Book review: Instrument of Slaughter - Edward Marston

Title: Instruments of Slaughter

Author: Edward Marston

FICTION

Genre: Crime

Ranking: 6.5 out of 10.0

Buy: Maybe

Borrow: Yes

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009UV67RA/ref=rdr_kindle_ext_tmb

Summary: Britain is on the brink of enforcing conscription in January 1916. Eligible young men who have not yet signed up to fight are despised as ‘conchies’, subjected to hatred and verbal abuse. Cyril Ablatt, leader of a group of conscientious objectors in Shoreditch, makes a rousing speech at a meeting of the No-Conscription Fellowship, refusing to be ‘an instrument of slaughter'.

When Cyril is brutally beaten to death, Scotland Yard detectives Inspector Marmion and Sergeant Keedy are assigned to the case. As they build up a portrait of Cyril, they discover a hidden private life behind the man’s clean facade. It soon becomes clear there are plenty of suspicious persons with motives for the killing.

The plot thickens as a vicar is nearly beaten to death.  Under suspicion is a gravedigger and a librarian (boss of Cyril). But the final results are quite different.

Main review: 

Britain is on the brink of enforcing conscription in January 1916. Eligible young men who have not yet signed up to fight are despised as ‘conchies’ (short for conscientious objectors) and ‘shirkers’, subjected to hatred, verbal abuse and sometimes violence. Cyril Ablatt, leader of four conscientious objectors in Shoreditch, makes a rousing speech at a meeting of the No-Conscription Fellowship, refusing to be ‘an instrument of slaughter'. Soon after he is found to be beaten to death.

Scotland Yard detectives Inspector Harvey Marmion and Joe Sergeant Keedy are assigned to the case. As they build up a portrait of Cyril, they discover a hidden private life behind the man’s clean front. Apparently, he has been seeing a married woman, Caroline Skene, in Lambeth.

It soon becomes clear there are plenty of suspicious persons with motives for the killing including a gravedigger who later is found to be trying to get rid of blood off his trousers, and a librarian who is Cyril's boss and who thinks very lowly of him..

The plot meanders here and there, with a vicar nearly beaten to death which Harvey's boss, Superintendent Claud Chatfield, thinks is by the same culprit, but not so thinks Harvey. BTW, Claud got the promotion that Harvey deserved, But Harvey prefered to be on the beat rather than stuck behind a desk.

Eventually, Harvey and Joe find who attacked the vicar and also who attacked Cyril. The former is totally unlinked to the rest of the characters, whereas the latter is someone known to Cyril and his family as well as Caroline. In fact, it was jealousy that drove him to murder Cyril.

There is also budding romance between Joe and Harvey's daughter Alice. At the end of the book, it is revealed that they plan to get married to Ellen (Alice's mum) delight. Alice is giving up her job at the Women's Emergency Force and going to join up as a woman policeman.  As they say, the plot thickens.

Further reading suggestion: The Railway Detective - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Railway-Detective-Book-ebook/dp/B006WB7MMU/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8