THE INVISIBLE emotional wounds caused by war were the stuff of strong fiction in Rachel Seiffert's Booker-shortlisted debut novel The Dark Room. For her second book, Afterwards, her searching questions move on to the postwar period, and the plight of soldiers who find themselves acutely dislocated in civilian life.

Using a hesitant romantic liaison as the catalyst, Seiffert examines the strategies of two men dealing with the repercussions of combat.

Alice's boyfriend and her grandfather have in common an uneasy confusion over whether the killing they've done - Joseph in Northern Ireland and David in Kenya - was justified. We first see Joseph, now a painter and decorator, through Alice's eyes. It is a very incomplete picture. She finds him gentle and quiet and they enjoy countryside walks. Yet the closer Alice gets, the more disconcerting is his unwillingness to talk about his tour of duty.

They meet not long after the death of Alice's grandmother.

Some months down the line, the relationship is still tentative and it seems natural to suggest Joseph take on the job of redecorating her grandfather's hall.

The slow-moving first third is mired in inconsequential detail and fails to instil empathy with any of the characters. The fallout from the conversations between the two lonely veterans provides a dramatic watershed, but it arrives too late and is too understated to resuscitate interest fully. The opportunity is never taken to flesh out the backstory of Alice's illegitimate birth and absent father, although the point is made that this has shaped her willingness not to pursue information withheld by another.

With her own family, particularly her grandfather, she is impeccably tactful, but if she is going to build her relationship with Joseph, she must probe.

Having absorbed disturbing accounts of morally dubious incidents between soldiers and civilians, she wants to know if Joseph was ever involved in anything of the sort. This is the kiss of death for the relationship.

There are few flashbacks to military action, but they are realised with authenticity.

Retrospectively, David's sense of rightness withers, as Joseph's past unmakes any peace of mind he might have in the present.