of his self-imposed exile, but he does so because John Emmott was a close school friend and he hadn't seen or heard of him since many years before the war. As Laurence digs he finds long buried secrets and tragic occurrences that occurred on the western front. These secrets have caused much turmoil and unhappiness to the surviving members of those who had been involved in the unspeakable event. Laurence discovers that the secrets are what has been causing the death and destruction that he's uncovering in his investigation. This book is so complex. Not only is there an incredibly tricky mystery, but Ms. Speller so eloquently depicts the public and the private tragedies that result from any war. It's all too common, and still wars continue in this world, with no end in sight. They leave a truly horrible legacy, and destroy so many lives. But the book ends with a sense of hope, at least for Laurence. He begins to feel that he can get on with his life again. There is hope in the darkness. There is a sense of optimism that life can go on, even though it will never be the same.
    • 4/5
      Three years after the end of World War I, British veteran Laurence Bartram is sleepwalking through his life, in theory working on a book on architecture, numb from the loss of his wife and baby on top of all his experiences in the war. The sister of a childhood friend contacts him for help understand why the friend - another veteran - committed suicide, and Laurence begins investigating.I really liked this book. The mystery was well constructed, but most of the characters stood out as interesting, apart from the mystery. Bartram himself is a good man, but not a particularly good detective - perhaps, not that smart. This is hard to do without making a character annoying, but Speller pulls it off. Beyond the solution to the mystery, the ending of the book was a lot richer and emotionally much more nuanced than I anticipated.
    • 4/5
      Great debut novel... Combine Charles Todd's Ian Rutledge with Donna Leon's Inspector Brunetti and add the vibrant background characters of a Louise Penny novel.
    • 1/5
      Just started this book and although I am only 20 pages in and some might find it a bit of slow-starter, I am enjoying this work.

      Gave up forty pages later. The enjoyable slow start turned into complete and utter drudgery.

      Do not recommend.
    • 4/5
      I liked this book. It was an easy read, but that didn't detract from the seriousness of the affects of WW1.The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton is also on my very long list of books I want to read.
    • 4/5
      Had come across a lot of recommendations on this book and borrowed from my local library. Really enjoyed the story and the characters were well portrayed. The author was able to capture the essence of what the soldiers suffered that served in WW1. Have now started reading the next book - The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton.
    • 4/5
      In a beautifully told mystery of the deaths of those servicemen involved in the execution of a British Officer in W.W.I. Elizabeth Speller has excelled in her debut novel. I was easily placed in the trenches along with the soldiers, in London, with those who remained behind and felt closely involved with her characters. I truly cared about them, even the not so nice ones.This paragraph really caught my eye:"I hadn't been idle since the war. I'd needed to do something. I'd met Philip Morrell many years before. My wife was a distant relation of Lady Ottoline, Morrell's wife." I found it very interesting to find those lines in this book.At any rate I highly recommend this read and gave it 4 out of 5 stars.
    • 4/5
      Several years after the end of the Great War, Laurence finds himself involved in a mystery. Asked by his childhood friends sister he attempts to investigate the supposed suicide of John Emmett. This is a very well written first novel, showing the atrocities and secrets of war as well as the effects of war on it's soldiers and those left at home.
    • 4/5
      The Return of Captain John Emmett is a mystery novel of Post World War I. It involves the stories of men who fought the Germans in trench warfare in France and are now home in England or dead on foreign soil. The legacy of an unusual event in the chaos of war affects the lives of the survivors. The killing of a young British officer in France by firing squad for the offence of cowardice under fire leads to revenge and murder.Elizabeth Speller focuses on the actions and thoughts of the main character Laurence Bartram. She uses a third person narrative that suits the character well since he is someone who is a bit shell shocked. He is only gradually drawn out of a passive melancholy by the other characters.I liked the detailed description of post war London, Birmingham, and the British countryside. The descriptions and pace were consistent throughout the lengthy mystery novel. Like Agatha Christie, Ms Speller slowly gives out clues that cause the reader to shift from one character to another as the suspect of multiple murders related to the firing squad event.This is a good novel about one of the most interesting eras in British history. Like Anthony Powell’s novels (see my reviews) the slow careful pace causes the reader to relax and take in the atmosphere of the times in England and let the story unfold in its own time.
