Genre
Detectve Fiction, Historical Fiction
Setting and Context
World War One, 1917, as the public are growing more disillusioned about the war.
Narrator and Point of View
The point of view is that of Inspector Kingsley who is investigating the murder of a popular poet and soldier Viscount Abercrombie.
Tone and Mood
Depressing and threatening.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Kingsley is the protagonist; Captain Shannon is the antagonist.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is World War One, as this is the one key event and factor that has brought all of the characters to the place they are now, and also the thing that has caused their paths to cross.
Climax
Kingsley is released from prison and given a chance of redemption but he has to travel to the battlefield in Flanders to achieve it.
Foreshadowing
Abercrombie's change of opinion and heart about the war and it's possible outcome foreshadows his murder.
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
The author alludes to the historical events at the time, specifically public opinion related to the war, and the way in which belief in its validity and successful outcome also shifted.
Imagery
The author describes the sheer terror that the men felt at the Front. The warfare was trench warfare and he not only paints a very visual picture of the way in which the trenches were set out, separated by "no man's land" and barbed wire, but also of how things sounded, with the cacophony of noise, and of the smells, both because of the lack of hygiene and also because of the stench of death emanating from dead bodies, or injuries that were literally going rotten.
Paradox
Kingsley is imprisoned because he refuses to go to the Front but he cannot wait to get to the Front if it means a job as a detective and possible redemption for his perceived cowardice.
Parallelism
There is a parallel between real-life war poet Siegfried Sassoon and the victim of the murder in the novel, Viscount Abercrombie.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
"Men" is not only the way in which the individuals fighting were considered - as one unit of automatons rather than as men of varying ages, abilities and capacity for absorbing what they are experiencing - but also the way in which they were addressed.
Personification
N/A
