Murder in Belgravia

Murder in Belgravia by Lynn Brittney is set in London during WWI, a time period of great interest for many reasons.  

The Great War was in progress and the social landscape was changing:  drugs like cocaine and heroin were available at the local pharmacy; the male population was depleted as men enlisted or were conscripted; the zeppelin raids in 1915; women were needed in areas other than domestic service and were working in factories, wearing trousers, cutting their hair, and learning to drive;  suffragettes were still hoping for the vote, but suspended many of their political activities and offered their services to the government; only a small number of women were able to receive higher education, but the war increased the need for more women in fields that required more disciplined learning.

The book is a murder mystery that touches on all of the above, as well as examining the difficulty for many in accepting these rapid changes.  Today, approximately 100 years later, traditional society struggles to accept the many changes that result from technology.

Briefly, Chief Inspector Peter Beech finds himself investigating the murder of Lord Murcheson.  Murcheson's grievously injured wife has confessed to killing her husband, but questions arise as to whether or not her life-threatening injuries would have made it possible. 

Beech is given permission to assemble an unusual and off-the-record team that includes two women to pursue the Murcheson case.  

In spite of the tawdry elements of the case, the novel has an almost Pollyana-ish group of characters who are more open-minded than would have been typical of the time.  Beech's assembled team includes a retired policeman summoned back because of the loss of man power during the war, a young policeman who was wounded during the war, a female doctor, and a woman who studied law.  All of the characters are dedicated to solving the murder and are interested in making positive changes.

In the midst of a sordid case that includes murder, prostitution (both male and female), and drugs, the assembled team represent the best of humanity.  So...the novel deals with some of the most degraded offenses, but lightens up because of the respectable and decent members of the team.  It is a contrast between the terrible reality of the social ills faced and the virtual goodness of the team.  This contrast between reality and wishful thinking keeps the novel a step below what it could have been.

The plot is intriguing and held my interest, and the characters are likable, if a bit perfect.  

Although the research is obvious, there is no bibliography or list of sources.  This may simply be that my copy is an ARC.  Nevertheless, I enjoyed Murder in Belgravia and look forward to the next in the series.
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Cocaine and heroin were available in pharmacies for almost every possible problem from helping babies to sleep, hay fever treatments, pain relief, etc. 

drug use during WWI

DORA 

some of the drugs advertised during the period

Read in December; review scheduled for March 2018.

NetGalley/Mirror Books

Historical Mystery/WWI.  March 15, 2018.  Print length:  211 pages.

WWI, Shell Shock, and Virgins

I've long had an interest in WWI, probably first engendered by the poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen (first read and loved when in high school).  

Novels about WWI have only added to that interest, developed it, and inspired further research--so easy to do with the internet when something arouses curiosity.  All Quiet on the Western Front, Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, the first books in the Maisie Dobbs series, Charles Todd's Ian Rutledge and Bess Crawford series (both deal with WWI), Speller's The Return of Captain John Emmett, Anita Shreve's Stella Bain, R.F. Delderfield's To Serve Them All Their Days, Mike Mignola and Christoper Golden's Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire  (allegorical), and others that I can't recall right now have all covered various aspects of the first World War.

Many of the books above mention shell shock, which I've always equated with PTSD; recently, however, I watched a documentary about shell shock with film footage of WWI victims that exhibited seriously different symptoms, as well as similar ones.  The documentary has footage made by doctors and psychiatrists at the time.  It is heartbreaking and distressing and clearly shows some of the horrors of trench warfare.  

Western Front Casualties
July–December 1916^{[Note 3]}

Month	Casualties
July	196,081
August	75,249
September	115,056
October	66,852
November	46,238
December	13,803
Total British	513,289
French	c. 434,000
Total: Anglo-French	c. 947,289
German	c. 719,000
Grand total	c. 1,666,289

The statistics are dreadful.   The Battle of the Somme (from July 1-November 18, 1916), saw, on the first day, over 57,000 U.K. deaths.  On the first day.  

Add to that the deaths of the Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, French, and German casualties, and it is impossible to imagine the misery and horror that existed after only one day.
A battlefield populated by the dead and dying.

