First Time Solo

Book excerpt: A distinctive debut novel by a mature new voice sheds light on a previously neglected aspect of war, its casualties and victims, and those forces unleashed by a conflict that changed the world forever It's 1943 and Jack Devine, a farmer's son from the rural North of Scotland, is finally called up to the RAF. Jack dreams of becoming a pilot, breaking hearts, and returning home a hero. The realities of training are very different, with boredom, bullying, and casual violence the norm. Drawn together by a love of jazz music, Jack makes friends with Terry, a worldly Welshman dabbling in the black market; Joe, a fellow Scot and aggressive anti-fascist; and the public school educated Clive. The group form a jazz band to surprising acclaim and for a while an alternative future to that preordained for each seems possible. But the initial camaraderie soon gives way to simmering resentment as age-old tensions resurface. When one of the four dies in a suspicious flying accident, another in the group is suspected of murder. Jack must not only navigate the demands of pilot training, an errant girlfriend, constant redeployments, and a bloody war that is getting ever nearer, but also the ever-present danger closer to home and the increasing realization that the dice are stacked against those like him wishing to escape the shackles of the old order.