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Billy Boyle: A Billy Boyle World War II Mystery [Large Print] [Paperback]

James R. Benn
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Paperback, Large Print, Jan 1 2009 CDN $26.16  

Book Description

Jan 1 2009 Wheeler Softcover
“This book has got it all—an instant classic.”—Lee Child, author of The Hard Way

“A tale as tight as a drum. Doesn’t get any better than this.”—Mary-Ann Tirone Smith, author of the Poppy Rice mysteries

“It is a pleasure marching off to war with spirited Billy Boyle. He is a charmer, richly imagined and vividly rendered. And he tells a finely suspenseful yarn.”—Dan Fesperman, author of The Prisoner of Guantánamo

“Rich with atmosphere. . . . A treat from start to finish.”—Owen Parry, author of the Abel Jones mysteries

What’s a twenty-two-year-old Irish cop from Boston doing at Beardsley Hall having lunch with Haakon, King of Norway, and the rest of the Norwegian government in exile? Billy Boyle himself wonders. Back home, he’d just made detective (with a little help from family and friends) when war was declared. Unwilling to fight—and perhaps die—for England, he was relieved when his mother wangled a job for him on the staff of a general married to her distant cousin, Mamie. But the general turns out to be Dwight D. Eisenhower; his headquarters are in London, which is undergoing the Blitz; and Uncle Ike has a special assignment for Billy: He wants Billy to be his personal investigator.

Operation Jupiter, the impending invasion of Norway, is being planned. Billy is to catch a spy amongst the Norwegians. He doubts his own abilities, and a theft and two murders test his investigative powers. But to his own surprise, Billy proves to be a better detective than anyone suspected.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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From Publishers Weekly

A promising premise—placing a callow Boston police officer in the midst of WWII intrigue—isn't fully realized in this first of a new historical series from Benn (Desperate Ground). Soon after Pearl Harbor, Billy Boyle escapes a combat tour because his Southie family pulls strings to place him on the staff of a distant relative by marriage, a general named Dwight Eisenhower, whom Billy calls "Uncle Ike." Billy's untried detective skills are soon put to the test in London, where he's assigned to unmask a spy who may compromise Allied plans to drive the Nazis out of Norway. When one of the chief suspects turns up dead, an apparent suicide, Billy displays a knack for forensics as he uncovers medical anomalies that suggest homicide. Hopefully, Uncle Ike will have more to do in future installments—and Benn will introduce the sort of character complexity that distinguishes, say, Charles Todd's WWI-era psychological whodunits (A Long Shadow, etc.) or PBS TV's Foyle's War, which also involves murder investigations during WWII. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Billy Boyle is a Boston cop, from a family of Boston cops, but he is a reluctant soldier who prefers walking the beat in Southie to fighting Nazis. Using her cousin by marriage, a certain General Eisenhower, Billy's mother lands her son a seemingly soft job with Ike's staff in London. But Ike wants Billy to use his investigative know-how to sniff out a possible spy in the Allies' inner circle. Young Billy, oversold by his mother as a crackerjack detective, is definitely in over his head, especially when it turns out that the apparent suicide of a Norwegian dignitary may have been the work of the spy. Benn has a tantalizing premise here, but he doesn't quite deliver on it: his prose slips into wartime cliches a little too often, and the supporting love story reeks of WWII melodrama. Yet the action builds to a suspenseful climax, and there is even a hint of moral ambiguity in the wrap-up. A not entirely satisfactory debut, then, but Ken Follett fans will want to give Billy and his uncle a chance to develop. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful read; Benn has a great voice April 13 2013
By L. J. Roberts TOP 100 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
First Sentence: I typed the date under my name: Lieutenant William Boyle, August 6, 1942.

Former Boston Irish Cop, from a family of Boston Irish Cops, Billy Boyle was a newly-made detective and is now a Lieutenant in the US Army. In spite of thinking he wouldn’t be assigned to Europe, his distant cousin manages to get him a staff job—in England assigned to the staff of General Dwight D. Eisenhower as his personal investigator. His first assignment is to catch a spy who may have been planted at Beardsley Hall, English home for the exiled Norwegian government.

The book has an excellent opening with a style that addresses the reader in a let-me-tell-you-a-story style. His voice is engaging and humor, natural. There is also an honesty in the way he writes emotion.

Benn establishes a solid sense of place. Admittedly, the descriptions of London and Boston may have resonated more strongly with me than they may for others as I know both places. However, even when he moved the story away from those locations, there was always a clear feeling for the location.