    • 4/5
      Anyone who's read and enjoyed the novels of Charles Todd or Jacqueline Winspear (the post WW1 mystery series featuring, respectively, Ian Rutledge and Maisie Dobbs) is likely to be drawn to this debut mystery novel from Elizabeth Speller. Just don't succumb to "post WW1 fatigue" and avoid it on that basis: in many ways this novel (which feels like a stand-alone book rather than the beginning of a series, and is the better for it) offers the reader elements that the two series can't and don't.Laurence Bartram, like so many other still-young men, is back from the trenches and their horrors, but only to find a very different kind of muted horror in postwar life -- the difficulty of adjusting to "normality". The only memory of his former life is the piano that his wife Louise once cherished; she and their infant son died on the same day he went "over the top" in a particularly memorable and horrifying attack. He struggles to find a life for himself, desultorily pondering a book about church architecture. Then the sister of a schoolfriend, John Emmett, seeks him out to request his help understanding why her brother has killed himself. That's the starting point for the mystery, which rapidly turns into a "thumping good read." In many ways, this is a predictable story. There's a bluff sidekick, Charles (think Poirot's buddy, Hastings, with a bit more on the ball and in the little grey cells); a romantic interest, a cast of supporting characters who fulfill various predictable roles in the investigation and in Speller's portrait of postwar England. And yet... Speller handles these so well that even when one part of my brain was saying, yeah, I might have known this would happen, another part was saying "just keep reading!" Above all, Speller does an excellent job of creating a sense of place and time in a way that is reminiscent of Charles Todd's earliest Ian Rutledge novels. Laurence isn't as complex or tortured or nuanced a character as Rutledge and the mystery isn't as intriguing, but the overall story is just as gripping -- and it's fresh. At times, the writing is very good indeed, and it's always solid. I was grabbed by this book at the outset, and even if it's not distinctive, it exemplifies what I think of as a "thumping good read." 4 stars.Full Disclosure: I obtained an advance copy of the book from NetGalley; it will be released in the US this summer, and I'd recommend anyone interested in historical mysteries to stick it on their list and keep an eye open for it.
    • 2/5
      Elizabeth Speller brings to life the period after World War I and what happened to some of the men returning from the "war to end all wars". She weaves shell shock, mysterious accidents, and budding romance in with the horror of what some men were forced to do in order to come home. Lawrence Bartram receives a letter from Mary Emmet asking him to look into the apparent suicide of her brother, John. Lawrence barely remembers his school chum but does remember John's friendly family. In the last months of John's life, he was confined to a mental home but people close to him felt John was making excellent progress and would not have shot himself. After seeing Emmet's will, Bartram decides to look into this matter nudged by the allure of Mary. Seeking help from Charles Carfax, another school mate, Lawrence tries to find the beneficiaries of the will and, perhaps, what really happened to John and other accident victims. Ms. Speller has chosen an era undergoing profound changes and tries to encompass the whole time. She has added twists and turns and twists again so, unfortunately loses a reader through tedium. The subplots are intermitable and, except for the mystery, of no real interest unless the reader is looking for historical fiction.
    • 5/5
      When Captain John Emmett returns from France at the end of World War I, his mother and sister are worried about his mental condition. John is suffering from shell-shock, which is causing him to become aggressive and violent. After spending some time in a nursing home, John escapes and is later found dead in a nearby wood. It is assumed that he committed suicide.John's sister, Mary, contacts one of her brother's old school friends, Laurence Bartram, in the hope that he can help her discover what really happened to her brother. Why would a man who had survived the horrors of the war shoot himself two years later? As Laurence starts to investigate, he begins to wonder whether someone else was behind John's death.The Return of Captain John Emmett is a fascinating story. It works well as a historical fiction novel, with its portrayal of the people of 1920s Britain coming to terms with the aftermath of World War I. But it's also a gripping psychological mystery in which Laurence Bartram reluctantly takes on the role of detective to investigate the circumstances surrounding his friend's death. There are clues, suspects, red herrings and all the other elements that make up a compelling and well-structured detective story.The book is also an interesting and poignant study into the effects, both long-term and short-term, that the war had on individuals and their families. How people came back from the war an entirely different person to when they went away. How men dealt with the memories of the atrocities they witnessed. How their wives felt about the part of their husbands' lives that they had been unable to share. How people were left with physical disabilities and had to learn to adjust.We are given insights into the thoughts and emotions of a First World War soldier and we learn what it was like to be part of a firing squad. The War Poets are also touched upon, and so are the loyalties and friendships formed in British public schools.Due to the subject and setting, the book had a sombre and depressing feel, yet I found myself really enjoying it. As the mystery surrounding John Emmett's death became more and more complex and involved, I was completely drawn into Laurence Bartram's investigations. The plot relies quite heavily on coincidences in places, but not so much that it spoiled the story for me at all. I loved it and will definitely be looking out for more novels from Elizabeth Speller!
    • 4/5
      Laurence Bertram is not your average mystery book amateur detective. In fact he is a little slow on the uptake. While investigating the suicide of a childhood friend he discovers several accidental deaths and murders that may be related. We follow him through several twists and turns as he discovers his friends secrets and deals with his own demons. The first book in the series from a very promising author and I found it hard to put down. Loved Laurence and Charles and look forward to the next in this series.
