Review: The Return of Captain John Emmett by Elizabeth Speller

Book: The Return of Captain John Emmett

Author: Elizabeth Speller

Pages: 448

I Read: The paperback pictured above

I Read it in: 6-7 hours

Plot 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.

What I Liked: In bullet points, then: 

• Loved the premise of this book. A war-related series of crimes and a veteran soldier- Laurence Bartram- trying to make sense of it all. 
• Loved the characters. Laurence's struggles with his own loss and his experiences of the war and his resilience in putting one foot in front of the other and moving on. Charles- who has great detective instincts and comes up with the best clues and insight during the course of events in this book. I really loved Charles- he is fun and resourceful! 
• The mystery itself. What had happened during the War that led to the death of Emmett and a few other men, who did not have an obvious connection but were, obviously, somehow connected during the War.. The mystery was interesting and even the reveal in the end was not disappointing. 
• War-era Britain- the motivations for people to volunteer and the conditions in the trenches and just the sheer scale of the tragedy were well captured. 

What I Didn't Like: Not too much. I would have wanted the book's pace to be a bit crisper.. there was a lack of a certain sense of urgency to the proceedings. Only Charles' information and his investigation into a number of things kept moving the story forward most of the times. 

Rating: 4/5