Beau Geste

by P. C. Wren Book 1 in the Beau Geste series.

First published 1924

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2.5(5)

When the celebrated Blue Water sapphire disappears from Lady Brandon’s English home, Michael ‘Beau’ Geste leaves a confession and vanishes into the French Foreign Legion. His brothers Digby and John follow him, and all three are drawn into the brutal command of Sergeant-Major Lejaune at the isolated Fort Zinderneuf. A mysterious relief column later finds the fort apparently defended by dead men, turning the brothers’ ordeal into a locked-room mystery on a desert scale.

The novel’s enduring power comes from the way its puzzle and military action serve a family tragedy. Beau’s code of honour demands secrecy and self-sacrifice, but the cost is borne by everyone who loves him. Wren’s romanticised Legion is also a machine of arbitrary discipline, where comradeship offers the only defence against cruelty, isolation and the desert itself.