If you want to read a thick book of individual lapses of judgment, this is the book for you. Impeccably researched and comprehensive in its treatment of British soldiers shot at dawn for desertion, mutiny, and other miscues, Corns and Hughes-Wilson bombard you with detailed analysis of nearly every trial.

It is sad, overwhelming, and ultimately mind numbing to examine the flip side of heroism. Some soldiers were indeed bad eggs and engender little sympathy. Others seemed to get caught up in a bad situation. Many suffered from "shell shock" and just couldn't take it any more. For over 300 soldiers, the reasons became their death sentence. Note that 89% of the death sentences adopted by court martial (about 3,000) were commuted.

In some ways, Blindfold and Alone represents an exceptionally good scholarly effort to unearth the rationale and processes behind each execution. However, the authors make the mistake of believing if a little detail is good, then a huge pile must be great. Sadly, the cases begin to blur together and you lose track of the point as you read for the umpteenth time about Private So-and-So taking off for the rear areas, rounded up, tried, convicted, and shot.

The authors are at their best analyzing the system of justice and pointing out fortes and foibles. Had they reinforced their investigative flair with a few representative specific examples instead of several score, you'd have a much more focused book with half the size and twice the focus.

As it stands, the book's comprehensiveness breeds repetitiveness, and I found myself flipping past pages to pick up the analytical trail. Perhaps that is an injustice to the authors, for I can see and appreciate, if not be in awe of, the magnitude of their archive-diving efforts. Yet, a constant barrage of court transcript excerpts create dry prose about WWI executions, making me a victim of "page shock" and diminishing the impact of an important contribution to World War I study.

Is Blindfold and Alone an important book? Yes. Does it advance our understanding of WWI? Yes. If military executions are your interest, this is a great book about the Great War. For more casual readers, be forewarned about its scope.