A SUMMER AT THE SOMME

The Kensington Quartet; Four Charlotte Holmes mysteries set in Europe during the Great War. THE WESTERN FRONT, 1916. The world is in turmoil as the Great War stalls in the muddy fields of Europe, the stagnant frontlines scythe through the flowers of youth, as the Empire is called on to defend the Mother Land. Charlotte and Watan are enrolled as surgeons in a field hospital whilst Branwell is a Captain in the Indian Army—a sympathetic English officer in charge of the Indians; however, his superior, Major Charles de Beque is markedly less sympathetic. Anti-British forces are fomenting rebellion in the Indian regiments just as a British offensive is looming, when it fails the superiors task Branwell with finding a scapegoat When Watan comes under bombardment he suffers severe shellshock and deserts the battlefield. Branwell manages to find him but the wayward surgeon is court martialled for desertion. The Great War extracts a heavy toll on our heroes both in mental and physical scars that will never heal.