Customer Reviews

One Good Turn

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One Good Turn is a powerful, yet simple and quick tale set in Ypres, France during the Western Front of World War I 1917. It's got everything you could be looking for in a good quality short story, great strong main characters in both a hero and a villain, descriptive realism of the tension and horrors or fighting in the front lines of British troops, against the Germans. As well as the added tension of if all will turn out all right for Chris Ransom, a guy who gave everything for his fellow soldiers, his country just because it was the right thing to do and he thought it would save lives.

The basic plot of this short story is that Chris Ramon, a brave soldier who could have gone back to England on leave, but instead chose to take water to troops on the front line awakens with partial amnesia and in severe pain. He's badly burnt, dirty and is having trouble remaining conscious, yet alone move. Movement made more difficult due to the fact he's handcuffed to his makeshift bed in a dark damp basement. His captors aren't about to make his life more comfortable, viewing him as the lowest of the low, a traitor, thief and murderer of an allied soldiers. As they drag him to a makeshift courtroom he can't even remember how he got there, let alone his name, but he's shore it's not John Stubbs, the man on trial.

You'll have to get this yourself to find out who John Stubbs is and the atrocious things he did, and why he's not in that basement, but Chris is. Is a great read and you should definitely do so. One Good Turn is part of the Quick Reads series of stand alone published short stories (it's 92 pages). If you're unfamiliar with the Quick Reads initiative, they are books published to increase literacy levels by encouraging those who don't like to read beyond magazines and comic books, to try fiction through cheap priced (current Quick Reads all sell of the rack for under two pounds in the UK) short story length fiction and non fiction. I definitely think this story achieves all those goals as it's so good, readers reading it will want to check out other fiction from the Quick Reads series, and even full length novels.

This book has few pages and is easy to read - but don't get fooled by that. It has a well crafted and powerful story to tell. I'm really positively surprised (I wasn't expecting too much from it - usually not the kind of book I will pick up) and I ended up enjoying the book very much - although the story is not a happy one. It is a really engaging and well written story. Recommended indeed!