Behind the Lines

After killing a fellow officer, a British World War I fighter joins the ranks of deserters and outlaws in a suspenseful novel from the author of Bretherton.

Behind the Lines follows army man Peter Rawley, who accidentally kills an overbearing, taunting fellow officer and, terrified that he will not receive a fair hearing amid the chaos of the trenches, flees the battlefield.

Now a fugitive, Rawley must join forces with other deserters, criminals, and lost soldiers in a hand-to-mouth existence, trying to survive in the no-man’s-land between opposing armies. He will encounter both adventure and disaster, including capture by the Germans and the threat of a firing squad—and will need to call upon his own bravery and the support of the woman he loves to survive.

A thriller from the author of Bretherton: Khaki or Field-Grey?—which was praised by the Sunday Times as “a mystery as exciting as a good detective story and an extraordinarily vivid account of trench-warfare”—this is a meditation on the issues of identity and allegiance, as well as the role of chance. Behind the Lines is a classic of WWI fiction and an exciting read that brings the drama of the Great War to life.