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The First Casualty
- Narrated by: Glen McCready
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
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Publisher's summary
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 his 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.
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The Kindly Ones
- By: Jonathan Littell
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 39 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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The chilling fictional memoir of Dr. Maximilien Aue, a former Nazi officer who has reinvented himself, many years after the war, as a middle-class family man and factory owner in France. Max is an intellectual steeped in philosophy, literature, and classical music. He is also a cold-blooded assassin and the consummate bureaucrat. Through the eyes of this cultivated yet monstrous man, we experience in disturbingly precise detail the horrors of the Second World War and the Nazi genocide of the Jews.
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Office politics in hell
- By Maine Colonial 🌲 on 04-02-13
By: Jonathan Littell
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Covenant with Death
- By: John Harris
- Narrated by: Mike Rogers
- Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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They joined for their country. They fought for each other. When war breaks out in 1914, Mark Fenner and his Sheffield friends immediately flock to Kitchener's call. Amid waving flags and boozy celebration, the three men - Fen, his best friend Locky and self-assured Frank, rival for the woman Fen loves - enlist as volunteers to take on the Germans and win glory.
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A superb Great War historical novel
- By Jean on 09-28-14
By: John Harris
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A Duty to the Dead
- A Bess Crawford Mystery
- By: Charles Todd
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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The daughter of a distinguished soldier, Bess Crawford follows in his patriotic footsteps, volunteering to serve her country as a nurse during the Great War. In 1916 she promises Lieutenant Arthur Graham that she will carry his dying request to a brother. When Bess arrives at the Graham house in Kent, Jonathan Graham listens to his brother's last wishes with surprising indifference.
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Terrific period mystery
- By Anne on 12-04-10
By: Charles Todd
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The Jewel in the Crown
- The Raj Quartet, Book 1
- By: Paul Scott
- Narrated by: Richard Brown
- Length: 22 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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The first volume in Paul Scott's historical tour-de-force opens in 1942 as the British fear both Japanese invasion and Indian demands for self-rule. In the Mayapore gardens, Daphne Manners, daughter of the provincial governor, leaves her Indian lover, who will soon be arrested for her alleged rape.
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Superb writing, subverted by spiritless narration
- By mgale on 10-13-10
By: Paul Scott
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Babylon Berlin
- Gereon Rath, Book 1
- By: Volker Kutscher
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 18 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Berlin, 1929. Detective Inspector Rath was a successful career officer in the Cologne Homicide Division before a shooting incident in which he inadvertently killed a man. He has been transferred to the vice squad in Berlin, a job he detests even though he finds a new friend in his boss, Chief Inspector Wolter. There is seething unrest in the city, and the Commissioner of Police has ordered the vice squad to ruthlessly enforce the ban on May Day demonstrations.
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It's no Bernie Gunther Mystery ...
- By Brian English on 01-28-18
By: Volker Kutscher
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Put Out More Flags
- By: Evelyn Waugh
- Narrated by: Michael Maloney
- Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Upper-class scoundrel Basil Seal, mad, bad, and dangerous to know, creates havoc wherever he goes, much to the despair of the three women in his life - his sister, his mother, and his mistress. When Neville Chamberlain declares war on Germany, it seems the perfect opportunity for more action and adventure. So Basil follows the call to arms and sets forth to enjoy his finest hour - as a war hero. Basil's instincts for self-preservation come to the fore as he insinuates himself into the Ministry of Information and a little-known section of Military Security.
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Wickedly Funny
- By Chelz on 07-25-19
By: Evelyn Waugh
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My Dear I Wanted to Tell You
- A Novel
- By: Louisa Young
- Narrated by: Dan Stevens
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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The lives of two very different couples - an officer and his aristocratic wife, and a young soldier and his childhood sweetheart - are irrevocably intertwined and forever changed in this stunning World War I epic of love and war. Moving among Ypres, London, and Paris, this emotionally rich and evocative novel is both a powerful exploration of the lasting effects of war on those who fight - and those who don't - and a poignant testament to the enduring power of love.
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Just read it!! Or rather, listen!
