The Dead of Mametz

Evocative descriptive passages (a river in an industrial area “murmured its discontent as it flowed to spill its filthy contents into the waters of Swansea Bay”) partially redeem Hicks’s debut, the uneven first in a whodunit series featuring Thomas Oscendale. On the western front in June 1916, Pvt. Harold Bratton of the Welsh Regiment hears a gunshot from a hut where his comrades are resting. Cpl. Bill Vincent rushes out of the hut toward Bratton, then shoots himself in the head. Vincent apparently gunned down two soldiers before taking his own life, but the motive for the double murder is anything but obvious. Assistant Provost Thomas Oscendale of the Military Foot Police heads an investigation that takes him back across the Channel. Some readers will find the motive for the murders improbable, while the melodramatic ending will strike others as completely out of left field. (Apr.)