No Man's Land

A combination of war novel and subtle suspense, William Fairchild's No Man's Land is super. Fairchild brings intricate details of WWI trench warfare with a flair for character development and foreshadowing. The novel starts out with the narrator as a young boy, receiving a WWI revolver from his grandfather, a retired General with a secret past.As the story evolves, the narrator is bequeathed a transcript of his late Grandfather's war journal. This journal takes us from the Grandfather's early days as a lieutenant in the trenches of the Yves Salient of Western Europe. Having suffered an immobilizing injury during a charge on enemy trenches, the Lieutenant witnesses shadowing figures emerging from underground tunnels. The book progresses to describe the Lieutenant's fortuitous advancement throughout the ranks of the military as he accomplishes a top secret assigment: root out the military deserters living over 60 feet below the WWI trenches.The novel does toss in certain references to the early days of a surprise historical character, but I don't want to tell you too much.The book contains a nice balance of dialogue and first person limited narrative. The General, as secondary narrator, credits heresay with his description of events outside of his direct observation. You will find some of the dialogue to be strictly in the spirit of the British cheer-i-o bravado, and the author has a propensity for using larger words (while the meaning for most can be gleaned from the context, you may go to a dictionary several times). Overall, the novel really intrigued me and I couldn't wait to see what would happen next. The subtle suspense of the book really hooked me, and the war scenes really shook me to a higher level of appreciation for the ghastly nature of gas warfare and the butchery of the trench fighting.