The Court Martial

The Court Martial is a novel full of action and conflict, set in the early days of the Korean War. In some of the fiercest fighting since World War II, and in conditions severe enough to test even the toughest of troops, there is an air of desperation and impending doom, with an infantry company that is full of warring factions.
After a major set-piece Chinese attack the company finds itself buried alive in their tunnels for a night. While awaiting rescue, a platoon commander is accused of raping a young Korean girl who smuggled herself on to the position in order to cover up for her brother, a Korean deserter.
This poses the questions: can a man in a state of intense fear and disintegration be excused for his crime? And does a young woman who has deliberately put herself in a position where rape is a probability deserve the full redress of the law? Also, to what degree is the legal profession justified in reverting to unscrupulous chicanery to save a rapist when the punishment (death) is more heinous than the crime?
The Court Martial provides the reader with a war story that has seldom been equalled for action-packed excitement and authenticity. The novel examines the behaviour of court martial witnesses when they are manoeuvred into desperate situations; how, when cornered, every man looks after himself, especially the defending officer.
One critic (Sir Christopher Ondaatje) claims that the final court scene is one of the finest ever portrayed in a novel, with two really splendid villains dictating the action and with a highly satisfactory outcome achieved by an unforgettable twist of irony.