The characters are fully drawn. Billy is the focus and the voice, but even with Kas, the Polish baron, and Daphne, proper English daughter of a knight, you know their backgrounds and who they are.

One of the most interesting aspects is Billy’s perspective on the war, as an American amongst the English and Norwegians. I particularly appreciated the way in which Benn intertwined the events of Billy’s present with memories from his past, as well as his understanding of people and level of caring.

There is a lot of fascinating historical detail embedded within the plot, much of which I had never known. Still, it is a mystery and I enjoyed Billy taking control of his first crime scene which also provided interesting information on forensics.

“Billy Boyle” was an absolutely treat to read for men and women. Although I wonder why I hadn’t discovered him sooner, I’m delighted to know there is a whole series ahead of me.

BILLY BOYLE (Hist Mys-Lt. Billy Boyle-England-WWII/1942) – VG+
Benn, James R – 1st in series
Soho, 2006
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com: 4.1 out of 5 stars  82 reviews
69 of 74 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A soldier-detective learns the lessons of war Aug 29 2006
By Ruth Greiner - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Straight out of Officer Candidate School, Lt. Billy Boyle finds himself not in a sheltered stateside billet but in a freezing B-17 on his way to war-torn London, assigned to Hq, European Theater of Operations. How did he get here? As he's arrived at so many other destinations in his young life: through family connections, this one on his mother's side--the Douds. When he arrives, his "Uncle Ike," General Dwight D. Eisenhower, briefs him on his first assignment, to use his skills as a detective in finding a spy who has infiltrated "Operation Juno," an Allied operation centered on Norway.

There are things that Billy doesn't know about "Operation Juno," and things that Ike doesn't know about Billy, particularly that Billy passed the detective's exam only with some family help. And Billy himself doesn't know how he's going to pull this off, but he knows his duty when he sees it. And he's been a Boston cop for five years, and has learned a lot about detection from his father, himself a veteran South Boston cop.

So Billy begins his investigation, and then there's a murder, and then another death, a heartbreaking one. Billy moves about, from London to the English countryside, and to other military bases, learning all the time--from his associates, from the people he meets along the way, and from his own memories of his father's life and what his father has taught him. Things like "chasing a lie" to find the truth, and looking for remorse when it should be found, but isn't always.

The writing here is absolutely excellent, skillfully interweaving Billy's search for a murderer and for justice with the lessons that he's been learning all his life, now concentrated in a war-time environment. The characters are beautifully realized, and all have something to teach Billy. Eisenhower appears only a few times, but each time he introduces a theme of the novel: family, the inevitability of loss, and the terrible costs of war. And the author shines in his characterization of Billy, who at the start of his tale is simultaneously cocky yet unsure of himself in this brand new milieu; as his investigation continues, he learns the lessons of war, and of family, of true bravery, and of manhood.

The various settings are perfectly detailed, whether in bombed-out London, at an English country house, or in a newly-built mess hall in England, so new that the sawdust from its construction still lies in straight lines on the ground nearby. Likewise, dialogue is true to the period, yet never trite.

This is a fine book, with an engaging hero. It is suspenseful, often charming, and always thoughtful, right up to its exciting denouement. I'm looking forward to the next one in the series.
33 of 38 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars AS GOOD AS IT GETS... Oct 4 2006
By Alex from Houston - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
The reason I like James Benn is that he incorporates the best of Alan Furst, Robert Wilson, Philip Kerr and Eric Ambler. If you like 'Film Noir" you'll love 'Book' Noir. Billy Boyle takes place at a time when good and bad were clearly defined, unlike today. The novel's characters relect that trend yet they have the human flaws that are incumbent in all people, but so well described in this work by Mr. Benn. This is a book that is a mystery and really is. The obvious is not so obvious and the surprises come out of left field. I read this in two nights. It would have only taken me one night but I needed to sleep since I had to work the next morning, but you know, I could have skipped work and it would have been worth it.
17 of 21 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Not bad for a quick read Oct 14 2006
By Brian Torsney - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I took this as part of an Amazon buy deal, with "The Mission Song", was the second part. This was by far the better book. The plot is kind of hokey, the characters belong in a 1944 spy movie, and the style is in that genre. I read this while sitting in the backyard by the pool. It is a very good book for that setting. It can be put down at any time, and picked up again without great mental effort. You do not need to worry about a lot of mental gymnastics to enjoy the book. I probably will not buy any more Billy Boyle books, but it was money better spent than the funds wasted on the Le Carre book.
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