    • 4/5
      I loved this book. Elizabeth Speller came to Thurrock to talk about her book as part of the Essex Book Festival. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend but received good feedback from colleagues so decided to read the book although a little late in the day. What a delightful surprise because it didn't sound particularly interesting and the jacket was a bit of a turn-off. However, the story itself was excellent. It deals with the apparent suicide of Captain John Emmett and the investigation into his death by his friend Laurence Bartram at the request of Emmett's sister who is dismayed by the fact that her brother survived the war only to take his own life leaving no clue as to why. There is a great deal of background information about the casualties and horrors of the first world war in this book and a real sense of the terrible price paid by those who fought and survived as well as those who died. However, this is ultimately a detective novel with Laurence slowly and painstakingly unravelling the truth behind John Emmett's death which he traced back to a firing squad in France. There are too many layers to the story to do it justice here but I heartily recommend it. The writing is excellent, the sense of history well constructed and overall a really worthwhile read.
    • 4/5
      Laurence Bertram may not be the world’s best detective, but he is dogged and loyal. He gets some help from friend Charles and a reporter who was involved in the incident on which all the current crimes hang. Finding out how is incidental to Laurence's remit, but he can’t let go. If you’ve read Rennie Airth’s John Madden series you’ll have some idea of the tortured inner lives of WWI veterans, but you’ll also be reminded of the fourth book in that series because the plots are very similar. Speller got their first though. It’s a quiet novel that is more character-driven than action-driven, but the mystery will intrigue you. There are enough bad actors, innocent bystanders, unintended victims and unexplained circumstances to go around. Even Mary, who is John’s surviving sibling, comes under suspicion. Speller presents two villains, both of which are pretty repellent, but the reader doesn’t know which is the real one. When we come to find out, it’s a page out of Christie’s book. I hope there are more books to come.
    • 4/5
      One quickly discovers the brilliance of Elizabeth Speller's writing in this, her first novel. The material appears well researched and is deftly presented. The story is complex and intelligently presented. The reader is well guided through the twists and turns of an ever-developing plot with multiple mysteries embedded within. I'll definitely recommend this book to all my local history and mystery buffs.Synopsis:London, 1920. In the aftermath of the Great War and a devastating family tragedy, Laurence Bartram has turned his back on the world. But with a well-timed letter, an old flame manages to draw him back in. Mary Emmett’s brother John—like Laurence, an officer during the war—has apparently killed himself while in the care of a remote veterans’ hospital, and Mary needs to know why. Aided by his friend Charles—a dauntless gentleman with detective skills cadged from mystery novels—Laurence begins asking difficult questions. What connects a group of war poets, a bitter feud within Emmett’s regiment, and a hidden love affair? Was Emmett’s death really a suicide, or the missing piece in a puzzling series of murders? As veterans tied to Emmett continue to turn up dead, and Laurence is forced to face the darkest corners of his own war experiences, his own survival may depend on uncovering the truth.
    • 4/5
      Unable to be at peace with her brother, John's, suicide, Mary Emmett turns to his old school chum, Laurence Bartram, to find out whatever it is possible to know about the circumstances leading to her brother's death. She also wants to know more about the beneficiaries of John's will, none of whom were family members. Laurence begins by interviewing the heirs, who seem to have crossed paths with John during the Great War. After visiting the sanitarium where John had resided since the war, Laurence begins to question the suicide verdict. His suspicions are further aroused when he learns that more men connected with John had survived the war only to die in accidents or, in at least a couple of instances, by murder.Laurence has had no training in investigation, but he is methodical and persistent. He makes mistakes along the way, but he learns from his mistakes. His friend Charles is always ready to lend a hand, using his military and club connections to find information for Laurence, accompanying Laurence on some of his visits to John's acquaintances, and sharing useful insights gleaned from whichever mystery novel he's currently reading. Laurence's interviews reveal both the psychological impact of the Great War on its veterans and its effects on the families of its casualties – their parents, children, siblings, wives, and sweethearts. The narration by Matthew Brenher is excellent, and I'll stick with the audio format for this series as long as he continues to narrate it.