- By Annie M. on 08-31-14
By: Louisa Young
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The Cossacks
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: David Thorn
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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The colorful Cossack way of life is made alive and real in this historical novel.
Tolstoy's first novel and acknowledged as one of his best, it is based on his own forays into the Caucasus, abandoning his aristocrat life of gambling and carousing in Moscow and volunteering to be attached to the regular army.
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Tolstoy masterpiece is wounded by terrible audio
- By Darwin8u on 07-24-13
By: Leo Tolstoy
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Meet the Tiger
- A Simon “The Saint” Templar Novel
- By: Leslie Charteris
- Narrated by: John Rayburn
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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The fiction world of today needs a “Saint” more than it ever did. For years now that scene has been dominated by the “anti-heroes"—those grim gray operators in a sunless sub-culture where global issues are worked out with totally unemotional pragmatism, those hapless uninspired puppets manipulated and expended by ruthlessly dedicated little brothers of Big Brother. It made morbidly fascinating narrative, but it never gave anyone a lift until it climaxed in the hyper-gadgeted parodies of 007 extravaganzas.
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droning
- By Kindle Customer on 04-27-24
By: Leslie Charteris
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Night of the Fox
- A Dougal Munro/Jack Carter Novel, Book 1
- By: Jack Higgins
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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In the fifth year of conflict, the master plan for the invasion of Hitler’s Channel stronghold is the Allies’ greatest secret. National security demands it doesn’t fall into enemy hands. So when Colonel Hugh Kelso is pulled from the sea off German-occupied Jersey in April 1944, a major crisis erupts. Because Kelso is still alive and knows the exact details of the imminent invasion, to ensure the success of their offensive, the Allies launch a suicidal mission to rescue the Colonel...or silence him forever.
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Glad it was a Daily Deal rather than full priced
- By Mark Hancock on 07-17-15
By: Jack Higgins
What listeners say about The First Casualty
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Fey Gilo
- 09-08-16
Extraordinary
This book was totally wonderful! It took you to the darkest parts of WWI but managed to stay entertaining and it never felt maudlin. The writing was everything you might expect from the creator of Black Adder!
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- Daniel
- 05-26-15
Great read & a cracking story
Really great read that is well worth the credit!
The narration is superb which transports you back to the trenches & lets you get a flip a if the world in 1917...
I can highly recommend this as an addition to your library
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- Mohid Rizwan
- 05-16-18
Compilation was a bit troublesome
The chapters listed had no correlation with the actual chapters, and this made keeping track of where you were a bit difficult. Other than that it was a splendid book, keeping in with Ben Elton’s style. I would recommend this book and Ben Elton to anyone looking to understand history...but without all the boring facts and figures.
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- Peter Morton
- 07-06-15
Not Elton's best
What did you like best about The First Casualty? What did you like least?
'The First Casualty' is a whodunnit which is really an excuse to take the reader into the trenches of WW1 and 'over the top' (twice). The plot has lots of holes - it's easy to guess the murderer because there are no other candidates, really. And why would the government use the hero for this secret assignment, when he is just about the most loathed and recognisable conscientious objector in Britain at the time? Surely it had other detectives? And surely he would have understood long before what awaited him in prison, as a hated policeman? No, the real purpose is to describe trench warfare, where the hero, despite his 'logical' objection to the war, turns into a killing machine in short order. In general, I found it difficult to see what we are supposed to take away from the novel. Not one of Elton's best, but as usual a page-turner.
Has The First Casualty turned you off from other books in this genre?
If by 'this genre' you mean books about WW1 the answer is no, although I think that event has had enough exposure for the time being.
What about Glen McCready’s performance did you like?
Excellent. At first I thought his voice a bit monotone, but actually he proved he could do a whole range of feeling and accents.
If this book were a movie would you go see it?
No.
Any additional comments?
Elton has an odd idea of what (most) suffragettes stood for. It was 'votes for women, chastity for men' in most cases. Extreme sexual promiscuity (of the kind his heroine displays, with her much re-used condom) wasn't on the agenda.
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1 person found this helpful