The Western Front Casualties (shown on the right) gives total casualties of the Battle of the Somme that lasted from July to Nov.  Over a million and a half men died, German and Allied.

Among the Allies, the losses of the U.K. are especially dramatic because of its small size. The U.K. (50, 346 sq. miles) is slightly smaller than the state of Louisiana (51,843 sq. miles)--that awareness gives some idea of the devastation to British forces during only one battle.  There were also the battles of Tannenberg, Marnes, Verdun, Arras, Galliopoli, Ypres.... 

I'm always stunned when looking at this kind of statistical information.  Magnify these deaths by the survivors who loved these men.  Then add the physically wounded and those who suffered from shell shock.  Although the problems with shell shock occurred as early as 1914, after the Somme, 35,000 men were diagnosed.  

Both Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon were treated for shell shock.  The bitterness is Sassoon's "Survivors" is evident.

32. Survivors 

NO doubt they’ll soon get well; the shock and strain
Have caused their stammering, disconnected talk.
Of course they’re ‘longing to go out again,’—
These boys with old, scared faces, learning to walk.
They’ll soon forget their haunted nights; their cowed	5
Subjection to the ghosts of friends who died,—
Their dreams that drip with murder; and they’ll be proud
Of glorious war that shatter’d all their pride...
Men who went out to battle, grim and glad;
Children, with eyes that hate you, broken and mad. Craiglockart. October, 1917.	10

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Naturally, as I read different articles, I find other aspects that interest me.  Novels often mention the shortage of men in the U.K. after the war, but here is an excerpt from a startling article I found in the Daily Mail:  Condemned to Be Virgins.

They dreamt of love, marriage and children. But, as a new book reveals, the Great War robbed two million women of the men they would have married, leading many into relationships which could only be whispered about...

One hazy morning in 1917 the senior mistress of Bournemouth High School For Girls stood up in front of the assembled sixth form and announced to her hushed audience: 

"I have come to tell you a terrible fact.

"Only one out of ten of you girls can ever hope to marry. This is not a guess of mine. It is a statistical fact.

"Nearly all the men who might have married you have been killed. You will have to make your way in the world as best you can.

"The war has made more openings for women than there were before. But there will still be a lot of prejudice. You will have to fight. You will have to struggle."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-481882/Condemned-virgins-The-million-women-robbed-war.html#ixzz3iL7KtHqq
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I've added Singled Out,  a nonfiction, historical account to my wishlist.  And a link to some of the best of WWI poetry.
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What are your favorite WWI books?  Either fact, fiction, or poetry.

A Fine Summer's Day by Charles Todd

A Fine Summer's Day     

I've been reading the Ian Rutledge series for years, but this one is very different because this one functions as a prequel. A Fine Summer's Day takes place before WWI.

On a lovely summer's day, Ian Rutledge is attending a house party at the home of Melissa Crawford (Bess Crawford's aunt) with plans to ask the young woman he loves to marry him.  Elsewhere on the same day a man is preparing to bury his mother, a young man in Scotland is proposing to his sweetheart, and in Sarajevo, an anarchist murders the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife.

The seeds of WWI are sown.

On that summer day in June, no one suspected that their lives were about to change.  Certainly not Ian Rutledge, engaged and looking forward to marriage.  Divided between his social obligations to his fiancee and his job at Scotland Yard, Rutledge spends the summer working on a series of murders that initially appear unrelated.  

On the continent, one declaration of war after another increases the fear and suspense, and by August 4, 1914, England had joined the fray.  Even after England declares war on Germany, and scores of young men rush to enlist, most feel that all will be settled by Christmas.  

Throughout the summer, Rutledge travels from one village to another trying to find a connection between the murdered men, and even after he discovers the connection, he must find evidence to convince his superior.  

It is strange to read an Ian Rutledge novel that takes place before the war and before he meets Hamish, but the Todd's have given us an interesting glimpse an England before the upheaval of war, before the loss of a generation of young men.   

Library copy.

Historic Mystery.  Jan. 2015.  371 pages.