    • 4/5
      The Return of Captain John Emmett is a mystery novel of Post World War I. It involves the stories of men who fought the Germans in trench warfare in France and are now home in England or dead on foreign soil. The legacy of an unusual event in the chaos of war affects the lives of the survivors. The killing of a young British officer in France by firing squad for the offence of cowardice under fire leads to revenge and murder.Elizabeth Speller focuses on the actions and thoughts of the main character Laurence Bartram. She uses a third person narrative that suits the character well since he is someone who is a bit shell shocked. He is only gradually drawn out of a passive melancholy by the other characters.I liked the detailed description of post war London, Birmingham, and the British countryside. The descriptions and pace were consistent throughout the lengthy mystery novel. Like Agatha Christie, Ms Speller slowly gives out clues that cause the reader to shift from one character to another as the suspect of multiple murders related to the firing squad event.This is a good novel about one of the most interesting eras in British history. Like Anthony Powell’s novels (see my reviews) the slow careful pace causes the reader to relax and take in the atmosphere of the times in England and let the story unfold in its own time.
    • 5/5
      Laurence Bartram was one of many whose lives were changed forever by the Great War. He endured the horrors of the Western Front, but he lost his wife in childbirth.After the war he had no need to work and no purpose. He became reclusive, staying at home, writing a book that he knew he would never finish.But then he received a letter from somebody that he remembered well, even though he hadn’t seen her for years: Mary, the sister of his school-friend, John Emmett.Why, she wonders, did her brother survive the war only to kill himself?Can Lawrence, the only friend her brother ever brought home from school, help her to understand?Laurence is drawn to Mary and he accepts her commission. It leads him into a complex mystery, and involving – without giving too much away – the nursing home where Emmett was a patient, a group of war poets, and a horrific wartime incident.The mystery is clever and well structured, but it is rather too reliant on coincidences. And one or two things felt rather contrived. But I could forgive this book those failings. The important things are in it favour.The story revealed was so powerful, and had so much to say about the strengths and weaknesses of humanity, the burden of knowledge, the horrors of war, and the iniquities of the class system.Elizabeth Speller’s write beautifully and is a fine storyteller. She has clearly done her research and, through the testimony of her characters, time, place and emotions come to life so vividly.Those characters, lightly sketched, have faded from my mind, but their stories and their emotions have stayed with me.And those stories and emotions speak not just for those characters but for a generation.
    • 4/5
      It’s 1920. A troubled war veteran, John Emmett of the title, commits suicide and his sister asks Laurence Bartram, fellow veteran and former school chum, to find out why. At first, Bartram is hesitant. He has his own demons and fears that looking into the death will just stir them up. But he soon finds himself intrigued, not by the mysterious death alone, but by John’s sister, Mary. His sometime Watson is his friend Charles, who tags along and uses his contacts to ferret out information.They soon discover that Emmett’s death may not have been suicide. And that there are other suspicious deaths tied to a World War I battlefield tragedy. Every time a new mystery comes out set in the years between the World Wars, some reviewer somewhere compares it to Jacqueline Winspear’s multi-award-winning Maisie Dobbs series. For the most part, the only thing similar is the time period in which it occurs. I’d put this book in that category.Whereas Maisie’s stories always have comparatively light moments interspersed with the dark, The Return of Captain John Emmett is unremittingly dark. I don’t believe the characters are as absorbing, or the writing as polished as with Winspear’s books. Still, once the story got moving it was interesting enough to keep me engaged ‘til the end.
    • 4/5
      London in 1920 is the setting for this mystery. The protagonist is Laurence Bartram, a young widower who has lost his wife and child while he was serving at the front in France in WWI. Bartram is withdrawn and uninvolved in life as he struggles to deal with the horrors of the war and the personal losses he has suffered. A letter from the sister of a school friend asking him to investigate the circumstances of her brother’s suicide draws him back into society. Laurence, with the obligatory sidekick, his friend Charles looks into the suicide of Captain John Emmett. As you might expect the investigation uncovers evidence that makes the suicide less likely and murder more likely. Laurence finds that Capt. Emmett was involved in an incident during the war where an officer was charged with cowardice and executed for it. This allows the author to examine how shellshock was treated during the First World War, as he continues to puzzle out the circumstances of Emmett’s death.I may have World War I fatigue myself. I have read quite a bit of both fiction and nonfiction from that time period. This story had good period detail and examined an interesting issue – the way the military handled soldiers who refused to fight – but all in all it left me fairly unexcited. The mystery aspect was long and meandering. Bartram never focused on the obvious suspects - relatives of the executed officer. When the murderer was revealed he arrived from left field in my opinion. Also the characters were not well developed despite lots of detail I found myself hard pressed to care about them. I think the issue may have been that the author couldn’t decide whether he was writing a mystery or writing literacy fiction. Some of the prose was excellent, the research was outstanding but it did not all come together for me. If you are interested in the effects of WWI on the post war British I’d recommend the Maisie Dobbs series. In that series the characters are well drawn and the mystery complex enough to engage. Also quite good are the early novels by Charles Todd in the Ian Rutledge series. Perhaps if I hadn’t read mysteries in those two series I’d be kinder to this one but it just didn’t do it for me.