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Book Summary and Reviews of The Return of Captain John Emmett by Elizabeth Speller

The Return of Captain John Emmett by Elizabeth Speller

The Return of Captain John Emmett

A Mystery

by Elizabeth Speller

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  • Jul 2011, 448 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

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. 

At once a compelling mystery and an elegant literary debut, The Return of Captain John Emmett blends the psychological depth of Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy with lively storytelling from the golden age of British crime fiction.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Though Speller eventually falters with an over reliance on coincidence, for the most part she delivers an elegant, engrossing read." - Publishers Weekly

"Historian Speller... uses the Dyett and Poole executions in WWI as a springboard for this elegantly written antiwar saga." - Kirkus Reviews

"An absorbing mystery... Speller's literary debut is brimming with historical details of the period and doesn't shy away from war's atrocities. There are many references to British writers and poets that the average American reader may not be familiar with, and the myriad names of officers and soldiers may be confusing." - Library Journal

This information about The Return of Captain John Emmett was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

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Sandra Hofsommer

The Return of Captain John Emmett by Elizabeth Speller
While a mystery, Speller's novel also deals with the horrors of trench warfare and the relationships of officers--usually from the upper classes--and enlisted men. When Mary Emmett, sister of John Emmett, contacts Lawrence Bartram and asks him to look into her brother's suicide, Bartram reluctantly agrees. Bartram's search takes him on a journey that reveals as much about his own war experiences as the life of young British men of all classes who signed up to fight what they thought would be short and glorious tour of duty. Speller lets us see how the devastating mental effects the war had on many soldiers (who were often seen as cowards) as well as how the deaths of nearly a full generation of young men affects their own lives as well as those of their families. While Speller spends a bit too much time on a sometimes convoluted plot, the book is a fascinating read. Those who have read the books of Charles Todd that deal with WWI or who remembers the Stanley Kubrick 1950's film "Paths of Glory"should enjoy this novel.

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Author Information

Elizabeth Speller

Elizabeth Speller studied Classics at Cambridge. She has written for various publications, and has taught at the universities of Cambridge, Birmingham, and Bristol. She divides her life between Gloucestershire and Greece. The Return of Captain John Emmett is her first novel. Check out her website at www.elizabethspeller.com.

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